According to a question posed to Bush at his press conference, he died before noon. His reaction was "God bless his soul."

Arafat is not dead, according to the hospital he is in. Can't help but wonder if his date in the Liber Diei isn't coming up soon, though.

Well, at least this will put an end to the old canard that Arafat was the sole impediment to peace in the middle east. Of course, discovering this is unlikely to make any of us safer or happier.

Maybe not the sole imprediment to working with Israel but definitely a practiced impediment. Hamas was never really under that much of his control.

Some good mennonite theology suggests that when one finds themselves on the other side of the great divide, they will be faced with all those they 'hated' or had not 'forgiven' and then given that very work to do. Chained in hell together or in glory, wouldn't it be something if they had no choice but to work it out. . . . if they could not run away from it, even in death.

If you really think Sharon is a bad guy, well, you don't have to wait for him to die. He'll be voted out of office at some point, or retire. Israel actually has real elections, you know, unlike the Palestinian terrorocracy.