There are multiple plausible reports within the last couple of days that Yasser Arafat is dying, or has died of AIDS. I have no prior exposure to Israel Insider, which carries this article , so take it at face value. A website called 365Gay.com had coverage here, and there is a discussion and links on the topic at a blog called Entre Nous.
The Jerusalem Post suggests that...
Such rumors are hardly surprising, given the improbable length of time it is taking some of the world's best doctors to diagnose his condition, and given that the public relations people at the hospital are now deferring all comment to Suha Arafat, hardly credible and certainly far from objective.
Like Hindrocket at Power Line, it matters not a bit to me what he dies of, but his cause of death could yet become an issue. In the murderously anti-homosexual Middle East, as Hindrocket says...
"should the fact become known, it could discredit him in the Arab world to a degree that mass murder never did, with political consequences that could be significant. Hence, perhaps, the secrecy that surrounds his last days."Posted by dan at November 7, 2004 12:52 PM