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I think a lot of people may agree that "of course he was killed," but it is particularly interesting because of the poison used (polonium-210) which has only been confirmed in one other poisoning case, that of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident.

Secondly, it is of interest because Arafat's movements and those he had contact with were very limited around the time that he fell ill, so it raises interesting questions about who could have done it.

Hopefully this won't have a negative impact on ongoing peace negotiations.




Here's a really interesting long form article on Litvinenko's death and the mechanics of how poisoning via Polonium works: https://www.readmatter.com/a/bad-blood-the-life-and-death-of...

The substance has a very short half life, which suggests only people with access to a nuclear reactor could have created it.


If I'm reading correctly, the half-life is 138 days, or 4-1/2 months. If you start with 5 times the lethal dose (still a very small quantity), you've got a year to administer it.


Thanks for that link. Awesome article.


Thanks! I'm actually sort of addicted to long-form journalism. Here's a list of some of my favorites: http://esd.io/worthreading/


You might want to check out Adam Curtis, if you don't know him yet. Start with "all watched over by machines of loving grace". It's a series available for download on archive.org.



Awesome list, thanks! There's worse things to be addicted to...


Peace negotiations? Those are a joke. A new settlement is announced and a Palistinian community in Jerusalem is scheduled for demolition. I'm unaware of such extreme provocation from the Palistinian side, but I'm sure it is there. Peace isn't wanted anywhere near enough by anything like enough people.


The IDF had him more or less confined to a small area, IIRC.



Alexander Litvinenko was no dissident, just a gun for hire.




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