There are plans to exhume Arafat’s body to investigate the polonium-poisoning assertion from a Swiss lab:
The Palestinian Authority agreed on Wednesday to the exhumation of Yasser Arafat’s body after new allegations that he was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004.
Ali Abunimah reports that Josh Block, the Israel lobbyist linked to AIPAC, is tweeting “junk” rumors that Arafat was gay and died of AIDS:
While Israel markets itself as the most gay-friendly country in the world, its PR hacks are busy reviving homophobic rumors that Arafat was a gay “sexual deviant” who died of AIDS due to his promiscuity.
Paul Woodward reports on the effects of Polonium poisoning.
Following Al Jazeera‘s report that Yasser Arafat may have been killed by polonium poisoning, I thought it was worth reviewing some of the scientific literature on this subject.
In the World Journal of Nuclear Medicine 2007, Vol 6, Number 2, p. 102-106, Alan C Perkins, Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Nottingham, describes the effects on ingesting polonium-210:
“Human data on the biological effects of Po-210 are limited (2,3). There are a few recorded events implicating the toxic nature of polonium poisoning starting with the death of Nobus Yamada in 1927 after working with polonium in Marie Curie’s lab. Irene Curie died of leukaemia in 1956. During World War II Dr Robert Fink of the University of Rochester gave Po-210 water to a patient with myeloid leukaemia and 4 others as part of a medical experiment. The cancer patient died the other 5 individuals survived. In the years following the Second World War physicist Dror Sedah working with Po-210 on Israel’s nuclear program reported widespread contamination on everything he touched in his lab and his home. One of his students subsequently died of leukaemia. There is one reported case of a Russian male worker who accidentally inhaled an aerosol estimated to contain approximately 530MBq of Po-210. The total retention was estimated as being approximately 100MBq, with 13.3MBq in the lungs,4.5MBq in the kidneys and 21MBq in the liver. At the time of admission to hospital 2 to 3 days after ingestion the patient had a fever and severe vomiting, but no diarrhea. He died after 13 days. Anyone receiving such doses would show symptoms of acute radiation sickness syndrome with bone marrow failure. About 5% of Po-210 reaching the blood will be deposited in the bones. Subsequent damage to the liver and kidneys will contribute to death from multiple organ failure. Remedial medical treatment strategies are considered to be unsuccessful within a few hours of ingestion, once significant amounts of Po-210 have entered the blood stream and deposited in tissues.
“Weight for weight Po-210 is a million times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. A microgram, (no larger than a speck of dust), would deliver a fatal dose of radiation. The maximum safe body burden of Po-210 is only seven picograms. Following ingestion Po-210 has a biological half-life of 50 days. Approximately 10% is absorbed from the gut into the blood. Once within the bloodstream it is rapidly deposited in major organs and tissues including the liver, kidneys and bone marrow as well as the skin and hair follicles (Figure 2). Approximately 5% is deposited in bone. The intense alpha radiation within these tissues results in massive destruction of cells, leading to a rapid decline in health. Animal studies have shown that 0.1-0.3GBq or greater of Po-210 absorbed into the blood of an adult male is likely to be fatal within 1 month (2). This corresponds to ingestion of 1-3GBq or greater assuming 10% gastrointestinal absorption to blood. Remedial medical treatments are considered unhelpful within a few hours following ingestion!”
Josh Block, the Israel lobbyist linked to AIPAC, is tweeting “junk” rumors that Arafat was gay and died of AIDS:
they did this after he died. i recall weird pedophile rumors too. it’s sexual gutter hasbara. extreme zionist hasbrats have an obsession with homosexuality, pedophilia and beastiality.
josh block lusts after poodles and baby lambs. can i say that? lol, he deserves it. i think i am going to go tweet it.
When they have their PR backs to the wall all that gay pride Jerusalem crap goes out the window for the real Ziobot view of homosexuality. Is Block Orthodox by any chance ?
Israeli city bans gay pride parade, will hold ‘modest’ parking lot event instead.
Extreme Annie? From where I sit it’s the norm amongst them. Don’t forget the death threats and the cloning of your account (on youtube, yahoo). Their anti social ways are enough to make civilized human beings who come across said rants coil in disgust.
Don’t forget the death threats and the cloning of your account (on youtube, yahoo)
i did not know about the cloning on youtube/yahoo because i don’t hangout and comment there but my sister has been going thru hellon youtube. she got her account cloned and gets followed around and people impersonating her. i wonder if it’s over this issue. i don’t know her posting habits but i know her opinion.
hmmmm interesting.
They clone you to make you out to be as twisted and disturbed as they are. I have had a few death threats through the years. One stalker of mine who recently stopped stalking me after being so humiliated (yeah I guess at the end of the day they do have feelings) calls himself “JIDFwarrior” on there as though being a racist supremacist is something to be proud of.
“extreme zionist hasbrats have an obsession with homosexuality, pedophilia and beastiality.”
That’s a temperate comment.
Josh Block posted a link to an article in Out magazine. The rumor that Arafat was gay was not a rumor Israel started. The article’s sources include Ahmad Jibril, head of the PFLP. It was apparently a well-travelled rumor in diplomatic circles as well. The main source was a Romanian intelligence operative. It’s not a good source, but neither is it true that the rumor was solely promoted by pro-Israel people. Arafat had a lot of adversaries. There were many groups competing for power within the PLO. Arab leaders didn’t like him. And until the late 1980s, he was thought of principally as a terrorist leader.
link to out.com
It shouldn’t matter whether he was gay or not; there is no chance he was going to come out for obvious reasons.
This is another story that should be put to rest, rather than becoming the subject of yet another round of conspiracy theories that distract us from the real issues at hand. As Hussein Ibish tweeted today, it makes no difference to him who or what killed Arafat; I think that’s a sensible approach. He’s not coming back, and a story like this will move no one in anybody’s direction.
And for the record, it sounds like errant nonsense. The same laboratory spokesman who reported the Polonium finding added:
“We have never said there was Polonium poisoning. Yes, we found Polonium 210 in more elevated levels than what one might have expected, but the clinical description of Chairman Arafat’s symptoms prior to his death is not compatible with Polonium poisoning.”
link to globalpost.com
NPR doesn’t buy the story either.
link to npr.org
Suha has made these claims before, though in the past she has blamed other Palestinians.
link to csmonitor.com
This is another story that should be put to rest, rather than becoming the subject of yet another round of conspiracy theories
why? don’t you think it is relevant if he was murdered?
from your CSM link:
the assassination or poisoning hypothesis was quickly hushed in the French media at the time of Arafat’s death
we never had a full on discussion about it. besides, ’round of conspiracy theories’ won’t be quite the same if they determine he was killed by polonium after they exume his body. it will be a matter of who killed him not if he was murdered. big dif..also from your link:
French doctors in 2004 did not test for radioactivity ……
Prior to Arafat’s illness, Israeli officials including Ehud Olmert, deputy to then prime minister Ariel Sharon, spoke openly about a desire to be rid of Arafat, who they described as a terrorist.
i can understand why an israel supporter would advocate not discussing mossad political assassinations tho. kind of a no brainer.
“This is another story that should be put to rest, rather than becoming the subject of yet another round of conspiracy theories that distract us from the real issues at hand. ”
Shorter hoppy: “Just why won’t you people let the israelis get away with murder??? He was just an Arab. It’s not like he was a Jew or something.”
Shorty hoppy: “it’s only important how Jews die because Jews are the real issues at hand, not Arabs.”
More hoppy:
Then this same spokesman completed his point: “one must go to Mr Arafat’s mortal remains if one wants to draw conclusions.”
Which is precisely what’s happening, and the doctor in the Al-Jazeera report had specified why.
So you’re saying in all this time, the Israeli media hasn’t been able to find one of Arafats alleged lovers to interview? If there was any solid evidence that he was gay, like he was John Travolta level of gay, the Israeli media would have shouted it from the rooftops. Every week, Sheldon Adelson would feature another exclusive story on the topic. And judging by the way scandals like this play out, there is no way to keep these things silent, all the money and threats in the world can’t lock this story down forever.
Oh right, this is just a stupid story you guys made up.
MLE, You make the mistake of assuming that people like hoppy actually care for the truth. They don’t. Their bigots who will spread any filth if it forwards their anti-Arab bigotry. If it casts an Arab in a bad light, hoppy is a rumor whore. If Arafat were a Jew, hoppy would call even the discussion of the subject without multiple, verified witness statement and medical test results “antisemitism.”
RE: “Ali Abunimah reports that Josh Block, the Israel lobbyist linked to AIPAC, is tweeting ‘junk’ rumors that Arafat was gay and died of AIDS”
MY COMMENT: Hasbarists are such inveterate liars!* In this Al Jazeera video (50:38) it is said that Arafat was tested TWICE for HIV/Aids while hospitalized during his final illness and was found not to be suffering from HIV/Aids (shortly after the 22 minute mark).
LINK – link to aljazeera.com
* SEE THE HASBARA HANDBOOK (pages 24-25):
SOURCE – “HASBARA HANDBOOK: Promoting Israel on Campus”, published by the World Union of Jewish Students, March 2002
LINK – link to scribd.com
I saw that rumor on some other site and I couldn’t figure out how people were that sure about it.
The effects of Polonium ingestion described by Dr. Perkins are remarkably similar to what Arafat was said to have endured in his last two weeks. A detailed account of Arafat’s death was published by Haaretz in 2005. link to haaretz.com. What is notable is that Arafat’s doctors at a French military hospital noted the collapse of his platelet count, followed by liver failure.
Keep in mind that Polonium-210 can only be made in a nuclear reactor, and is most efficiently produced in a heavy water reactor (which is what Dimona is).
[Why was it missed by hospital technicians?]
Ingesting Just one microgram is fatal – and becasue it only emits very shallow penetrating alpha particles, it is very hard to detect even as the person is dying from the alpha bombardment of their organ and marrow cells – the symptoms of such being very nonspecific and ambiguous. Thus, if handled with extreme care so that the poisoner does not himself become poisoned, it is the perfect tool of the cloak-and-dagger trade.
link to commondreams.org
Les, for every 100 Po-210 disintegrations one will also include a gamma ray emission. Gamma ray counters are located at ports, airports, and any facility that works with isotopes. If Arafat had ingested a lethal dose his body would have contained about 300 million Bqs of alpha particle emissions and 3 million Bqs of gamma emissions. This would have been easily detected with a gamma ray counter. I would guess that this amount of alpha ray emissions would be detected by a standard geiger counter.
One other point, if his body contained a toxic dose of Po at the time of death, then today it would contain about 300 Bqs of Po-210 (the amount remaining after 20 half-lives). This would be easily picked up today if someone made a serious attempt to do so.
Polonium and it’s byproducts are not detectable by the Geiger counter. Remember that Geiger counter detects background gamma ray noise and there must be an appreciable increase in gamma rays for it to be noticed.
With Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium in drink and not in food, and who was given massive dose which resulted in symptoms of radiation sickness being clear cut, it still took a sophisticated probe to establish presence of gamma rays inside his body – the tests were only performed two weeks after he fell ill and two days before he died.
At his side at all times was confidante of his one time boss Boris Berezevsky, a guy named Alexander Goldfarb, a biologist who by amazing coincidence worked in Kurchatov Atomic Energy Institute in Moscow and then in Weizmann Institute in Israel.
He was the guy who presented the media with eloquent last statement of Litvinenko accusing Putin of killing the dissident. The eloquence of the statement was surprising in view of hospital bulletins what claimed that Litvinenko was slipping in and out of conscientiousness for two days prior to producing the statement.
ToivoS,
The doctors did do a gamma ray test, but it was not calibrated for the rare nuclear agents, per Al-Jazeera. Did you see the show?
Wrong.
Only about 1 out of every 100,000 decays is a gamma.
Check out Nature’s blog on the story, They actually have the numbers right,
Israel At Its Finest: Mossad Poisoned Yasser Arafat with Polonium
link to youtube.com
no one was sorry to see Arafat taken off the world stage – whether by natural causes or assassination – and now it looks like what a lot of us thought – israel killed him … but how many weeks was it after Sharon said “We … control America” and he slipped into that coma? … heinous leaders are a dime-a-dozen and if you don’t play ball, you get taken out
I beg to differ. I was sorry to see Arafat ‘taken off the world stage.’
Whatever his shortcomings, he did give the Palestinians a leader.
Of course, that’s why he was killed, wasn’t it?
I was very sorry to see him go. He did what he could to deliver Statehood to his beleaguered people and history will judge him well. Nobody stood up the refugees like he did. A legend.
It was obvious that they wanted to get rid of him. It was also obvious after April 2002 that Israel wasn’t interested in the Palestinian state and that Sharon was a sociopath. They said with Arafat gone they would have a better chance of peace but it was like the teary promise made by an alcoholic.
Sharon was obese. Late 70s . Coma not surprising. (G-d works in mysterious ways)
And it’s not as if Zionism has changed direction since he went veg either. It looks clear cut.
Polonium leaves a signature.
I was skeptical because of the elapsed time since PO210 half life is so short. However, sensitive instruments do have the ability to detect milli Bq levels of the remaining isotope.
Odd it wasn’t done before this given the symptoms and the similar PO210 poisoning in England.
Wouldn’t it be possible to detect the past presence of PO210 from elevated levels of Pb206 (the stable isotope into which PO210 decays)?
The problem is that Pb206 is a common stable isotope. The amount of Po210 needed to poison a person is such a tiny amount that it’s decay product is swamped by the presence of natural Pb206.
A more promissing approach would be to search for longer life radioactive contaminants known to be associated with commercial sources. I have no idea how much data there is on this but I’ve seen quite a variation in activity including one consumer Po210 source that was over 20 years old and would still peg an Alpha reading GM meter. Whatever contaminant was left it clearly wasn’t Po210. Not after 20 years.
This comes from a Swiss lab. Imagine the scorn of our media if it had come from a lab in an Arab country.
If a speck of Polonium dust is enough to be lethal, why is Suha Arafat still alive?
If the Palestinians are playing a game here to try and catch Israel out and muster anger against it, they are playing a dangerous game. The half life of the radioactive material and its current potency offer plenty of information that will blow them out the water.
“If the Palestinians are playing a game here to try and catch Israel out and muster anger against it…”
Notice: “try and catch Isreal” He’s assuming the truth that israel committed the crime, and the only issue is whether they will be caught. Not even our resident zio spear-catchers are denying the fact that the shitty little fake-state murdered this man.
giladg:
Because Suha is a sister to superman = Superwoman.
Its very dangerous to be near of Israel in any case.
Messages from other universe ?
Because she wasn’t fed it.
The Palestinians are doing nothing. Al Jazeera are (rightly) doing the investigating. Israel has form with this kind of activity, as we all know.
Glidge
Likely the same reason Litvinenko’s wife is still alive. Delivered in such a manner as to minimize ill-effects to others, thus minimizing blow-back from the State in which it was administered as far as possible. If UK citizens in one case, or French citizens in the other, were dropping like flies from this, their governments would have traced it back as far as the instigators first f*rt of an idea. Consequences are a consideration.
It’s lethal if ingested. If plotters put it in food or drink that they knew only Arafat himself would eat or drink, there was presumably not that much danger for others.
Do you think this Swiss lab is part of some conspiracy?
You aint none too smart Gilad. As pointed out one has to either inhale or consume that spec — coming in contact with traces excreted by the body are less than a lethal dose. Also Suha was living in Europe when this happened. Can you understand difficult concepts like this?
I take it you’re suggesting that Palestinians might have planted polonium on Arafat’s effects long after his death. But just how could Palestinians have had access to polonium?
Access to polonium? Black market from Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan. Should I go on? North Korea maybe? Syria?
If he did die from polonium, it must have been an inside job. Israel would never have had the access or opportunity to spike only his food.
“If he did die from polonium, it must have been an inside job. Israel would never have had the access or opportunity to spike only his food.”
Come now. israelis are evil bastards, but you people are sneaky enough. I imagine that if you could get a virus in Iran’s centrifuges that getting an agent close to Arafat wouldn’t be a problem.
But, sure, let’s continue to believe that the killer was anyone but the people who’ve been murdering Palestinians for sport for three generations.
giladg
You wrote:
“If he did die from polonium, it must have been an inside job. Israel would never have had the access or opportunity to spike only his food.”
Actually, Mossad has long taken pride in its ability to penetrate most political organizations on the planet at the highest levels using a wide variety of means. It’s a safe bet that as we speak Israel controls much of its political opposition in the Arab and Muslim worlds. (But I think we need more facts about this case in particular before jumping to conclusions.)
We do know that Israel has a long track record of using assassinations, poisonings, kidnappings, blackmail, blacklists, false flag ops, agents provocateurs, engineered scandals, etc. to destroy its political opponents.
giladg: in an earlier thread I asked you the following questions but didn’t see your replies:
1. What does your narrow set of ethnic nationalist issues have to do with the concerns of Anglo Americans, Irish Americans, Japanese Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, French Americans, etc., the vast majority of whom have emphatically rejected ethnic nationalism as a device for organizing their politics and social behavior?
2. What would motivate them to support an ethnic nationalism that is not their own when they have already renounced and denounced all forms of ethnic and religious nationalism on principled and rational grounds and committed themselves to Americanism and modern Western democratic values?
3. Which ethnic nationalist movements around the world do you support other than your own? For which ethnic nationalist movements around the world other than your own have made contributions or sacrifices?
Do you ever think about big picture issues concerning Zionism — its place within overall Jewish history? Within global politics? Within American civilization and American grand strategic interests? Or are you so Zio-centric that you think these matters are of no consequence?
giladg: His own personal chauffeur was a paid up Israeli collab.
Oh yes, the world hates the Jews so much, they manage to conspire to assassinate one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century by obtaining a radioactive material from a third party and nobody ever ever breathes a word about it ever again. The ultimate conspiracy to blame Israel.
I don’t know what’s more outrageous, Zionist conspiracy theories from the Arab world or the conspiracies Israelis believe the world participates in because of inherit antisemitism.
Ok — This story hasn’t been verified, but it’s out there:
BEGIN ARTICLE
TITLE Collaborator Confesses To Poisoning Arafat”, Al-Mayadeen Reports
DATE July 6, 2012
BEGIN QUOTE
The Al-Mayadeen TV, based in Lebanon, published a video reportedly documenting the confession of a collaborator with Israel, operating in the Negev detention camp, in which he said that “Israel recruited him to poison dinner meals of late President Yasser Arafat”….
The alleged collaborator detailed how he smuggled poison, and with the collaboration of some persons and a cook at the then besieged presidential headquarter in Ramallah, he managed to poison one of Arafat’s meals, and even personally handed the meal to him.
According to the report, the collaborator was recruited by Israel in 2002, and poisoned Arafat’s meal in 2004.
END QUOTE
AUTHOR Saed Bannoura
PUBLICATION IMEMC News
URL link to imemc.org
END ARTICLE
Did the Mossad Murder Arafat?
By Richard Silverstein
“July 05, 2012 “Antiwar” — Al Jazeera published a report Wednesday based on an extensive scientific investigation of the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat. Though he was 75 years old when he died, many noted the marked deterioration in his appearance in his final weeks and speculated that he was poisoned or that he had AIDS. An Israeli journalist who interviewed Ariel Sharon noted that the Israeli leader refused to deny Israeli involvement in Arafat’s demise:
[Maariv journalist Uri] Dan reveals a little and conceals much when he hints that Arafat’s death was not caused by any illness. He himself suggested to Sharon that Arafat be captured and brought to trial in Jerusalem, like Eichmann, but Sharon reassured him that he was dealing with the problem in his own way. Then Arafat fell ill, was flown to Paris for treatment and died. Was Sharon involved? This is what Dan wrote then in Maariv — that in the history books, prime minister Ariel Sharon will be remembered as the man who eliminated Yasser Arafat without killing him. Let every reader figure it out for himself.
Now, a team of researchers has tested personal artifacts provided by Arafat’s widow, Suha, and found highly elevated doses of polonium (in some cases 10 times the expected dose) in many of these objects. They found a type of polonium not occurring naturally that could only be produced in a nuclear reactor. Suha Arafat is asking that the PA exhume her husband’s body and test it for polonium. What they find will determine whether the element killed him or not.
This news returns us to 2006, when elements of the Russian intelligence services arranged to poison a former agent, Alexander Litvinenko, with polonium. It was the first known instance in which someone was killed by polonium poisoning. If the Al Jazeera report is correct, then the Russian may have to cede pride of place to Arafat, who would now become the unfortunate record-holder.
Next, we should turn to speculation about who might have been able and willing to kill the Palestinian leader. There are many who fit some of those criteria but few that fit all. The Israelis leap out in that regard. Not only does Israel have a highly developed research capability in chemical and biological warfare, its scientists and intelligence services would have the technical abilities to mount such an attack. It also has the nuclear reactor in Dimona necessary to produce the poison. In fact, the Al Jazeera article notes that two Israeli nuclear technicians are rumored to have died from accidental polonium exposure.
I got more than a jolt when I read my 2007 blog post about Uri Dan’s interview above in which I wrote:
I remember several years ago when Ehud Olmert was Sharon’s right-hand man and threatened Arafat with assassination in the pages of the Jerusalem Post. I had the strange feeling that if Sharon & Co. were willing to threaten to do it they were fully prepared to do it. Now, it appears they figured out a way to do it that would eliminate their fingerprints. Perhaps a polonium cocktail?”
~~~~~~~~
Click on link below for the rest:
link to informationclearinghouse.info
Like I said, there’s no way to hide a conspiracy that big (other than jail or kill all the participants)
Sean, this is all the more important because the taped confession is from 2006, too long ago to gain celebrity status in today’s media which would otherwise minimize its authenticity. Thanks for sharing — I already have.
seanmcbride,
1) Those who have rejected ethnic nationalism are currently going through a temporary phase and are discovering that this pursuit has not resulted in anything of significance. Just looking at those giving to charity, far more funds per capita originate from families who have retained religious identity. People naturally gravitate to what seems familiar, and when they feel comfortable within their community, they can contribute more in their communities.
2) I believe that the numbers of those you identify as have denounced all forms of ethnic and religious nationalism, are a lot, lot smaller that what you think.
3) I would support any ethnic nationalism that does not work to exploit the weak but works as a community to help those less fortunate. The reality is that there is no replacement for religion to bring people together, to continually teach and remind about good themes and improving both oneself and the community. If there is another such vehicle, please tell us.
Zionists are concerned with survival, both physical and spiritual. The Palestinians (Arabs) and the Muslims are posing real threats to both. When the existential threats are over, Zionist can then afford the luxury to think about other universal pictures. Being forced into self-defense positions is rather sobering.
giladg,
You wrote:
“Those who have rejected ethnic nationalism are currently going through a temporary phase and are discovering that this pursuit has not resulted in anything of significance.”
All Americans — at least all those Americans who are firmly committed to Americanism and modern Western democratic values — have rejected both ethnic and religious nationalism as an organizing political principle. Do you really think that the United States and contemporary Western Europe are nothing of significance?
Most of the most successful companies in the world today rely on contributions from people from all ethnic and religious backgrounds — they are meritocratic, not ethnic or religious nationalist enterprises.
Do you oppose or support the white nationalism of David Duke or the black nationalism of Louis Farrakhan? Would you object if white Christian nationalists reorganized the United States and Europe around a white Christian nationalist agenda? Zionists have left the door wide open for precisely that development.
giladg,
With regard to those questions I asked, a few observations:
1. You haven’t mentioned any reasons for why non-Jews should support Jewish ethnic and religious nationalism or, for that matter, why Jews should support any variety of non-Jewish ethnic and religious nationalism.
2. You didn’t mention any non-Jewish ethnic or religious nationalist movements around the world that you support or for which you have made sacrifices. Would it be fair to say that there are none?
3. With regard to taking a big picture approach to politics: the failure to do so often means making catastrophic mistakes. One should always test one’s basic premises about the world against several thousand years of historical precedents and patterns to avoid falling into obvious traps.
4. Regarding your remarks about the role of religion in promoting social responsibility and good works: you have a good point there. One reason why I admire Judaism is that it promotes social responsibility, charity and philanthropy towards Jews and the world as a whole. If all of us followed the example of religious Jews in the realm of charitable good works and social responsibility, the world would be a much better place.
giladg,
Let me rephrase an earlier question:
Do you see any signs that significant numbers of Anglo Americans, Irish Americans, Japanese Americans, Italian Americans or German Americans are organizing their politics around their respective ethnic nationalist ideologies or around the best interests of their ancestral foreign nations — Britain, Ireland, Japan, Italy or Germany?
I don’t. Perhaps you can point to a few examples. David Duke comes to mind, but he is hardly in the American political mainstream. On the other hand, the leaders of most of the major Jewish establishment organizations are aggressive Jewish nationalists and pro-Israel activists.
Are you arguing that all American ethnic groups should become zealous ethnic nationalists for their respective ethnic causes? Wouldn’t that kind of behavior lead to the crackup and disintegration of American society?
At some point isn’t it going to become obvious that the American Jewish establishment, by placing Jewish nationalism at the front and center of its agenda, is radically out of sync with the values, attitudes and interests of most Americans?
I wish that some Zionists with serious minds would enter into a discussion about this issue — so far there has been a dead silence whenever these questions come up. One gets the impression that they have no answers to these questions — not even half-baked hasbara.
Is the Italian Christian or Italian Muslim or Italian Jew? Is the Irish Protestant or Catholic? Is the German Christian or atheist?
If you want to compare with families who came from Israel or Russia or Morocco, then ask if they are Israeli Jews or Israeli Christians or Israeli Muslims or Israeli Druze or Russian Jews or Russian Muslims or Moroccon Jew or Moroccon Muslim .
There should be no problem for Italian Catholics forming a community with Irish Catholics and then working together as a unified body. The community is still American as apple pie but use the common bonds to unite and strengthen (hopefully). Those in the community have multiple common bonds which then places them in a better position to work together.
Those who push the secular, individualist approach, are leading others into the river like the Pied Piper. They offer very little. There is little glue to build community. There are many Christian countries in the world, as there are many Islamic countries. There is only one Jewish country and so the focus is concentrated as a consequence.
giladg,
American Irish and Italian Catholics do not define themselves as ethnic nationalists with a religious loyalty to a foreign nation — to either Ireland or Italy. They subscribe to a universalist ideology that transcends ethnicity and ethnic nationalism and which unites them in a single community.
In the American political and cultural context, most Irish and Italian Catholics are Americans first, religionists second and not ethnic nationalists at all. They are not preoccupied with the problems and interests of Ireland or Italy and they are not bogged down in abrasive and self-destructive arguments with their fellow Americans about the politics of any foreign nation.
Many American Jews, on the other hand, do indeed define themselves as ethnic nationalists and are bogged down in self-destructive arguments with their fellow Americans about the problems and questionable policies of a foreign government — Israel.
Do you fully grasp the problematic situation that is developing here? The problem is not religion per se but ethnic nationalism, ethno-religious nationalism and, most importantly, messianic ethno-religious nationalism. Messianic ethno-religious nationalists have a strong tendency to polarize the entire world against themselves.
giladg,
Do you support or oppose the politics of white Christian nationalists in American and European politics?
giladg,
Regarding using religion as a social glue: don’t communities of mutual interest, accomplishment, achievement, excellence, genius, economic self-interest, etc. play a much more important role in binding people together in the contemporary world than religion? Are the boards of directors of the world’s leading corporations, universities and research centers chosen on the basis of religion or something else?
If they are chosen on the basis of religion or ethnicity, they won’t remain competitive for very long. Ethnic and religious cronyism tends to breed mediocrity and incompetence.
Afarat’s belongings were given to Suha who took them home after he died, and refused to open the suitcase. That provenance was established. The first time the suitcase was opened was at the Swiss lab as filmed and reported.
It should be noted that Po210, while highly radioactive and deadly when consumed and dispersed internally, is extremely hard to detect. The Alpha particles generated are far more damaging but are virtually impossible to detect because they are absorbed by less than an inch of air and only an infintesimal number of them reach a person’s skin. Further most common detectors pick up Gamma and Beta.
It should also be noted that Po210 is widely used in various industries. I wouldn’t necessarily attribute Po210 poisoning to a state actor.
Polonium in industry is used in quantities much too small to poison anybody. If some non-state actor with no radiological accreditation were to start putting out orders for polonium for no good reason, someone would notice, I promise, after first 20 ooo orders, or so…..
Eva,
This isn’t so. 500 uCi sources are ubiquitous, and can be sold to the public under a general license. That amount (500 uCi) of Po210, consumed and dispersed in the body, is highly likely to kill (look up the MLD50). These sources are not hazardous because the isotope is encapsulated on ceramic with a thin layer of gold to keep the Po contained.
They typical retail price of these is $30 in units of 1. At least on Amazon the last time I checked.
They used to be sold widely in record stores (remember those). Combined with a camel hair brush they were unsurpassed at getting rid of dust on LPs.
I’m saying this to point out that it doesn’t have to be a state actor though that is likely.
Litvinenko was dosed with approx 50,000 uCi which was far above the lethal dose and assured he would die even if he didn’t drink much of the tea it was in.
Hi Doug,
Sealed polonium is not considered hazardous because it is sealed and the biologically active alpha radiation is contained by the sealing material.
If there is a safe, containable, homemade method of recovery of radioactive polonium out of it’s seal, I will consider possibility of non-state actor being involved. But right now sealed polonium is considered non-hazardous for a good reason.
Eva,
Indeed, it is because it is sealed that it is considered safe. The same is true of many more hazardous materials. Most any chemist would know how to “unseal” this. The somewhat harder part is properly handling it afterward. There is nothing even remotely special or secret involved. I mention it even this much somewhat reluctantly but with the intent to point out that the extant meme it must be a state actor is far from true.
Collaborator Alleges He Poisoned Arafat for Mossad
link to israelnationalnews.com
Well, if this is true, then Israel opens itself up to attacks on its leadership by means of chemical, nuclear and biological weapons. Hopefully, if, say, weaponized anthrax or poison gas, is released in the israeli government ministries, there won’t be too many israeli civilians dead as “collateral damage.”
Take note that Israelis see this on their television but our media shield us from the least bit of news unfavorable to Israel.
Radii, the Sharon quote is a fabrication, first reported in 2001 by the “Islamic Association for Palestine” claiming an Israeli radio station as the source. Except the correspondent and the radio station said they never broadcast nor reported that Sharon said it.
I’m not saying he never said it, and I’m in no way suggesting I know what was in his thought process, but that quote is a fabrication as it was presented. As for the number of weeks, it was claimed he said it in 2001, and and he went into a coma in 2006. So number of weeks? More than 208.
Personally I think the Palestinians should have retired him after Camp David. His rejection of that deal proved his days of competency had come to an end.
Proof regarding the cause of Arafat’s death would contribute to history, but do you people really think that anything can be proven at this point in time, almost 8 years later. If the Polonium accusation proves unfounded do you think this will let Israel off the hook? Can Suha Arafat prove that the effects of the Chairman had not be touched? Want to bet money that Arafat is not exhumed?
It’s another chance for Mondoweiss and the commentators to bash Israel without a shred of proof that would stand up in a court of law. (If Abbas approves an exhumation you might get some proof, but I’ll give you 2 to 1 that Arafat will not be exhumed before January 1st 2015. Any takers?)
Yes, it is indeed possible by exhumation and careful testing to determine if Polonium poisoned Arafat. By 2015 it will not be possible to determine this. What I’ve pointed out elsewhere in this article to Eva is that it would not have required a state actor though that would be more likely IMO. Particularly because knowledge of this was not as widespread prior to Litvenko and that was pretty clearly a state actor.
It would seem to me that if determining whether Arafat was poisoned by Po there would be a concerted effort to do the testing now. Are you suggesting that Abbas would not want this because it might show Arafat wasn’t poisoned by Po? That’s pretty strange.
Arafat’s widow to file suit in Paris over death: lawyer.
Xinhua: Palestinians pressured not to seek international probe into Arafat’s death:
I’d say that pressure amounts to an admission that Israel (or somebody else closely associated with France and the U.S.) poisoned Arafat.