A chance for the PLO:
Powers, Thomas
form of energy have evolved a jargon all It is true that a diopped bomb and a And that is the point. The experts with their own. One of them said that the melt-down have very...
...But of course this faith of the people in their leaders...
...Parts of the Bikini the Kalashnikovs in southern Lebanon sailed away, and they have depended on and Eniwetok atolls are still so hot they talk about marching into Israel and re- the rest of the Arab world ever since...
...x-rays weren't good for us, we learn la- was an accident...
...Manipula- when the PLO took over the former Is- They were too divided to resist Jewish tion came into its own during World War raeli embassy in Teheran...
...negotiations last year, Zbigniew what the Palestinians notably lack...
...a might assert the right of selfthere while the Syrians police up the rear...
...ment of the people of Eniwetok and Bi- Lucky for him he wasn't caught in that Nuclear energy advocates speak easily kini...
...They may not be sea...
...The consequences of our actions PLO," he said in a phrase quoted with tary skill...
...their image as sullen refugees in UN tent arrogance of our leaders...
...They that we could see what bombs could do to PLO is negligible...
...The experts with their own...
...An divided and too far away...
...History has taught Israel the stronger position than it is right now...
...On Meet the Press the head of Gulf Oil, which has a heavy involvement A CHANCE FOR THE P.L.O...
...But if they cess would not be easy, and it would not ways have friends in high places- could bring themselves to renounce the be quick, but it would be far more certain generally the more friends, the farther dream, they could use the Israeli- than the vain hoping in exile which has from Israel-and money enough to cover Egyptian treaty to win a true West Bank served for a strategy for three decades...
...and a major cause of instability in Leba- politics, but they have never been able to Commonweal: 232 devise a strategy which did not ultimately four things it has always shrunk from in which Israel has conceded in principle in require somebody else to win their war the past: abandon its dependence on big advance, the residents of the West Bank for them...
...its claims on paper, but would never sur- more fairly with the Palestinians for their Not necessarily...
...war would probably strain unity...
...Perhaps increased WHAT PALESTINIANS...
...The fact is that Arabs would outstaging area...
...Both involve the release of us...
...But no ernment evacuating Sioux City or by people like Carter and the head of Gulf acceptable radiation level has been estab- Phoenix in order to bomb it, just to see Oil and the experts who were sure that lished, though it is understood that the what bombing will do...
...To renounce their economic development and exercise the 50-mile front on the Golan Heights, and claim to the whole of British mandate zoning authority which would direct it...
...it ex- tonomy into a swelling de facto indepena brighter prospect of success...
...Looked at from one render the hostility in its heart...
...settler groups in the 1920s and 1930s, too II...
...it is impossible to imagine our gov- trap-but how strange it is for us to be led of "acceptable radiation levels...
...The history of our involvement a sign of how far we have come: now we one more example of why it would be an with radiation tells us that we know less play around with the lives and futures of extremely wicked thing to restore the every year about these things...
...These are powerful weapons...
...the wake of a conquering army...
...All those our own people too...
...This looks more dangerous than it obsessed with their land of origin, the versities would have the right to offer the is, for the simple reason that Israel is justice of their claim, the longing for courses they liked, hire the teachers they strong, and the rest of the Arab world too revenge, vindication and return...
...The people of Bikini grandparents, but nothing of the sort is Palestinians' war, not the Palestinians...
...of the moment will require the PLO to do sovereignty...
...After the war our exultation over The Palestinians have proved them- intransigent to accept the state offered Hiroshima's obliteration led us to dis- selves extraordinarily adept at political them by the UN in 1947, too weak to place native populations in the Pacific so agitation...
...The West Bank, press...
...The PLO will al- will-o'-the-wisp in the future...
...The probrother cannot deliver...
...The Arab countries shy able to win, but they are secure in exile number the Jews by a huge proportion, away from negotiation with Israel for and do not have to accept defeat...
...It is Harry Truman bragged that he didn't lose Bzrezinski suggested they had been political agitation which has managed to any sleep over Hiroshima...
...change its strategy...
...JOHN GARVEY ter...
...The Palestinians are true exiles, under the Israeli occupation...
...Now more radiation there is, the more danger respect the Three Mile Island accident is we have another reason not to trust them, there is...
...arrived in the 1880s...
...That set the guilty of an historic error...
...in nuclear power, said that the real problem at Three Mile Island was the over- HAVE THE PALESTINIANS LEARNED ANYTHING...
...refusal to struggle politically for what point of view the PLO has never been in a But all the same, the Palestinians they want...
...The kids who carry depended on the British until the British land they held holy...
...He the Pentagon's "protective reaction is that at high levels it kills people...
...and therefore should do them...
...As a military organization the prevent their expulsion in 1948...
...The experts knew, Of several minds: Thomas Powers back when they were dropping the first bombs, that there was nothing dangerous going on...
...Golda Meir non, but it is no match for the Israeli cancer rates really are required to keep used to say...
...could get what they want for the reason virtues of patience and self-reliance, but Nothing of substance stands in the way of that autonomy logically implies inde- it does not appear to have taught the a West Bank state, but taking advantage pendence, just as independence implies Palestinians anything...
...police, the citizens of the West Bank united in its hostility toward the Israeli- It is hard to exaggerate the degree to would gain those political rights of orEgyptian treaty, and determined to con- which all four would offend Palestinian ganization and agitation denied them tinue the military confrontation with Is- pride...
...When the Palestinian Liberation Organi- cities), but to build an army you need a The development of atomic power was zation refused to join the Israeli-Egyptian country, and this, of course, is precisely marked with arrogance from the start...
...but at every point of collision the Arabs to take that heavily defended hill over Terrorism is an expression of hate...
...Now Egypt has finally declined brother's military muscle, renounce ter- must have the right to pass laws, estabthe honor of championing this cause and rorism, close with Israel in a direct politi- lish social services and levy taxes to supthe PLO must find a new big brother, or cal contest, and publicly adopt as its goal port them...
...They liked, invite the speakers they liked...
...So far no Palestinian spokesman has old hope of marching back into Israel in This would not be easy, of course...
...Maybe in that one things like this could never happen...
...On second it...
...and would gradually weld bits of aupolitical reasons, not because war offers Palestinian irredentism is strong...
...inform but to distract...
...Arafat's travel budget, but it has lost its state...
...It wasn't intended...
...A mo- Palestine would involve a kind of Residual Israeli authorities would doubtment always seems to arrive in such situ- spiritual suicide, a loss of the identity less collide with their Arab counterparts ations when the Syrians invite the Iraqis they have forged from despair in exile...
...plains their intransigence in the past, and dence, which the Israelis would eventuThe implication of this fact is that big why they will probably go on pursuing a ally have to recognize formally...
...A failure to estabfiyeh, somewhere near the bottom of the But more importantly, Israel fears a lish a West Bank state will of course be list of speakers at Third World solidarity Palestinian state which might renounce blamed on Israel, but the fault will lie conferences...
...Is Arafat condemned to an old posed in the narrow coastal plain con- every other since the first Jewish settlers age trooping about the globe in his kaf- necting the two bulky halves of Israel...
...a West Bank state which would live in Protected by Arab courts and Arab At the moment the Arab world seems peace with Israel...
...On paper a don't really want a West Bank state, but Arab parliament could determine which Syrian-Iraqi joint army looks formida- to redeem their humiliation and undo the day was to be the Sabbath, could plan ble, but its only access to Israel is along a history of 30 years...
...Like Nix- dangerously high levels of radiation, and Jimmy Carter was about to come out with on's "incursion" into Cambodia, like the one thing we do know about radiation a strong defense of nuclear energy...
...reaction it had caused...
...It published remarks of Yassir Arafat stalemate...
...Terrorist raids are virtuour TV sets and hair driers going, but Palestinians, only Arabs...
...Arab unirael...
...switch to political struggle would imply determination, supported by the Arab An attempt to extend the front to South- resignation to the fact of Israel, surrender population and watched by the world ern Lebanon would probably cost Leba- of the dream of return...
...were allowed to return there, and then ever going to happen and Arafat knows They exert a strong moral claim on the they were moved off again...
...Atomic testing is responsible for a higher incidence of leukemia in areas close to the test sites...
...ally suicide missions, which is why they before we accept blindly the necessity of But of course there are Palestinians, are so infrequent...
...One of them said that the melt-down have very different effects, a stake in nuclear power waved aside all Three Mile Island accident was nothing but in one important respect they are criticism...
...There are more Palesdying slowly from the bad ideas of board and they managed to block Arab recogni- tinians than there are Israelis, and they chairmen we might use the opportunity tion of Israel for more than 30 years, until are just about as highly educated (despite this accident offers, and reflect on the Egypt finally grew weary of the impasse...
...they knew what was good for to worry about, not critical...
...are considered unsafe, decades later, for conquering the orange groves of their Syria, Jordan and Egypt have fought the human habitation...
...There aren't any Defense Forces...
...Ra- delayed his energy address for other reastrike," this language is meant not to cism was certainly involved in our treat- sons, and then the accident happened...
...The PLO's army of 15,000 erratically conscience of the Arab world, and have thought, the experts decided that the atoll trained men is a symbol of resistance, kept their cause at the forefront of Arab wasn't healthy after all...
...The Israelis might insist that non its territory south of the Litani River, much of it a barren wilderness, is only a Jewish settlements remain, but they and it is unlikely that Jordan, a small, beggar's remnant of the land the Palesti- would find themselves islands in an Arab weak country, would offer herself as a nians claim is theirs...
...For genuine autonomy, THOMAS POWERS 27 April 1979: 233...
...For one they uniformly denounced the UN partihave returned to square one, which never thing, the Israelis share a liking for an tion proposed in 1947...
...Even if Israel is quite firm in its opposition to an They have been united in their denunciapolitical intrigue overthrew Sadat, and independent West Bank state, especially tion of the Israeli-Egyptian treaty, just as -the treaty, the Arab world would simply one controlled by the PLO...
...didn't matter so much as the fact that we grim satisfaction at every public oppor- The weakness of the Palestinians has were capable of doing such grand things, tunity by Yassir Arafat, most recently been their dependence on big brother...
...suggested doing anything of the kind...
...Bye bye, keep the Palestinian cause alive, not militone...
...Before the Pennsylvania accident ever, "a continuing incident...
...it was, how- similar...
...History and the offered anything better than military Israel including Judea and Samaria...
...Does this mean that would have sensible borders and relieve suggest the Palestinians will lose the preBzrezinski was right, and the PLO is the anxiety of Tel Aviv, isolated and ex- sent opportunity, just as they have lost finished...
Vol. 106 • April 1979 • No. 8
