Photo: Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters
Remember the day after 9/11? No, not the Palestinians dancing in the streets; but this:
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today donated blood for the victims of the US terror attacks and condemned ‘‘this horrible attack.’’
‘‘We are donating our humble abilities to President Bush and to the American people,’’ Arafat said at Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Arafat, one of hundreds of Palestinians who participated in the blood drive, smiled as doctors drew blood from his right arm.
As he came out of the hospital, about 200 Palestinians started chanting, ‘‘We are ready to give our soul and blood for you.’’
Asked if he had a message for the American people, Arafat said, ‘‘God bless you, God Bless you, God bless you.’’
Well, now it appears it was all a staged propaganda hoax. Noah Pollack at Commentary Magazine reports:
Joel Pollak (no relation) reports on his blog that Charles Enderlin, the France 2 television reporter implicated in the Mohammed al-Dura fabrication, admitted at a talk at Harvard last night that the famous scenes of Yasser Arafat donating blood after the 9/11 attacks were, like the footage of the IDF killing al-Dura, staged:
Enderlin said the event had been staged for the media to counteract the embarrassing television images of Palestinians celebrating in the streets after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
The blood donation story made headlines around the world. It was reported by esteemed news agencies like the BBC, and photographs of Arafat lying with an outstretched arm ran on many front pages. But the whole scene was staged, Enderlin said. Arafat didn’t like needles, and so the doctor put a needle near his arm and agitated a bag of blood. The reporters took the requisite photographs.
Arafat, it’s worth noting, died in 2005 of AIDS, and it is thus a good thing that he didn’t actually donate blood. Is it possible that the reputation of the international press corps in Israel, especially its European members, could get any worse?
Hat tip: Michael Totten
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Item 1: That Mr. Arrafat would stage would stage a fake blood donation to gain some world sympathy does not surprise me at all.
Item 2: Other than blogs and political commentary, do you have documented proof that he died of AIDS? Everything I read was that it was heart disease (and I do not particularly care one way or the other, but it is very common for these types of stories to be made up by those who hate an individual and, when they are found out it decreases the credibility of everything they say.
Philly Steve, Item 2 is fair criticism, and I honestly don’t know. Didn’t even think about it. I’ll change the title of the post, until I do better research. This was just a quickie.
Thanks.
Has the world gone mad! I can’t believe I actually find myself agreeing with Philly Steve!
On another topic, I recall Steve railing against the undue influence of Christians in politics. I wonder if he’s upset by the open campaigning of Obama and Clinton in churches for MLK day?
Political-oriented commentaries that mentions AIDS.
http://eastside-online.org/2007/08/25/239/
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/373
The Wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yassir_Arafat
Points to cirrhosis as a possible cause. But does note the lack of an autopsy lead to the speculation.
Reports saying he was not poisoned.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=2980&art_id=qw1100695683807M323
Reports saying he WAS poisoned.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/04/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-France-Arafat.php
Article saying he was NOT poisoned, but let’s check anyway.
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/webspecials04/yasser_arafat/
Arafat’s nephew definitively saying he does not know.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-11-22-arafat-records_x.htm
So, the cause will likely never be publicly known as the government of France has not released any of the medical records. So everyone will likely fill in their own reason.
Personally I’m rooting for autoerotic strangulation, but that has already been taken by Fox Mulder (for those “X Files” trivia fans, check out the episode that had Peter Bouyle as guest star.
Arafat’s Doctor Report
“(IsraelNN.com) Arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat’s doctor has confirmed the long-circulating rumors that the PLO chairman had AIDS – though the doctor insists Israel poisoned Arafat as well, causing his death.”
I missed that theory (combines the Israeli poisoning and AIDS lines).
So Arafat’s blood would have been treated as HazMat.
And to think, they gave a Nobel Peace Prize to that animal.
If you were to go back and look at pictures of him leading up to his death, it looked like he was wasting away like others before him who had AIDS.
It was rumored he liked Scandanavian boys. Why do you think his wife moved to Paris?