Where is arafats money

It could have a deepwater freight port, a flourishing fishing port and a leisure harbour crammed with the yachts of wealthy visitors.

It could have resort hotels on the sea and farms, ranches and orchards in the hinterland producing nutritious food. It has nothing of these. It is a failed state of poverty, misery and violence.

So what happened to all that money? Well, a lot went on guns, explosives for bombs and material to build rockets to launch at Israel. But the bulk has certainly suffered the fate of most wealth in that neck of the woods. It has simply been embezzled, not by Israelis but by Palestinians and above all by their leadership cadres. Yasser Arafat was the virtually unchallenged Palestinian leader for many years.

Forbes listed him ninth in its ranking of the world's wealthiest heads of state -- even though he is a ruler without a country and many of his people are refugees. In Paris, the struggle over Arafat's hidden millions threatened to overshadow his final days.

His wife, Suha Arafat, hopes to inherit at least part of his fortune. But, according to Al-Jazeera, Palestinian leaders demand that it be handed over to the Palestinian people. The assets are managed in a complex network of bank accounts, holding companies and stocks whose details are known only to his closest confidant, financial adviser Mohammed Rashid. Suha Arafat has access to some of the money, but apparently even she does not know all the ins and outs of the secret accounts.

Al-Jazeera reported that she asked Rashid to make out a list of Arafat's assets and that he refused, saying he would report only to the Palestinian Authority. The money is with those who were close to Arafat and anyone who is determined can find it. She also denied a rumor that the apartment she now shares with her teenager daughter Zawa in Malta was purchased as a gift by the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The apartment, she said, is rented. Arafat was a great leader and I was very lonely in my marriage. I was always on the defensive because of the rumors that they spread about me. But life without him is even harder. Arafat was a strong supporter of the decision t o exhume her husband in November amid claims he was poisoned. In Streetwise Hebrew for the Times of Israel Community, each month we learn several colloquial Hebrew phrases around a common theme.

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