The French hate Bush, LOVE the Arafat

October 30, 2004

Arafat is greeted with a VIP welcome in France
From Charles Bremner in Paris and Ian MacKinnon in Ramallah

YASSIR ARAFAT was being treated for serious blood disease in a military hospital near Paris last night after a flight that began with emotional farewells to the Palestinian leader as he ended nearly three years of confinement in his West Bank compound.

A French Air Force Falcon 50 jet flew Mr Arafat from Amman to Villacoublay, a suburban military VIP airfield, at the invitation of President Chirac, to undergo treatment at the Percy hospital, a modern facility at Clamart, in the southwestern outskirts.

Mr Arafat was also expected to receive a visit from Zahwa, his nine-year-old daughter whom he has not seen for three years. “You will see Daddy soon in Paris, my sweet,” Mrs Arafat told Zahwa by telephone from Ramallah on Thursday.

Mrs Arafat and her daughter are said to live mainly in Paris and Tunis. The French-educated daughter of wealthy Christian parents, she first met Mr Arafat 20 years ago when she was a student at the Sorbonne.

She later became his economic adviser before they were married secretly in 1990, revealing their union only two years later. However, after Zahwa was born in 1995 in a private hospital in Paris, marital life turned into de facto separation.

With her dyed-blonde hair, Mrs Arafat’s penchant for expensive clothes and the high life could not be more different from the veteran leader’s trademark military suit and austere obsession with politics.

A convert to Islam, Mrs Arafat once complained to an Egyptian newspaper that her husband never gave her any jewels and lived like a bachelor.

The 440-bed Percy hospital named after Baron Pierre-François Percy, chief surgeon of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, has a reputation for treating patients with blood disorders and cancer.

M Chirac, in Rome for the day, said he had no information on Mr Arafat’s condition and emphasised that France was providing hospitality purely in its tradition as a humanitarian haven. However, the French welcome underlined France’s policy of close support for Mr Arafat as a central figure in the Middle East despite his fall from grace in the eyes of other Western nations. On one of his many visits to Paris, Mr Arafat joked in 1997 that whenever he had a problem, he would “go and see Dr Chirac”. The policy has angered Israel, which has tried in vain to prevent French ministers from visiting Mr Arafat in Ramallah, where he was kept under virtual house arrest by the Israeli military.

M Chirac sent a warm message of support to him on Thursday, signing off by hand “with my heartfelt friendship”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1335957,00.html

Isn't that sweet?

*yawn*

Thanks for summing up the Democrats' attitude towards terrorism for me.

Gee... with articles like this you'd almost get the impression that stock doesn't like the French.

Once again, Stock draws a false conclusion.

Bet no one expected *that*!

=)

yeah...perhaps all of stock's poopoo french threads could be compiled into one thread, and we can check it periodically to see what's going on in stockula vs. france...cage match.

While you've all laughed at stock, it is a bit strange that they are going out of their way to help Arafat, isn't it? Would you be as blase about it if it were Castro? Just curious.

That is a great idea.

I'd probably care even less if it were Castro.

Nor do most Americans. Kerry's campaign was mortified when Kerry's French first cousin showed up at the Democratic Convention.

That's a silly question. Castro's the good guy to lefties.

What conclusion might that be? All I'm saying is that look who the French despise, and look who they love.

Oh no... his cousin is *gasp* French! Campaign over! We're doomed.

Good lord... you were pouring out wine in the streets weren't you stock...

Stock the French gov't is one thing but you seem to hate everyone.
So how many people are on your hate list now? Democrats, Minorities, French People, Arabs, Gays, Doctors, Scientists, Every Member of the UN. Have I missed anyone?

edit: Don't forget, John Kerry was raised in France by billionaire, communist, homosexuals.

[Edited on Oct 30, 2004 by Raoul_Duke]

You know... as much as everyone hates Bush's "You're with us or against us" attitude, this is where it comes into play. A country, France in this case, can claim to be against terrorism. But when it works out happily for them, they provide assistance to a terrorist leader.

And no, in this case, calling Arafat a terrorist is nothing new. He has been one since far before 9/11.

Lol! Actually, I had a kid on campus here telling me how great Castro was - how he was really putting the people's best interest first...

Doesn't the US have the same policy. Yes it does.

That would be this one:

Spare us the invective, please. Nobody's buying it, and you look the fool for trying to sell it.

edited for HTML tags

[Edited on Oct 30, 2004 by Stiles]

What he said.

And what exactly does Castro have to do with this?

You are aware that Arafat is in France for medical treatment, right? You're aware that the Israeli government gave Arafat a full pass to leave the country, telling him that he can go anywhere in the world for medical treatment, and they guarantee his right of return to Ramallah?

Why do you think that is? Why do you think that Arafat is in Paris for medical treatment rather than Jordan or Egypt?

Because Stockula is NEVER wrong...oh wait.

I didn't bring Castro up. Slimjim said "What would you guys say if the French took Castro in?" As if Castro is perceived as a some kind of monster among lefties. When he's seen more as a hero.

The question was directed at him. I don't quite see the comparisson between Castro and Arafat.

Castro's regime has a sort of political process (nothing we would recognize as democratic), is not really at war with anyone, and probably will have a temporarily smooth transition once he kicks it. I don't expect it to last, he has kept the lid on too many people for too long.

Arafat's regime has little actual political process, is far more beset by kleptomania, and the PA will come completely unraveled after he croaks. Oh... and there is that whole Israeli boot heal on the neck of the Palestinians thing.

So there's really no reason to worry about Castro... and therefore no real reason to bring him up here. Gotcha.