Leader or Terrorist?
Freedman, Robert 0.
BOOKS Leader or Terrorist? Behind the Myth: Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker Olive Branch Press, 1991. 407 pp , 24 95 Reviewed by Robert 0....
...He is the author of Moscow and the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 1991) and editor of The Intifada: Its Impact on Israel, the Arab World and the Superpowers (Florida University Press, 1991...
...Unfortunately, the balanced assessment of the authors does not extend to their treatment of Israel...
...36, 135), but the Palestinians who precipitated the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics were "commandos" (page 92...
...It shows how he prevaricated, deliberately obfuscated the PLO position and otherwise acted in a way that did not always help the Palestinian cause, either in the inter-Arab arena or in the forum of world opinion...
...Robert 0. Freedman is Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Professor of Political Science and Dean of Graduate Studies, Baltimore Hebrew University, Baltimore, Maryland...
...The authors also clearly demonstrate the often tortured relationship between Arafat and the Arab leaders on whom he depended for support— above all, President Hafez Assad of Syria, who is reported to have told Arafat in 1976: "You do not represent Palestine any more than we do...
...had they sought to portray a more balanced view of Israel, the book would have been far better...
...Throughout the book there is a highly simplistic portrayal of Israel...
...407 pp , 24 95 Reviewed by Robert 0. Freedman Yasser Arafat's supporters see him as the leader and symbol of the Palestinian resistance movement...
...This is unfortunate, because the authors have made a real and largely successful effort to describe the various groupings within the PLO...
...Behind the Myth seeks to define the "real Arafat" and to differentiate between the myths that surround the controversial Palestinian leader and the actual record of his numerous political successes and failures...
...The book's strength lies in its critical appraisal of Arafat's performance as leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO...
...his detractors see him as a terrorist who says one thing but does another...
...In their view, the founders of Israel were "terrorists" (pp...
...The authors, both journalists from the English newspaper Financial Times, trace the rise of Arafat as a political leader from his student days in Cairo to his disastrous decision to back Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War against Saudi Arabia and the United States...
...There is neither a Palestinian people, nor a Palestinian entity, there is only Syria, and you are an inseparable part of the Syrian people and Palestine is an inseparable part of Syria" (page 155...
Vol. 18 • February 1993 • No. 1
