ISRAEL:3 THE REAL THREAT OF THE P.L.O.
COHEN, STEPHEN PHILIP
ISRAEL:3 THE REAL THREAT OF THE P.L.O. STEPHEN PHILIP COHEN Even as the Yom Kippur War dragged on, and the killing continued, the optimists were at it: this war, they said, will restore...
...Now, to a fundamentalist like King Faisal, the notion of a secular state was an offense and an affront...
...Only through such an argument did the Jews establish their own right to be included...
...Arafat was clearly on the way to prominence...
...There is, quite simply, no single statement, anywhere in the Arafat speech, in which Arab terrorism is abjured, modified, or tempered in the slightest...
...Furthermore, there is a grave necessity in arriving at fair prices for raw materials from these countries...
...The answer—and this is, of course, a most controversial point—is to be found in the re-assertion of classic Zionist theory, which held that selfdetermination is a universal principle...
...And so...
...Second, it was evidence of the P L O ' s progressive character, a step forward from reactionary and fundamentalist movements in the Arab world...
...But it strikes at the very heart of the matter, for it recreates the classic Jewish condition, whereby others impose upon Jews the definition of the Jewish connection...
...Such a proposal, however, ignores the central aspect of the Israel-PLO relat i o n s h i p : the s i g n i f i c a n c e of any agreement between Israel and the PLO will be determined in the process through which it is achieved...
...To which the answer, quite naturally, has been that the blood on Arafat's hands is still far too fresh for the world to take seriously his alleged moderation, even when he is compared to acknowledged extremists such as George Habbash...
...If so limited a military success as the Arabs enjoyed in October of 1973 could produce such a heady reaction in the Arab world—why stop at that point...
...American Jews, too, have a role to play in the drama...
...Against this background, the first decade of the Palestine Liberation Organization came to an end...
...The Arafat dream will be seen as it is, a prescription for death...
...I r o n y " is too soft a word to describe the P L O emphasis on democracy, for it is the P L O which has rej e c t e d the notion of a West Bank plebiscite on the grounds that, as the " r e v o l u t i o n a r y v a n g u a r d " of the armed struggle against Israel, it has the inherent right to rule...
...Shortly before the General Assembly debate on Palestine, the Arab states had met in Rabat, Morocco, there to revel in their new sense of p o w e r and to plan a c o l l e c t i ve strategy...
...Only more of the same...
...Indeed, many Jews have only an imperfect understanding of the peculiar character of the Jewish Peop l e . And the call for a nondiscriminatory state which guarantees religious freedom may, therefore, be seen as a " m o d e r a t e , " and even reasonable proposal...
...First, as Arafat cautioned at the UN, Israel should be expelled from UN membership (as is being done now, step-bystep, to South Africa...
...too, was the intricate interweaving of international diplomacy, economic power, and the alleged internal w e a k e n i n g of I s r a e l 's resolve...
...The very peoples most impoverished by the wealth siphoned off by O P E C price gouging applauded this speech with the greatest enthusiasm...
...Indeed, Arafat went still further to indicate his desire to placate Faisal: in the course of his speech, he referred to Jerusalem no less than five times—yet one searches earlier Palestinian documents for such special emphasis on Jerusalem in vain...
...The reason for the omission is interesting, as ifpffers an important clue to the current political c o n s t e l l a t i o n within the Arab world...
...these are concepts that the Arabs have appropriated for themselves on behalf of the Palestinians...
...The continuing t e r r o r i sm is intended not only to weaken Israeli morale, but also to maintain a high level of tension which, i d e a l l y , will spark repeated w a r s — u n t i l they are no longer needed—between Israel and the confrontation states...
...If every act of P L O terrorism were to cease forthwith, the political program of the P LO would remain entirely unacceptable because it denies the fundamental Jewish right...
...that is not the manner he adopted...
...And later: The United Nations must shoulder the responsibility for fighting inflation, now borne most heavily by developing nations (especially the oil-producing countries...
...Or: a rhetoric which encourages the absolutist view encourages absolutist solutions...
...It has resisted establishing a government-in-exile, despite strong pressure from the Soviet Union and the major Arab states, at least in part because such a government would be a clear affirmation of a defined, separate Palestinian status...
...And it is Saudi Arabia which, together with the other Arab, states, endorsed the P L O at Rabat, breaking the traditional alliance between Faisal and Hussein...
...Why permit the P L O to earn credit for "moderat i o n " in its rejection of genocide...
...At best, a formula might be constructed which would permit Hussein to negotiate with Israel on behalf of the PLO...
...Would he, without foreclosing his future options, at least omit overt reference to the controversial notion of a " s e c u l a r democratic s t a t e " in Israel...
...Perhaps the empty holster which Arafat wore on the UN rostrum said more than he intended...
...A number of nations tried to temper this approbation in their explanation of vote but the resolution record spoke only of Palestine and not of Israel...
...But if the Arabs in general, or the Palestinians specifically, or even the P L O itself, are v i e w e d — a n d hence treated—as Nazis, then the struggle between Israel and the Arabs can end only in the destruction of the one or the other...
...Saudi Arabia, of course, is the chief merchant of that weapon, giving it a status that simply was not imagined just a few years back, and, equally important, giving it an economic capability that is simply staggering...
...Since this was clearly unacceptable, the PLO developed a more effective, and, at the ARAFAT AT THE U.N...
...The secular democratic state of the PLO involves an utter and absolute rejection of Jewish collective rights...
...The explanation is, again, Faisal, who, in speaking last year with a reporter from Le Monde, remarked that the Jews had no religious attachment to Jerusalem...
...It is seen as a cliche, unlikely to carry much weight with people unnerved by petrodollars and energy supplies...
...The excitement of this rhetoric of antii m p e r i a l i sm with its symbolic victory against the West momentarily outweighed any concrete economic considerations...
...There is, for example, no effort in the speech to avoid the word ' ' t e r r o r . ' ' The word appears at least a dozen times...
...In short—the Jews are to lose the right to define their own identity, are to surrender that right to their hosts, who have announced that every people must be accorded the right of self-definition...
...Insistence on total victory requires an understanding of the alternative to total victory—and the alternative is not partial victory, but total defeat...
...Founded in Cairo, at the first summit meeting of the Arab heads of state in 1964, for ten years an instrument of terror warfare, the P L O moved, at Rabat, to the center of the world political stage...
...The bald statement of this position would not sit well with the contemporary temper, since, de facto, Israel exists...
...Days later, the General Assembly voted its approval of a resolution which mirrored the P L O ' s position...
...Would he, in short, j o in in the fundamental diplomatic offensive the Arab world had so successfully undertaken...
...For that argument, and that alone, can withstand the vagaries of international economics and politics...
...Strategic arguments shift seasonally, as strategic facts and assessments change...
...The Palestine National Covenant specifically asserts that only those Jews who arrived in Palestine before the " Z i o n i s t Invasion" would be permitted to remain, and the "Zionist Inv a s i o n " is variously dated as having commenced in 1947...
...If Sadat and Faisal were to confirm and extend that prominence, might not Arafat cool the revolutionary fervor on the left of his own movement...
...Many Americans, Jews among them, seem bored by the moral argument on Israel's behalf...
...And the result has been an important shift in the general perception of the conflict...
...For the burden then shifts dramatically to the Palestinians, who will, save as they accept and announce their own willingness to grant to others what they demand for themselves, no longer be able to lay claim to the mantle of justice...
...Arabic, and entitled "Liberation of the Conquered Territories and the Struggle Against Imperialism": We are not here speaking merely of the destruction of a military base of imperialism, but, more important than that, an entire society must be wiped out...
...A second possibility seems to have been lost in the rush of events...
...When reminded of the Western Wall, he snapped, " I would gladly build the Jews a wall elsewhere where they can go and c r y . ' ' Arafat went so far as to repeat a canard which only Faisal embraced — that the fire at the Aqsa Mosque several years back was the act of Jews, rather than that of the demented Australian fundamentalist Christian who confessed to it...
...The discrepancy between empathic rhetoric and evil behavior is no surprise...
...Others will seek to circumvent the road, leaping directly to its end by ceding the West Bank to the PLO immediately, or, at least, recognizing the PLO as the preeminent spokesman for the Palestinians...
...But a comprehensive understanding of Palestinian terrorism requires that it be seen not only as an attempt to murder Jews, but as part of a c o n c e r t e d program to destroy the Jewish community in Israel and to terrorize the Israeli people into abandoning their national existence...
...Indeed, under present circumstances it appears likely that the chief consequence of the PLO success will be to further freeze Israel's occupation of the West Bank...
...The strategy of dividing the PLO from its supporters is meaningful only if it is part of a larger strategy of devising some accommodation between Israel and the Palestinian people...
...The cynical exploitation of refugee pain as an excuse for committing still another great crime against the Jewish People will be clearly exposed for what it is...
...Critics of Harkabi have often claimed that he has made too much of obscure documents and tracts, which have only rhetorical value, and no tangible connection to the political program of the P L O . But the Arafat UN speech was manifestly a part of the P L O political program, and that speech shows that the " o b s c u r e" tracts reflect P L O thinking quite accurately...
...Such a development is possible only if the Palestinians are not seen as Nazis, but as people with needs of, their own...
...Or, " O u r people cannot but carry on with their ancestors' tradition of struggling against invaders . . . in defending their c o u n t r y ." So much for the theory that an invitation to the family of nations is an invitation to responsibility...
...After the enemy has been weakened, classic guerilla strategy calls for the revolutionary force to be transformed into a conventional army capable of delivering a crushing blow...
...The secular democratic state will be, without any compromise, an Arab state...
...Let us remember, Mr...
...The question on the eve of the Arafat appearance was whether the august auspice of his address would cause at least some cosmetic moderation, or, more important, whether the newly-won political prestige of the PLO would lead to some substantial shift in its perspective...
...Unless that is recognized, we may find ourselves in a situation where a world utterly fatigued by acts of terrorism is willing to accept the only political solution now proposed — which is the solution the PLO offers...
...But the P L O can never defeat Israel in conventional combat, not even if it were able—which it is definitively not—to mobilize all the Palestinians...
...Nonetheless, by making such efforts as the newly constrained circumstances do allow, both to talk with Hussein and to promote a Third Force in the West Bank, Israel can keep the P L O off-balance...
...Note that a decline in Palestinian terrorism might well shift the balance towards the Palestinians, with the P L O more than ever the legitimized representative...
...These days, the politics of the Middle East have been globalized, and the reason for that is not the Yom Kippur War, but the sudden emergence of Arab oil as a political weapon of extraordinary potency...
...So it is that during the past several months, Israel has been caught, as it were, between the t w o interpretations: Sadat of Egypt regularly assuring the world that he is prepared to live with some version of an Israel, Arafat of the P L O regularly reiterating his own fantasy of an Israel undone...
...At no time has the P L O ever evidenced any interest whatever in encouraging democratic p r o c e s s e s among the Palestinians themselves...
...Whatever hope there may have been that the dignity of the General Assembly rostrum would induce Arafat to temper the PLO rage was quickly d a s h e d . While others have since sought to explain away the extremism of the speech, arguing that it weaved a d e l i c a t e path towards moderation when viewed against the demands of the most extreme elements of the PLO, the tone and the substance of the speech, as well as the grotesque symbolism of the pistol holster on Arafat's hip, were perfectly explicit: thus, " . . . the political and diplomatic struggle complements and strengthens our armed s t r u g g l e . " Which is to say, the armed struggle continues...
...If, and as, that question can be forced onto the public agenda—and that is a task for American Jews, among others—then we will find that the moral imperative and the tactical advantage are, in fact, identical...
...In brief, the speech which has, in some quarters, been called moderate is a speech which holds, unambiguously, that armed struggle is legitimate until the Palestinians have been restored to their land and entitled to rule all of that land...
...The terrorists must not be permitted to foment war at their own will through the continuing cycle of terror and retaliation...
...Itwould, therefore, encourage the P L O to view any consequent agreement as a step towards the ultimate destruction of Israel...
...But all the while, a new and more somber question was pushing its way to the surface, to burst forth finally in the fall of 1974, a full year after the War...
...And so it seemed...
...How, then, shall we respond...
...In earlier years, the positive assessment of Israel in world public opinion rested chiefly on the fact of the Arab demand that the Jews alone s h o u l d be d e n i e d the right of national existence...
...Why not, in short, go for the b ig prize itself, for an Israel defeated...
...The road to such a semi-place is difficult and winding, and there will surely be many who will think it too tortured to enter...
...This dependence goes to the very heart of guerilla strategy, which is only the first stage of protracted warfare...
...When, at last, the combination of Arab unity, Soviet arms, and the docility of the rest of the world had been tested and proved, when vast economic resources could so readily be translated into political power, why stop with an Israel merely chastened...
...On the contrary: again and again, Arafat lays the groundwork for explaining away such acts as just and noble...
...The unending barrage of depressing news from the Middle East, coupled with a general lack of political sophistication among American Jews, has led many people to imagine that there are only two possible solutions: war, or surrender...
...He invokes their condition to prove the discriminatory nature of Israeli society...
...This represented a dramatic victory for the radical faction within the Arab world, those countries traditionally most reluctant to offer even tacit acceptance to the Jewish state...
...with partition, or in 1917, with the Balfour Declaration, or even e a r l i e r — a s in the Arafat speech, which refers to " t h e beginning of the invasion in 1881"—the date of the first organized modern movement of Jews to Israel, the date of the Bilu...
...Moral arguments are more enduring, and they give pause to those who, on strategic grounds, would abandon Israel...
...that is not the way he was seen...
...The drama of the occasion can scarcely be exaggerated...
...It will, within that national context, offer religious freedom to some (the ideologically acceptable) Jews...
...It may serve some useful tactical purpose to seek to discredit that program by emphasizing its terrorist implications...
...But Arafat's apparent confidence that the State of Israel, as a Jewish state, will eventually pass out of existence, was new...
...The long-standing Arab position has been that the land of Palestine is the exclusive property of the Arab nation...
...The ease of the victory came as something of a surprise, the fruits of a threat that otherwise, Arab unity would be shattered...
...Until now, the P L O version of the history of Palestine, which turns most of that history on its head, has become known chiefly through the efforts of Israeli Arabist Yehoshafat Harkabi, as well as through a smattering of pamphlets intended for left-wing consumption...
...It is tempting—and much of the reaction (other than the whitewash) indicates that the temptation was not resisted—to dismiss the speech as just another venomous piece of rhetoric...
...others must carry it into battle...
...It is in this effort to impose a strictly religious definition on the Jewish People that Arafat and the P L O are most dangerous...
...Finally, Arafat reflects the new Saudi role by making an explicit connection between the solution of the P a l e s t i n e p r o b l em and the world economic future: Thus, the plunder, the exploitation, the siphoning off of the wealth of impoverished peoples must be terminated forthwith...
...American Jewry must operate effectively in the world of such interests, but it cannot control them...
...For the world at large voiced no great objection to what he said...
...And yet—a fact virtually unnoticed in the press—almost all of the planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians have been directed against those same Jews who are the objects of Arafat's rhetorical solicitude...
...But the Jewish People is, after all, entitled to more than freedom from genocide...
...It is compatible with the traditional doctrine because the rights that would be granted Jews in such a state would be granted them exclusively as individuals...
...Lest there be any confusion about just what is meant by a Jew who is prepared to live in Palestine without discrimination, Arafat provides an illustration—Ehud Adiv, a Jew currently imprisoned in Israel for treasonous contact with the Syrian enemy, would be welcome...
...Unless, that is, the most basic case of all is made, and remade, and made again...
...it is e n t i t l e d to its own national identity—that, the P L O seeks to destroy, by force if need be...
...But when there is a direct chain which leads from the terrorist gang to the P L O , from the PLO to the Palestinians, from the Palestinians to the Arab nations, and from the Arab nations to the Soviet Union, one can speak of the destruction of terrorism only if one is prepared to contemplate its opposite—that is, the destruction of Israel...
...The effort to prove that the P L O does endorse genocide is a mistaken effort, for the P L O does not, and the world will not come to believe that it does...
...From which, in turn, it follows that the direct terrorist threat must be treated as a relatively minor aspect of the conflict...
...But such a step, at least for the time being, seems exceedingly u n l i k e l y , for Hussein has already categorically rejected Israel's minimal security conditions...
...The world, or that part of it which takes an interest in such matters, had long since been familiar with the Covenant of the P L O , which proclaims that " t h e establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void" (Article 19), that " t h e Jews are not one people with an independent pers o n a l i t y , " and that " t h e claim of an historical or spiritual tie between the Jews and Palestine does not tally with historical r e a l i t i e s " (Article 20...
...But at Rabat, Faisal promised the P L O fifty million d o l l a r s in annual assistance, perhaps as ins u r a n c e against such sabotage, perhaps in recognition of the increasing importance of the PLO in any future settlement...
...The question is whether, and how, the two needs can be made compatible, but that is not yet the question to which the Palestinians, or even we ourselves, have turned enough of our constructive attention...
...The P LO has yet to modify its revolutionary rhetoric, and vehemently opposed the Kissinger negotiations...
...When, not so very long ago, the issue was one of a few small terrorist gangs, it was possible to speak of the liquidation of terrorism...
...How then do they continue to support the most fanatic, discriminatory and closed of nations in its policy...
...The star was a-borning...
...Moreover, analogies between the Nazis and the PLO have a built-in flaw that works to the distinct advantage of the P L O . What the Nazis were about was genocide...
...How, now, can they seek to exclude the Palestinians...
...But terrorism, according to Arafat, is an act committed by Israel a g a i n s t the Arabs...
...Self-determination means what it says, and, evidently, numbers of people chose to define themselves as Palestinians...
...Perhaps, if they, the leaders of the non-radical Arabs, were to become the sponsors of the PLO, they would draw Arafat away from the r a d i c a l e l e m e n t s, perhaps even all the way into their own camp...
...A P L O so recently endorsed by Saudi Arabia, and promised financial support by it, would scarcely wish to offend its new ally by emphasizing its support of a secular state...
...Some apologists for Sadat have seen this gamble as a brilliant act of statesmanship, as if it had already achieved its purpose...
...Curiously, Arafat's speech avoided use of the term " s e c u l a r , " which has come to be identified so prominently with the P L O program...
...A major unilateral concession by Israel to the PLO, for example, would immediately confirm the P L O ' s present conceit, and would be accepted by the PLO as a sign of Israel's weakness...
...In the pursuit of strategic arguments, the justice of the Israeli position must not be abandoned as a fundamental premise...
...In P L O theory, Jews are viewed as a n a l o g o u s to M o s l e m s — t h a t is, to a r e l i g i o us group—rather than to Arabs, who are seen as a national group...
...How can Arafat and the P L O reconcile their endorsement of national rights and their denial of such rights to the Jews...
...How do they then refuse this humane paradigm for the holy land...
...Thus far, however, its only achievement has been the extension of P L O prominence...
...To be sure, they recognize his bloody past...
...But it is that very dependence on o u t s i d e support that provides the means of thwarting the extremist goal...
...The Arafat speech, while asserting the traditional view (describing the Arabs as " a people whose land and homeland have been usurped") goes on to promote the standard P L O subterfuge, the proposal that Palestine become a " s e c u l a r democratic state.''" That proposal is intended to evoke the image of Jews, Moslems and Christians co-existing in peace and with equality of rights...
...Hence the elimination of Israel requires the direct participation of the " c o n f r o n t a t i o n " states of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and the help of others...
...More sinist e r s t i l l , the P L O d e f i n i t i o n of justice—that is, the extirpation of Israel as a Jewish state—had been accepted as the precondition to peace by many nations...
...There was no tidal wave of revulsion, no roar of objection...
...The United States is a protector of those rights, both for her own selfinterest and for the inherent justice involved...
...Thus: those who would blunt the Arafat sword must understand that Arafat can only rattle it...
...But, precisely because the P L O is no longer a motley collection of violent malcontents, it is important that the speech, and the views which inform it, be understood...
...This was important at a time when the P L O was chiefly concerned with its "left f l a n k , " with its acceptability to Syria and Iraq, as well as to George Habbash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine...
...This takes on special significance at a time when Israel is so massively dependent on the United States for support...
...In dealing with the Nazis, there was no room for maneuver, and, therefore, no need for careful analysis...
...The o v e r w h e l m i n g response of American Jews to the Arafat speech was, predictably, negative in the extreme, although it is likely that what wounded Jews the most was less what Arafat had to say, more the enthusiastic welcome he was accorded by the delegates to the General Assembly...
...The "rejection front," which i n c o r p o r a t e s all those who reject negotiations and even interim agreements with Israel, managed to win the Egyptians and the Saudis over to their view of the P L O and its role...
...And so it should be, for among the most striking developments of the past two years within the Arab world has been the dramatically increased importance of Saudi Arabia and its ruler, the late King Faisal...
...After all, this is the Arafat—himself a scion of the alHusseini family, whose most notable member was the notorious Nazi collaborator, the Mufti of Jerusalem — who announced at the UN, "While we were vociferously condemning the massacres of the Jews under Nazi rule, Zionist leadership appeared more interested at that time in exploiting them as best it could in order to realize its goal of immigration to Palestine...
...Many thoughtful people have, since 1967, been advocating greater freedom for political organization in the West Bank, in the hope of encouraging the emergence of a Third Force, neither P L O nor Hussein oriented...
...A benign resolution of the conflict can be imagined only after there has taken place within the Arab camp itself an intense political struggle in which the advocates of rapprochment emerge as t h e v i c t o r s , and I s r a e l ' s interim strategy must be to encourage such a struggle...
...First, it was a rebuttal to Israel's alleged theocratic foundation, and, therefore, to Israel's alleged discrimination against nonJews...
...Otherwise, the Palestinians will contend, and will convince, when they say that Z i o n i s m , and its c r e a t i o n , Israel, imply a negation of Arab rights...
...the applause in the world's theater was deafening...
...To Jewish dignity—and to Israel's prospects...
...Overthe years, the P L O has adopted several different interpretations of Jewish acceptability...
...Thus it is Saudi Arabia which, in large measure, funds the Soviet resupply of Syria and Egypt, and it is Saudi Arabia which is increasingly seen by the United States as critical to any Middle East settlement and to American international interests...
...The wonder of these distressing times is that Arafat is now perceived, by some analysts, as a moderate...
...in its place there may yet emerge a true vision of justice...
...This shift in itself represents a major victory for the Arabs and the Palestinians, for it places the competing claims on the scales and finds the scales in balance...
...But perpetual w a r — a n d the r e a l i t y is plainly that no " l a s t w a r " can be fought—would have consequences scarcely less frightening to Jews than abject capitulation...
...Moreover, Israel by itself cannot make a serious partner of Hussein in negotiations unless the Arab states themselves are willing to return to him the responsibility for the West Bank...
...Anything less than a considered and necessarily painful re-examination by the P L O of its own logic and of its own prospects will serve no constructive purpose...
...Someone was living in the West Bank and Gaza...
...In its rejection of Jewish national rights, the Arafat speech contained nothing new...
...Thus, "Whoever supports a just cause and fights for freedom and independence of his homeland against imperialist invasion and occupation cannot under any circumstances be termed a terrorist...
...It does not derogate from Jewish independence — indeed, it adds to Jewish dignity — to endorse such a vision...
...And what solution to terrorism have the Jews...
...The fact is that only the Nazis were Nazis...
...Arab actions against Israel are acts of liberation...
...The question cannot be how to feel about Arafat—the answer to that question is perfectly plain—but, rather, how to deal with him, how to respond to him, in order to blunt his destructive sword...
...Specifically, they ceded to the P L O claim to any territory that Israel might relinquish on the West Bank or the Gaza Strip...
...The " b r i l l i a n t " gamble may yet prove to have been a deadly version of Russian roulette...
...It was in the wake of that extraordinary success that Arafat appeared at the General Assembly of the United Nations...
...How, then, to revise the balance and insure that the perception of s t a n d - o f f will be r e v i s e d , and in Israel's favor...
...But now the PLO is increasingly concerned with its right flank — specifically, with Saudi Arabia...
...Yet a careful reading of the text shows clearly that the voice as well as the hands was that of Esau, the hunter...
...Yet it may be argued that Arafat sought not only to cover his own flanks, but also that he understood quite accurately that he could exploit the unusual forum he had been granted with impunity...
...All political efforts must be directed towards reducing the chance that the Palestinian claims will receive military support from Egypt and Syria, for this would create a genuinely serious threat to Israel...
...Ma'alot, Kiryat Shmona, Bet Sh'an—it appears that the PLO has gone out of its way to launch attacks against settlements where the population density and family structure insure a large number of victims—and these are, in the main, the development centers where Oriental Jews predominate...
...Hence, while Arafat, and, presumably, many other Arabs, including some generally perceived as relative moderates, likely accept the traditional view, words need to be devised which will make it more palatable...
...In Arafat's view, world support would " s o l v e " the problem by reversing the UN " e r r o r " of 1947...
...The idea of an American foreign policy divorced from such a fundamental premise can only lead to isolationism or to a cynical power brokering in which the fate of Israel comes to depend solely on the shifting fortunes of economic cartels...
...It is the national existence of the Tsraeli people that is the issue...
...From Israel's standpoint, one possibility, of course, is to try to restore Hussein to serious partnership in Middle East negotiations...
...And, if he did, would not Faisal's feudal throne have been protected, and would not Sadat's negotiations with the enemy, or at least with Kissinger, be tolerated...
...But it is possible that a P L O made nervous by the emergence of plausible alternatives to its centrality would, in an effort to maintain its position, seek some way to come to terms with Israel...
...It is precisely the moral argument for a Jewish State of Israel that has gotten lost in the recent struggle...
...The PLO is wary of such self-definition, lest it lead to the conclusion that the Palestinian problem is for the Palestinians alone to solve...
...Against a background of threatened violence, the symbol simultaneously of the homeless Arab and of the murderer of children was about to become the first, the very first non-head-of-state (save for the Pope) to be afforded the hospitality of the U N rostrum...
...There is only one thing missing from the speech itself, and that is the flat statement of annihilation, contained in a Fatah pamphlet published in...
...President, that the Jews of Europe and the United States have been known to lead the struggles for secularism and the separation of church and state...
...Yes, terrorism will cease, saith the PLO, if only our rights are restored...
...Historical arguments to the contrary notwithstanding, world public opinion was impressed by the de facto assertion of Palestinian-ness...
...It is for this reason that the political program of the PLO must be taken seriously...
...Any other presence there can be explained only as the consequence of invasion, colonialism, or Arab magn a n i m i t y . And any i n t e r n a t i o n al action—say, the Balfour Declaration or the UN Partition of 1947—is necessarily, therefore, invalid...
...The tendency to equate Arafat's vitriolic anti-Zionism with Naziism is especially troublesome in this context...
...Thus, Arafat argues that there is no reason "for a slavish obeisance to the p r e s e n t , " that the UN of today, comprising 138 member states, can surely undo that which less than half as many nations did twentyseven years ago...
...So, too, was the claim that any act against Israel is an act of liberation, deserving praise...
...Accordingly, the moral advantage, and the positive political consequences which are certain to flow from that advantage, can be regained only if the Jews are prepared to endorse the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism...
...At this writing, it is too early to assess the position of his successor, King Khalid...
...But, they say, his speech at the United Nations clearly indicates that he is now prepared to move from terror to politics, from impossible demands to negotiable proposals...
...The P L O asserts that it is not interested in genocide, that it in fact rejects genocide, that it seeks only its own due and not the destruction of the Jewish People...
...The central issue between the P L O and Israel has to d o with the positive right of the Jews to self-determination and an autonomous national existence, and it is the political platform of the P LO which threatens that right...
...Against that threat, despite the bloody record of the P L O , despite the fact that the P L O had included Arabs among its victims, and after considerable vacillation, Sadat and Faisal decided to gamble with the PLO...
...Or would he, instead, be Yassir Arafat...
...STEPHEN PHILIP COHEN Even as the Yom Kippur War dragged on, and the killing continued, the optimists were at it: this war, they said, will restore Arab honor, and, honor restored, the Arabs will now be prepared to negotiate...
...So long as the PLO leadership is persuaded that there is no other alternative to its own c e n t r a l i t y as a spokesman for the Palestinians, it is not likely to think in terms of concessions...
...The issue of peace had, in effect, been dropped as a matter of urgent concern...
...Here we arrive at the central aspect of the proposed secular democratic state...
...It also suggests that Arafat does not feel any need (and quite likely does not want) to moderate his extremism...
...Faced with a moral stand-off, why not go the way e x p e d i e n cy points...
...There must be no deterrent of these peoples' efforts to develop and control their wealth...
...Pushing the date back to 1881 may seem a negative development, but the issue of the date has receded in importance since Palestinian theoretician Nabil Sh'ath, who originated the concept of the secular democratic state, pointed out (in 1970) that if 1917 were used as the cut-off date, Israelis such as Yigal Allon and Moshe Dayan would be allowed to remain...
...For the Arab world, more than the Christian world, has understood the organic connection between religious belief and public life, rejecting the largely Western definition of religion as " s i m p l y " a matter of private conviction...
...In my formal capacity as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and as leader of the Palestinian revolution, I proclaim before you that when we speak of our common hopes for the Palestine of tomorrow we include in our perspective all Jews now living in Palestine who choose to live with us there in peace and without discrimination . . . I call upon Jews one by one to turn away from the illusory promises made to them by Zionist ideology and Israeli leadership, (italics added) same time, more subtle criterion for exclusion...
...Lest it be thought that the omission of such a statement does, in fact, reflect some modification of P L O extremism, it should be kept in mind that nowhere does Arafat repudiate the implications of the statement, nowhere does he suggest some possibility of an eventual rapproachment, nowhere does he indicate that the P L O would be satisfied with anything less than the absolute and final removal of every vestige of Jewish autonomy, of every Jewish institution...
...The world at large does not understand the fact that Judaism is more than a partnership in religious belief...
...The United Nations must firmly condemn any threats made against these countries simply because they demand their just rights...
...Thus far, the PLO has shown little interest in a concessionary posture, specifically fn the one concession which would make it an a c c e p t a b l e negotiating partner for Israel—that is, obviously, a recognition of Israel's sovereignty...
...Yet it is precisely the examples of p e t r o d o l l a r s and energy supplies that suggest the importance of the moral argument...
...More fundamentally, American strategic arguments, sullied though they be by their flagrant abuse in Southeast Asia, are rooted in a moral premise...
...Indeed, many of the terrorist attacks have been committed by the socialist faction of the PLO, Hawatmeh's Popular Democratic Front, which claims to represent the interests of the downtrodden, even as it attacks and murders them...
...Then the UN would finish the j o b by reversing the 1947 partition...
...Rights, justice, identity...
...Arafat presented himself and was accepted as a major figure in the international arena, a legitimate spokesman not only for the Palestinians, but for all the liberationist movements of our time...
...S o m e o n e , it s e e m e d , was killing tourists at Orly and Lod, children in Ma'alot, even Israelis in Washington...
...It is no longer misperceived as a case of evil Arabs seeking to deny Jews what everybody else already has, but, instead, of a symmetrical conflict, in which each of two sides denies the other legitimacy...
...Would he minimize the PLO i n s i s t e n c e on I s r a e l ' s dissolution, emphasizing instead the interim solution of a Palestinian state on the West Bank...
...In this connection, it is essential to recognize that the P L O , acting alone, can never achieve its aims...
...Curious: Arafat is especially solicitous to Israel's "Oriental" Jews, Jews from the countries of the Middle East...
...The new Palestine is not described as a state for Arabs and J e w s , because such a d e s c r i p t i on w o u l d imply an e n d o r s e m e n t of Jewish national rights...
...The Arafat who spoke from the UN rost r um was not, clearly not, a local " p o l , " an ephemeral hero of a trivial cult...
...Instead...
...And that is, once more, the case for the right of the Jews to selfdetermination...
...Arafat was their heroic symbol, their star...
...Nations wishing to live in f r e e d om and i n d e p e n d e n c e from foreign domination have the right to do so...
...But the fact remains, more powerfully even than before, that the P L O is a central presence in the Middle East...
...The substance of the gamble...
...At the Rabat Conference, the Arab governments, with the surprising (but calculated) acquiescence of Jordan, designated the Palestine Liberation Organization the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people...
...Need it be added that s u c h a recognition contemplates the continued existence, as a Jewish state, of Israel...
...The PLO is not unaware of the danger of its own isolation from panArab concerns...
...In effect, such Jews would be Arabs by nationality, but Jews by religion...
...That is not the way he saw himself...
...The test became, and has remained, ideological rather than temporal: any Jew who rejects Zionist ideology—which is to say, who denies that the Jews have national rights, who regards his fellow Jews exclusively as "co-religionists"—will be welcome...
...the War was followed for a time by a flurry of dipl o m a t i c activity that was unprecedented in the Arab-Israel relationship...
...T h e General Ass e m b l y , " he says, "partitioned what it had no right to divide—an indivisible h o m e l a n d . " ' But even were such a project to succeed, Arafat and the P L O would remain critically dependent not only on public opinion, but also on the military power of the Arab states, backed by the Soviet Union...
...When Israel responded that there was no separate Palestinian nation that was separable from the Arab nation whose rights Israel clearly did accept, the rebuttal fell on deaf ears...
...But the Palestinian case, over the last eight years especially, has reversed the argument, has emphasized the JewishIsraeli denial of Palestinian national rights...
...For the P L O to succeed, it must be supported by the Soviet Union, by the Arab world, by international public opinion...
...Cheering his ringing denunciations of Israel was the newest way to express contempt for the West...
...But the new prestige of the P L O has set loose so powerful a dynamic that even those West Bank residents who prefer to make an accommodation with Israel can no longer safely pursue their goal...
...they have also been known to fight against discrimination on religious grounds...
...As recently as last summer, t h e P L O had spoken openly of sabotaging Saudi Arabian oil exports to the United States...
...As if, that is, it were agreed that the speech at the UN was, beyond dispute, the speech of a moderate...
...Either Palestinians, other Arabs, and Israelis can fulfill their aspirations side by side in the area, or horror lies in wait...
...In the pursuit of such a strategy, Israel (as well as the United States) has more options than are generally taken into account, since other nations as well (the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) will all help to determine whether Arafat and the PLO, so dependent on these nations, can be pried loose from their fanatic anti-Zionism towards a grudging acceptance of Israel as a Jewish fact...
...Armed struggle must eliminate the military institutions, and the political, the financial, and the ideological institutions of Zionism, in order to prevent the development of a new Zionist society...
...The goal is to put an end to the Zionist character of the promised land, but we must not define our goal in this way, so that no person will be able to accuse us of fascism or of anti-Semitism, because we are dependent to a great extent on world public opinion...
...The original stress on secularism by P L O theoreticians derived from two considerations...
...What is required is not self-denial, but a form of self-assertion which has equity built into it...
...Would Arafat, sensitive to his new opportunity, use the occasion to renounce terrorism (at least against non-Israeli civilians...
...Accordingly, a negotiated settlement that might lead to the withdrawal of these states from the battle must be prevented...
...The Arabs have won their own self-respect, and, therefore, they can sit with Israel as equals, no longer forced to flinch at the memories of their multiple defeats...
...Coming from an Arab Moslem, there is special irony here...
...Such a state, of course, would be an integral part of the Arab world...
Vol. 1 • May 1975 • No. 1
