Mount St. Helens hasn’t erupted, and Yasser Arafat is still alive. And unfortunately, the longer the decrepit terrorist lives, the more crazy theories come out of the woodwork.
David Frum, who I had thought previously was a generally reasoned and well-regarded voice on the right, makes the circumstantial case that Arafat is in fact dying of AIDS. The reason? “He has suffered a dramatic weight loss, memory loss and periods of disorientation, loss of muscle control and recurring nausea... These symptoms sound remarkably AIDS-like, don't they?” They could- but they’re also true of about a hundred other diseases.
This meme may have originated in a column written last September by Joseph Farah on the truly freakish right-wing website World Net Daily, which makes Fox News Channel look like The Nation. In it, Farah seeks to undermine Arafat’s position by dropping this bombshell (love the phrasing, by the way; emphasis mine):
What do I mean? I mean Arafat is a homosexual. There are also persistent rumors that he is a pedophile. I mean, in his private life, he is everything the Islamic culture detests – a closet pervert…I’m not saying this is true- in fact, judging by WND’s track record, I’m pretty sure it’s not. But it sort of makes you re-think that whole “Queer Resistance For Palestine” thing, doesn’t it? Posted by Stephen Silver at November 9, 2004 12:40 AM[Quoting a 16-year-old book making the same claim:]
"I just called the microphone monitoring center to ask about the 'Fedayee,'" Arafat's code name, explained Munteaunu. "After the meeting with the Comrade, he went directly to the guest house and had dinner. At this very moment, the 'Fedayee' is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He's playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena.
Munteaunu continued: "I've never before seen so much cleverness, blood and filth all together in one man."
After reading the report, I felt a compulsion to take a shower whenever I had been kissed by Arafat, or even just shaken his hand."