PLO Big Losers
(Signs of the Time - November 2001)
There were millions of losers from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The physical, emotional and economic damage cannot be calculated and in many thousands of cases will last a lifetime.
One of the losers which may come as a surprise to most of us is the Palestine Liberation Organization. As a result of the terrorism the PLO had to undergo a dramatic shift in politics – away from hard-line fundamentalist groups and closer to the west and to Israel. This month’s article will examine the shift in politics.
The PLO strategy
Prior to September 11, PLO leader, Yasir Arafat, was executing a superb strategy. The
suicide bombing campaign against Israel allowed Arafat some plausible deniability, at
least with Europe and the United States. He argued quite successfully that he was unable
to restrain the bombers because they were controlled by other groups, such as the militant
Hamas organization. The more intensely Israel attacked the Palestinians, the more
frequently the suicide bombings would occur. This argument allowed Arafat to shift
responsibility for events away from himself and toward Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and other Palestinian radicals. He could play the victim of both while generating sympathy
for the Palestinians and support for himself.
As reported in Stratfor on line, the intent of his strategy was to drive a wedge between the Sharon government and the United States. Sharon’s response had been to launch what was, in effect, a war against the PLO infrastructure: attacking command facilities, assassinating leaders and moving into towns to clear out armed Palestinians. It was little noticed that on the night of September 10, Israeli forces surrounded the town of Jenin as part of this conflict.
Following the events of September 11, Arafat’s strategy is in shambles. He is still in the middle, but now he is trapped. He fully understands the United States will no longer restrain Ariel Sharon. As well, Arafat knows Sharon well enough to fear he will seize any provocation to press the war to a new level of intensity.
The quandary for the PLO leader is this: he is now trapped between overwhelming, unrestrained Israeli force, growing anti-US sentiment and the genuine anger of the Palestinian public.
Since September 11, the PLO has taken upon themselves a number of initiatives that would have been considered improbable had the terrorist attacks not occurred. As reported in the New York Times, September 23, the Hamas signaled a suspension of all suicide bombings. On September 18, Arafat instructed his security forces to hold their fire even in self-defense, and Israel then said it would refrain from any offensive action, pulling its tanks and troops out of Palestinian-controlled territory. What’s more, Arafat wanting to volunteer for the anti-terror effort, informed the Americans he was ready to "put all our capabilities at their disposal."
The most startling report is the PLO turned against its own brethren. As reported in the October 9, New York Times, "Mr. Arafat’s security forces used deadly force against Palestinians to suppress a demonstration in support of Osama bin Laden. In a cloud of tear gas and a hail of bullets, two Palestinians — one of them only 13 — were slain. Another was close to death." The newspaper went on to report that this development was, "the most dramatic evidence to date that the terrorist attacks on the United States have dented the entrenched thinking of the enemies in the conflict here and created a new chance for peace while at the same time causing a spike in violence. Many Palestinians sympathize with Mr. bin Laden regardless of whether they supported the attacks on the United States. They say he is a fellow Muslim, accused on trumped- up evidence out of a secret desire by the United States to assault Afghanistan. They say Americans react only to their own suffering and economic interests, and will make no effort — much less war — to provide other peoples with enduring freedom. Yasir Arafat knows this bitterness better than anyone. For years, he has deftly capitalized on it. And today he took brutal measures against the people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to stop them from expressing it."
A palestinian state?
On October 2, it was revealed in the New York Times, just prior to the
terrorist attacks, the Bush administration was on the verge of announcing an initiative
whereby the United States would have provided support for the creation of a Palestinian
state. The newspaper reported: "the initiative was to have been detailed in a
speech by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at the United Nations General Assembly and
represented the first time a Republican administration has backed a Palestinian
state."
Now that it seems official support for a Palestinian state has been torn from his hands, Arafat has gone to great lengths attempting to win it back. It was announced in the New York Times, September 26: "Mr. Arafat and Mr. Peres (Israel’s Foreign Minister) made a commitment to adhere to recommendations by the international Mitchell Commission on how to end the fighting and resume peace talks. The Mitchell Commission, which issued its report in May, spelled out a series of confidence-building steps the two sides would take over a period of several weeks, ahead of a resumption of peace talks.
"The commission said the Palestinians should make a ‘100 percent effort’ to prevent terrorist operations and punish perpetrators, while Israel should freeze all settlement activity and not use lethal force in dispersing unarmed Palestinian demonstrators. The commission asked Israel to lift its closures, permit Palestinians to return to their jobs in Israel and transfer to the Palestinian Authority millions of dollars in tax revenues that were withheld for the past year."
No one but the perpetrators could have predicted the events of September 11, and not even they could have predicted the outcome of those events. It would have been absurd to contemplate that from these tragic events, peace may come to the Middle East. Whatever methods God will use to fulfill His great plan, we pray that His Son may return to this earth shortly and establish a true and lasting peace.
George Rayner