Say what you will about the man, but you've got to hand one thing to Arafat: indomitable will. It must have taken a lot of courage for him to have stayed holed up in his compound in Ramallah for so long, enduring so much hardship.

I was thinking that the unseemly spat between his wife and the Palestinian leaders could have been avoided if some agreement had been reached regarding some decent (behind-the-scenes) compensation (say $10 million) to her, but it looks like the stakes are much higher; as much as $900 million from the Palestinian Authority's treasury are missing/unaccounted for.