UPDATE FROM DAVID DOLAN:

DESPITE A SWIRL OF CONFLICTING NEWS REPORTS CONCERING YASSER ARAFAT THROUGHOUT THE DAY, ISRAELI SECURITY SOURCES SAY THEY ARE CERTAIN THE PALESTINIAN LEADER IS CLINICALLY BRAIN DEAD.  OFFICIAL MEDICAL REPORTS FROM FRANCE TONIGHT CONFIRMING THAT ARAFAT IS IN EXTREMELY GRAVE CONDITION AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE BEEN MET WITH MIXED EMOTIONS IN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES.  WHILE PALESTINIANS ARE EXPRESSING REMORSE OVER THEIR LONGTIME LEADER’S CRITICAL CONDITION (AT LEAST IN PUBLIC), MANY ISRAELIS ARE FRANKLY QUITE GLAD TO SEE THE PLO CHIEF FINALLY EXITING THE MIDDLE EAST STAGE.   ONE ISRAELI TOLD ME JUST MINUTES AGO THAT “HE WAS THE WORST TERRORIST IN HISTORY, AND WE ARE ANXIOUS TO SEE HIM GONE FOR GOOD.”

 

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE PROBABLY ALSO QUIETLY CONTENT THAT THE NOTORIOUS PLO CHIEF IS APPARENTLY ABOUT TO BECOME A RELIC OF HISTORY.   STILL, THEY REMAIN VERY CONCERNED OVER THE INEVITABLE UNCERTAINTY, AND POSSIBLE BLOODSHED, THAT WILL FOLLOW IN HIS WAKE.   MOST WORRISOME FOR THE MOMENT IS WHETHER PALESTINAIN OFFICIALS WILL ATTEMPT TO HONOR ARAFAT’S EXPRESSED WISH TO BE BURIED ON JERUSALEM’S HISTORIC TEMPLE MOUNT, KNOWN TO MUSLIMS AS HARAM AL SHARIF, OR “THE NOBLE SANCTUARY.”   OFFICIALS FEAR THAT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIANS MIGHT ATTEMPT TO FORCE THEIR WAY INTO THE OLD CITY AND ONTO THE HALLOWED SITE TO BURY THEIR EXALTED LEADER, WIDELY SEEN AS THE SYMBOL OF THEIR NATIONAL ATTEMPTS TO “LIBERATE PALESTINE.”

 

PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON MADE CLEAR LAST SUNDAY THAT ISRAEL WILL NOT PERMIT THE PLO CHIEF TO BE LAID TO REST ON JUDAISM’S HOLIEST SITE ON EARTH.   DESPITE THIS STATEMENT, ANALYSTS ARE WONDERING IF THE GOVERNMENT IS ACTUALLY PREPARED TO ORDER ITS SOLDEIRS TO SHOOT AT THOUSANDS OF MOURNERS IF THEY ATTEMPT TO BREAK INTO THE CITY WITH ARAFAT’S BODY—WHICH WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY PRODUCE A NEW WAVE OF VIOLENCE AND INSTABILITY IN THE ALREADY VOLITILE MIDDLE EAST.   THIS IS THE EXCRUCIATING QUESTION THE GOVERNMENT MUST GRAPPLE WITH IN THE COMING HOURS AND DAYS.  THE MAIN HOPE AT PRESENT IS THAT PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS WILL AGREE TO ANOTHER, LESS CONTENTIOS, BURIAL SITE.  ACCORDING TO MUSLIM TRADITION, FUNERALS ARE USUALLY HELD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER A PERSON EXPIRES.

 

IRAONICALLY, ARAFAT’S REPORTED CLINICAL DEATH COMES EXACTLY NINE YEARS TO THE DAY WHEN ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN WAS GUNNED DOWN BY A JEWISH ASSASIN IN TEL AVIV.   MOST MIDEAST ANALYSTS AGREE THAT HIS NOVEMBER 4, 1995 MURDER WAS THE POINT WHEN THE CONTROVERSIAL OSLO PEACE PROCESS—WHICH HAD ALREADY BEEN ROCKED BY SEVERAL MAJOR PALESTINAIN TERROR ATTACKS—ENTERED A COMATOSE STATE.  BOTH MEN RECEIVED THE 1994 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR SIGNING THE ACCORD, ALONG WITH THEN FOREIGN MINISTER SHIMON PERES.

 

I WILL BE DISCUSSING ALL OF THIS IN DETAIL ON THE MOODY RADIO NETWORK TODAY AT 22:15 GMT, WHICH IS 5:15 PM EST AND 2:15 PM PST. TO LISTEN LIVE GO TO:  www.mbn.org

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til that time,

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