France's Patrick Sabatier noted in left-of-center Liberation on 29 October, "This is the Arafat paradox: when his health is at its worst, the man suddenly takes on more importance."
Since Arafat has fallen ill, members of the press and government officials have fallen victim to a disinformation campaign. During a White House press conference last week, Washington Times reporter Bill Sammon received an Associated Press alert on his Blackberry. That alert prompted Sammon to ask the President to comment on reports of Arafat's death. In asking the question, Sammon broke the news to not only the President and White House staff, but every major news network monitoring the press conference. The report turned out to be false.
So why the disinformation campaign?
According to an article published on 29 October in Norway's Dagbladet, "The disinformation and secrecy is another illustration of the problems that plague the Palestinian government." What are the problems plaguing the government? Perhaps it's a power struggle.
"Although Arafat has been weak and isolated for some time, he guaranteed some sort of order and stability through is reputation among Palestinians. If he dies, hell will break out, because he has failed -- like many Arab leaders before him -- to establish a successor during his lifetime," wrote Dietrich Alexander of Die Welt in Berlin.
Did he really fail to establish a successor? Perhaps not.
Yevgeniy Satanovskiy of Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote, "The whole system of checks and balances may collapse after Arafat quits politics. It rests on him entirely. No person is privy to complex relationsips among Palestinian special services and organizations that are in control of finances. Few know where Palestinian money is. It is enormous sums running into billions of dollars."
In my personal opinion, Arafat's chosen successor is the person to whom he provided knowledge of Palestinian finances.
Several analysts in the past week have predicted that the danger of civil war is looming. A power struggle in Palestine is to be expected.
The question now becomes, will Arafat's death be kept secret in order to maintain the current regime? Does the attempt of Palestinian leaders to visit Arafat in Paris signal an attempt to change the leadership of Palestine prematurely?
Perhaps the disinformation has already begun, and the struggle over leadership is not premature.
Is Arafat already dead?
Moderator: solid_dave