Jason

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who passionately sought a homeland for his people but was seen by Israelis as a ruthless terrorist and roadblock to peace, died early Thursday at a Paris military hospital. He was 75.

"The last two days were very painful, very difficult days," said Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, who confirmed Arafat's death Thursday morning. "And now, after these painful days of President Arafat, he is dead."

Arafat died at 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT), a hospital spokesman said.

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blackduck30

it will be interesting to see what direction the palastinian plight goes in, I also thought that 75 was a good innings

2000fordfocus

I bid there will be some initial choas with his death, than after sometimes, it will be peace finally with his death!!

Ha-y-n

He never did sh*t for his people. He had millions of dollars in accounts all oer the place and his people never got one cent. And he is, or was, a terrorist.

Fox

anyone else feel a religious war coming?

Xko

I wouldn't be surprised to see that. It really gets my back up though!

DumberDrummer

I thought one was already going on? Since about the 90s?

Chevy

Go back to the creation of Isreal as a sovereign state.

Of course, the religious implications go back a lot longer.

Xko

According to wikipedia...

In August of 2002 the Israeli Military Intelligence Chief claimed that Arafat's personal wealth was US$ 1.3 billion, though he provided no substantiation for this claim. The U.S. business magazine "Forbes" ranked Arafat as sixth on its 2003 list "Kings, Queens and Despots", estimating his personal wealth to "at least $300 million", without indicating its source for this claim.

In 2003 a team of American accountants - hired by Arafat's own finance ministry - began examing Arafat's finances. The team determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion -- with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands. The head of the investigation stated that "although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And none of these dealings were made public". Arafat appeared to use his wealth to improve his standing and influence; his own lifestyle remained quite frugal.

In 2003 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted an audit of the Palestinian Authority and stated that Arafat diverted $900 million in public funds to a special bank account controlled by Arafat and the PA Chief Economic Financial Advisor. The IMF did not claim that there were any improprieties and it specifically stated that most of the funds have been used to invest in Palestinian assets, both internally and abroad.

An investigation by European Union of claims of misuse of EU funds by the Palestinian Authority has found no evidence EU funds being diverted to terrorist activities. However, the EU has insisted on "deepening reform in the PA and improving its financial management and audit capacities" as "the best preventive strategy against the misuse of funds and corruption in the PA", and has made further funding contingent on these reforms.

Claims by unnamed sources in the PA Finance Ministry stated that Arafat's wife, Suha, receives a stipend of $100,000 each month from the PA budget. In an interview with the London-based newspaper Al Hayat, Mrs. Arafat accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of spreading rumors about money-laundering to distract media attention away from corruption allegations against him. In October 2003, French government prosecutors opened an money-laundering probe of Suha Arafat after Tracfin alerted the prosecutors to transfers of nearly $1.27 million each with some regularity from Switzerland to Mrs. Arafat's accounts in Paris.