The woman behind Arafat

JERUSALEM, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The bizarre story of Suha Arafat, wife of comatose

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, is one more example of how a movement which

has combined bloody terrorism with brilliant public relations for so many years

proves itself impossible to deal with.

Suddenly, Suha literally holds in her hands the future of the Arab-Israeli

conflict and hence of the Middle East and international politics more

generally. For only she can pull the plug in the Paris hospital, which would

end her husband's life and let the Palestinians choose a new leadership. But

she's not pulling yet.

She was born in 1964 to a prominent Palestinian Catholic family in Ramallah.

Her father was a quiet banker, and her mother is Raymonda Tawil, probably the

most famous Palestinian woman of the day. Tawil was an outspoken writer who

criticized just about everyone but became an effective propagandist for the

Palestinian cause after Israel captured the West Bank. On one hand, Tawil posed

as victim while she lived a wealthy lifestyle and ran a considerable salon

where Israeli officials were welcome. Educated by nuns in Catholic schools,

Suha served tea for these gatherings.

Suha met Yasser in 1985 on a trip to Amman when she was a student. He later

hired her to do public relations for the PLO in Paris, and the two secretly

married in July 1990. The Palestinian leader was 53-years-old and one of the

world's most notorious bachelors. For years, he had fended off questions about

being single by claiming he was married to the revolution.

It is not clear why he decided to get hitched. Certainly, it wasn't love.

Perhaps he had decided that at his age he should seem to be settling down. In

Arab society, 53-year-old men who have never been married are looked at as

strange.

But at the same time, Suha was hardly a safe choice. The marriage was kept

secret for 18 months, probably because of concern over how Palestinians would

respond to Suha's Westernized, elite, and Christian background. Yasser likes to

pose as protector of Palestinian Christians, and the challenge may have

appealed to him. Despite her conversion to Islam, she was still viewed with

suspicion.

Presumably, Arafat picked her in large part because she seemed a shy,

submissive girl who would provide an official wife without causing much

trouble. If so, he could not have been more wrong. The first proof came in

April 1992, when Arafat almost died in a plane crash in the Libyan desert.

Arafat would later piously claim that two images went through his head: the

Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem and the faces of his martyred colleagues.

He didn't mention Suha. Three others were killed in the crash; Arafat had to

wait 15 hours to be rescued.

While awaiting news of her husband's fate, Suha was treated very badly by his

associates as she sat for hours alone, in her words, feeling "dumped,

abandoned, already like a widow." This embittered her against her husband's

colleagues. Being Mrs. Arafat was a difficult task, she told an interviewer. "I

married a myth," she said. Yasser's political world was exclusively male. She

continually claimed that Yasser never listened to anyone and neglected her.

They spent little time together, and after Yasser returned to Gaza in 1994 the

marriage already seemed effectively over. Like her husband, she showed little

interest in the welfare of her people. Her expensive clothes, dyed blonde hair,

and Parisian shopping trips undercut Arafat's Spartan image as an incorruptible

man of the people and pious Muslim. She went off to live in Paris where their

daughter, Zahwa, was born at the American Hospital in the posh Paris suburb of

Neuilly-sur-Seine on Aug. 27, 1995.

Occasionally, she returned. In November 1999, when First Lady Hilary Clinton

visited Ramallah to open a U.S.-funded health program, Suha falsely told her

that the Israelis were using poison gas that gave Palestinians cancer. Later,

she announced that if she had a son she would want him to be a suicide bomber.

Meanwhile, back in France, Suha was spending large amounts of Western-donated

money that was intended to help poor Palestinians. Yasser skimmed off a large

share which he passed on to her and she passed on to the Paris clothing

designers. When in 2004, the French authorities opened an investigation in

which she was accused of laundering millions of dollars, she said it was an

Israeli conspiracy against her and her husband in order to conceal their mass

murders. She justified the money she was receiving as being used for the cause.

According to media reports, this included living in an entire floor of a luxury

hotel.

The collapse of Yasser's health has put her in a position of remarkable power.

Although she literally didn't see her husband during the last four years of his

life, Suha is empowered by French law now as the only one now who can end it.

She finally has Arafat's colleagues where she has long wanted them.

In a telephone call to al-Jazeera television Monday, Suha screamed that her

brain-dead comatose husband was perfectly fine and that Palestinian leaders

were conspiring to bury him alive in order to grab power for themselves. No

doubt, one of the main issues is their attempt to get from her control over

hundreds of million dollars in hidden bank accounts, which -- given the absence

of a will -- she would likely inherit.

The point of this story is not to make Suha the villain, as much as she might

resemble a Palestinian Marie Antoinette. Actually, she rather exemplifies in

her behavior the movement's characteristic corruption, indifference to the

people she claims to love, wacky world view, glorification of violence, use of

conspiracy theories, endless lies, pleas for sympathy, and propaganda. If you

want to know why the PLO refuses to make peace and why the conflict continues

long after it could have been peacefully resolved, look no further.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs

(GLORIA) Center and co-author of "Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography" and

"Hating America: A History."

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by

outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views

expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In

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