Hi Daryl....

 DS>   I'm sure you (and all who read this echo) have read the news on
 DS> the death of Yasser Arafat.

I did read the news, & saw the footage of his body being flown to
Ramallah, etc. I felt very fortunate to live in a society where
people don't celebrate deaths, weddings etc by firing automatic
weapons in the air. It is possibly the way he wanted it, but no
matter what we think of Western leaders, we tend to be far more
respectful when they die.

 DS>  How do you (and others here) feel of the impact of his death on 
 DS> issues in the Middle East??

I can understand those who relish his death, as a terrorist and a
radical, but I suspect in the end he was more of a buffer against
those who sought a more violent "solution". Bush & Blair portrayed
him as a roadblock in the path of their "roadmap" - his body isn't
even cold before they met to discuss ways of bringing peace to
Israel / Palestine and the wider Middle East.

The Palestinian election "must" be held within 60 days, & the Speaker
is currently serving as interim leader, so I would expect he will have
a stabilising effect, as Speakers usually do, & there will be relative
calm until a new leader is elected. Colin Powell is to meet with the
Palestinian leaders "soon", so he will be pushing them towards democracy,
& no doubt pressuring Israel to be more accommodating of the two-state
"solution" at the same time.

 DS>   I thought it was interesting with the Palestinians trying to
 DS> conceal the fact that he was as gravely ill as he was.

I suspect Arafat himself would have clung on to power as long as he
was able, & probably did not want to tip off any potential rivals.
If you read between the lines, he was in a "medically induced coma"
which was "reversible", yet he "opened his eyes and smiled" when
Chirac visited him and held his hand. I'm not a doctor, & that may
be possible, but my understanding of a coma is that you basically
have no awareness ... unconscious. It would be more likely to me
that he was dying, not in a coma, but in pain & on a morphine pump
to manage the pain, if he was still able to open his eyes and smile.

Cheers, Steve..

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