Ariel Sharon, Bush, and the Assassination of Yasser Arafat

The escalation we are witnessing now in Palestine is partly the legacy of Ariel Sharon. In a recent book of interviews published in France, his confident Uri Dan reveals that Sharon told him that he was behind the assassination of Yasser Arafat and that Sharon consulted with Bush on the matter.

''To those knowledgeable about Israel’s history since it became a state in 1948 and earlier, this revelation, if true, should come as no surprise. All Israeli governments have a long and disturbing record of conducting targeted assassinations in Israel and abroad as it suited them against all persons thought to be a threat to the Jewish state. From his earliest days in 1969 as Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman and President, Arafat went from enemy to ally and back to enemy again under various Israeli governments depending on his willingness to deny his people their rights in service and pledging fealty to Israeli authority as he did in agreeing to the Oslo Accords, or Declaration of Principles (DOP), signed at a White House ceremony in September, 1993.''

There is mention of the book by Paris-Match however without any mention of the assassination confidence. The book seems to be hard to find. It is in an Amazon search but not available. It is listed in a podcast search and it is mentioned on the official site of the Israeli embassy in France, without this revelation. Uri Dan, the book's author, a Sharon supporter and admirer, who was Fox's News Jerusalem bureau chief and New York Post Correspondent in Jerusalem, died recently.

Also, there are many articles on Uri Dan in this December page of Isranet News.
''To the end, Uri remained tireless. Diagnosed with lung cancer, he covered last summer's war in Lebanon from his hospital bed while undergoing intensive chemotherapy. He traveled to Washington last month with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and was thrilled beyond words when White House Press Secretary Tony Snow agreed to place a copy of Uri's new book on President Bush's Oval Office desk. ''