Was Arafat poisoned?

So much mystery surrounds the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the question isn't "Do we have any evidence that he was murdered?" Instead, we should ask: "Do we have any evidence that he died from natural causes?" So far, the "poisoning" meme has only one strike against its credibility: Drudge is covering it with some respect.

Yasser Arafat suffered a stroke, but only after his hospitalization for a still-enigmatic illness. His personal physician, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdihas, has called for an autopsy. Hamas has officially come out in favor of the poisoning thesis -- as has, of course, his wife Suha Tawil.

The Palestinian Authority has sent blood samples to Germany for testing, and anonymous sources report that, during his final illness, Arafat told those close to him: "This time they got me." This report also notes some disturbing history:

...a Mossad agent attempted to inject Hamas's Leader Khaled Mashal with poison in the Jordanian capital Amman. The agent then was caught, and Israel was forced to provide Jordan with the antidote. Furthermore the former Algerian President Hawari Bomedian and a PFLP leader, Wadi'a Hadad also died in suspicious circumstances with similar symptoms to those of chairman Arafat. Wadi'a Hadad was poisoned in the late 1970s by a close aide who was allegedly recruited by the Mossad, although the official reason for his death cited at the time was cancer.

Mashal is still alive. Since his poisoning was not detected by doctors, I doubt that the tests now being run on Arafta's blood will resolve the issue.

Uri Avnery. the 81-year-old Israeli journalist and veteran of Israel's war for independence -- a man who considered Arafat a worthy peace partner and a friend -- is convinced that Sharon intended to kill the Palestinian leader:

"Conspiracy theories always spring up in situations like this. I don't have a conspiratorial mind, but sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be right. What I can say in the way of personal testimony is that when I saw him, just three weeks before he took sick, he was healthy. More healthy than I had seen him in the past."