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Arafat Rumors Turning Poisonous
(Toronto Star)Mitch Potter - "Nothing the French say will dispel the conspiracy theories" about what killed Arafat, said Ethan Dor-Shav, a political scientist with Jerusalem's Shalem Center. "It was 100% predictable that the Palestinians needed Arafat to die as a martyr. The possibility of a normal death of old age was simply unacceptable. He had to die by the hands of Israel. It was absolutely necessary for the national myth." "Every Palestinian wants to see him as a hero; they expected him to be martyred," said Mohammed Yaghi, of the Palestinian Center for Mass Communication, a Ramallah-based think-tank. "If we created a myth about Arafat's death, we have also created the expectation that everyone must now live up to this myth. There will be unity of purpose, a national responsibility to finish what he started."