Suha Arafat, wife of ailing murderer and terrorist Yasser Arafat, is coming under criticism from Palestinians, for living a billionaire's lifestyle in Paris, while her husband has spent the last three years in the wreckage of the Mukata compound in Ramallah, according to the Jerusalem Post.

"It would have been better if she had stayed close to him all this time," said a veteran Fatah official. "Now it looks as if she just came to take him and go away."

A legislator said the majority of Palestinians never related to Suha as the first lady of Palestine. "She was in fact the first lady of France," he remarked cynically.

Suha, who married Arafat in 1990 in a secret ceremony at his former headquarters in Tunis, was born to a Christian family from Ramallah. Her mother, Raymonda Tawil, is a nationalist poet and journalist who used to run the Palestine Press Service in Jerusalem.

The article goes on to point out that Suha has been receiving $100,000 a month in government funds to support her luxurious life in Paris. Somehow we doubt that she pays any French (or other) taxes on this money, so it must really go a long way, compared to tohers in France who receive $1.2 million a year. Meanwhile, of course, Palestinians live in poverty, and the money donated to alleviate their suffering acumulates in other hands.

I suspect Suha is mor worried about getting the numebrs of the Swiss and Cayman Island Bank accounts from her husband before he dies, than about any criticisms from mere Palesyinians.

Hat tip: Ed

Thomas Lifson   10 30 04