Heard on NPR Just Now

Julian Sanchez | November 4, 2004

Approximate quote:

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has said we have "a new opportunity before us to move forward on the 'road map.'" I don't know whether McClellan was referring specifically to the fact that Yasser Arafat is in a coma.

Comments

Nathan|11.4.04 @ 12:00PM|#

Coma my ass, apparently he's dead.

(totalfark's lit up light a "Newsflash" christmas tree at the moment)

drf|11.4.04 @ 12:02PM|#

ORF is saying right now that he's not.

either way, can castro follow? both kicking off would be great.

fyodor|11.4.04 @ 12:09PM|#

Does that mean that Sharon would come back on board with Arafat gone? Seems far from certain. Personally, I just hope they all can get it figure it out somehow, whatever map they use. But I'm skeptical too, with or without Arafat.

|11.4.04 @ 12:12PM|#

hooray! its been a couple years since we last had one of those Historic Peace Accords. what's the average life span on the typical Historic Peace Accord anyway, like 2 weeks?

Nathan|11.4.04 @ 12:12PM|#

Apparently now there are denials, but interestingly they're not exactly refuting the "clinically" part of "clinically dead."

To paraphrase Miracle Max:
"Clinically dead is a little bit alive"

(Quoth the atheist) I wonder if you can be clinically in hell?

|11.4.04 @ 12:19PM|#

Good riddance if he is. Arafat proved at Camp David that he isn't enough of a politician to keep his power unless his country is at war, and he isn't enough of a human being to put people's well being ahead of his own power.

|11.4.04 @ 12:20PM|#

i believe the SOB is dead.

AFP had earlier stated he was in coma, but the PLO folks denied it and AFP reported PLO claim as 'news'. they can deny all they want until they figure out what to do next, but he is gone.

Castro? He only fell, so it will be a while before he takes leave, and the US can have a new opportunity to fix our Cuba policy.

|11.4.04 @ 12:35PM|#

Really though, whats next?

|11.4.04 @ 12:36PM|#

Before Dubya hits the roadmap again, he oughta wait and see if any Palestinians survive the coming internecine Hatfield and McCoy.

|11.4.04 @ 12:57PM|#

Not dead according to his doctor:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6402008/

|11.4.04 @ 12:58PM|#

Someone go get "Rick Barton" he'll want to know, so he can blame this on Sharon and his racist policies...

|11.4.04 @ 1:15PM|#

"This breaking news just in, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."

|11.4.04 @ 1:31PM|#

Speaking of health problems, Elizabeth Edwards (wife of the former Veep candidate), has breast cancer:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6408029/

|11.4.04 @ 2:05PM|#

Arafat: I think I'll go for a walk! I feel happy!

|11.4.04 @ 2:11PM|#

Sharon: "You're not fooling anyone you know."

|11.4.04 @ 2:55PM|#

When can you offer another peace initiative?

Next week.

Help me out, would you?

|11.4.04 @ 4:01PM|#

Good riddance if he is. Arafat proved at Camp David that he isn't enough of a politician to keep his power unless his country is at war, and he isn't enough of a human being to put people's well being ahead of his own power.

Joe:
HEAR! HEAR! The post so nice, people should read it twice.

Paul

|11.4.04 @ 4:20PM|#

Paul, I think the same is true of Sharon.

Ken Layne|11.4.04 @ 4:27PM|#

Julian: It was very specific on Fox News about an hour ago.

The teaser for the noon broadcast showed file footage of Arafat on the stretcher, the news reader said "Arafat is on his death bed" and the headline graphic underneath said "PEACE AT HAND!"

Also, Fox is now ID'ing itself as the "national network" or somesuch.

|11.4.04 @ 4:43PM|#

Ah, yes, once Arafat goes away, it will all be so easy. Palestinian refugees will learn to love high-rise internment camps, once Arafat's dead. Muslims from all over the world will pose with IDF soldiers at the Dome of the Rock, just like Americans at Buckingham Palace, once Arafat's dead. Hamas will start holding ecumenical picnics with Likud members once Arafat stops getting them all keyed up. Construction workers waiting line for four hours at a military checkpoint will tip the guy with the rottweiller, once Arafat's in the ground. That crafty devil, he even got Palestinians to believe that having your country surrounded by a hostile military was a bad thing.

Thanks a lot, Fox, for reminding us that Yassir Arafat's hostility toward Israel was the only reason "Palestine" hasn't become a synonymn for "Land of Fuzzy Bunnies."

|11.4.04 @ 9:37PM|#

Palestinian author Fawaz Turki writes definitive appraisal of Arafat.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=53891&d=3&m=11&y=2004

"As a national symbol he succeeded. As a political leader, however, he was a flop, having failed in the end � though he is by no means wholly at fault here � to bring his people the liberation they had sought and sacrificed so dearly to achieve.

He failed equally dismally by his adoption of a style of leadership that alternated between avuncular and absolutist."

|11.4.04 @ 10:16PM|#

Ah, yes, once Arafat goes away, it will all be so easy.

Few things will ever be easy where the Palestinian problem is concerned. But with Arafat dead it may be possible for things to improve.

|11.4.04 @ 11:15PM|#

Agreed, Dan.

|11.5.04 @ 1:25AM|#

And I thought the Jewish holidays were over for this year.

|11.5.04 @ 8:50AM|#

I'm not dead yet! I'm feeling much better!

(Beep)

|11.5.04 @ 8:52AM|#

First the islamiac spin-doctors said he wasn't in a coma. Now they're saying he's in a coma, but he could recover.

That must mean he's dead.

|11.5.04 @ 9:52AM|#

Arafat in a coma I know, I know, it's serious.