Monday, July 09, 2012

Great news! Arafat to be disintered

They are digging him up:
[...] Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Monday that Abbas has now given final approval, and is inviting the Swiss experts to test the remains. Erekat says "we are on the way to an autopsy."

Earlier Monday, Arafat's nephew said he does not believe further testing is needed. It was not clear whether the nephew would block an autopsy.
It seems very suspicious to me that evidence would come to light on his belongings at this late date considering the secrecy that accompanied the time when an autopsy made the most sense. How were those belongings kept in the meantime? (I don't have any opinion on how Polonium's half-life enters into this.)

The dilemma faced by the PA is exquisite, however. They got some propaganda out of this already and it is unlikely that anyone legitimate will emerge from the tests and declare, "Eureka, it was the Zionist Entity!" What happens if the tests prove conclusively that he wasn't poisoned with Polonium? I guess we can offer the comfort that even if he wasn't poisoned, he certainly deserved to be. Maybe they can make a new epitaph for his tombstone: "Here lies Yassir Arafat: a man who deserved to be poisoned."

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