When Alexander Litvinenko died, it was only because his death was so immediately suspicious that polonium was found to be the cause. Even then, he was in hospital for quite a while before it was detected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko

There were several deaths in Israel due to polonium poisoning during the sixties:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium#Famous_poisoning_cases

If so, by whom?

... she had the most to gain.

Pure speculation........As the IDF always says, wait for the results of the investigation........If there ever is one!

Which was why Litvinenkos murder was fairly easily attributed to the Russians. It requiresa fair degree of sophistication.

Apparently the half life of polonium-210 is about four months, which means that of whatever polonium was present in Arafat's tissues at the time of his deathhus about 0.00000002% would remain today. On the other hand that means that polonium is incredibly rare in the natural world, so pretty much any elevation can be chalked up to a man made cause.

Tunisia? Jordan? France?

why would it still be on his clothing? Unless it was put there after the fact to try to frame the Israelis?

such as a urine stain on his underwear.

I suppose we'll just have to wait until the body is exhumed.

it would have decayed.

Admittedly, the high quantities found seem very indicative that it was placed there later.

However, presuming the initial dose was sufficient to cause acute radiation poisoning, it would not be impossible to detect a residue, even 8 years down the track.

Even the detectors they use at airports are sufficiently sensitive to pick up naturally occurring radiation from bananas and brazil nuts. In the lab, even more so. The short half life cuts both ways - it means that polonium 210 is incredibly rare in nature.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/196513797

The radioactive material that killed a former Russian spy in Britain can be bought on the Internet for $69.

Polonium-210, which experts say is many times more deadly than cyanide, can be bought legally through United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, a mail-order company that sells through the Web. Chemical companies sell the Polonium-210 legally for industrial use such as removing static electricity from machinery. United Nuclear claims that the material is "currently the only legal Alpha source available without a license."

The type of Polonium-210 sold emits alpha radiation, which can't penetrate the skin but is deadly if swallowed, depending on the amount ingested. The Polonium available on United Nuclear's site can be purchased without a license because the level of radioactivity, 0.1 microcurie, doesn't pose a danger, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.

"At that level, it's exempt from licenses," NRC spokesman David McIntyre says. "At any exempt quantity, it's not considered a health hazard."

its not going to cause you to die, even if you swallow it. Also, the commercially available polonium can only be sold in a buffer, or matrix. This is how it is incorporated in industrial applications, anti-static devices and the like.

Presumably, you could remove it from the matrix, but again you would need some pretty good lab skills. A good centrifuge at the very least.

From NPR:

But two things stand out to us in the al-Jazeera report:

— The clothing and other effects, according to Arafat's widow, had been stored at her lawyer's office since shortly after his death nearly eight years ago. That raises questions about who had access to them.

— Al-Jazeera writes that "polonium-210, the isotope found on Arafat's belongings, has a half-life of 138 days, meaning that half of the substance decays roughly every four-and-a-half months. 'Even in case of a poisoning similar to the Litvinenko case, only traces of the order of a few (millibecquerels) were expected to be found in (the) year 2012,' the [Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland] noted in its report to Al Jazeera. But Arafat's personal effects, particularly those with bodily fluids on them, registered much higher levels of the element. His toothbrushes had polonium levels of 54mBq; the urine stain on his underwear, 180mBq."

Here's what we don't get:

Why would the polonium-210 levels still be so high if Arafat had been poisoned with the radioactive element so long ago?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/05/156305854/the-arafat-killed-by-poison-story-heres-what-we-dont-get

<snip>

"While Israel markets itself as the most gay-friendly country in the world, its PR hacks are busy reviving homophobic rumors that Arafat was a gay “sexual deviant” who died of AIDS due to his promiscuity.

On Tuesday, Aljazeera broke a bombshell story that the clothes Arafat wore as he died of a sudden and mysterious illness in 2004, contained strong traces of the lethal radioactive element polonium, raising the possibility that he may have been poisoned."

<snip>

"Following the Aljazeera report, Lenny Ben-David, former Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and current public relations consultant to the Israeli government, posted a lurid article at The Times of Israel reviving rumors that Arafat died of AIDS and blaming his “sexual proclivities”:

Yasser Arafat was a murderous, genocidal, diabolical, duplicitous sexual deviant who died at the age of 75. He was despised by Arab and Israeli alike.

more


For the Palestinians’ sake, it’s time to kill off Arafat

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/for-the-palestinians-sake-its-time-to-kill-off-arafat/

What about the anti-Israel PR hacks?