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Arafat Seeks World Support for Palestinian State August 15, 2000 Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat has engaged on a world tour to solicit foreign support for a Palestinian state. The purpose of Arafat’s diplomatic tour is to obtain international support for his negotiating position in order to pressure the Israelis into further concessions. So far his tour has produced mixed results. While Arafat gained significant support from Russia and China, the Arab nations were lukewarm in supporting a unilateral declaration of statehood. In spite of China's extensive military purchases from Israel, Chinese President Jiang Zemin told Arafat on August 14 that China would support the declaration of a Palestinian state. In an apparent attempt to appear evenhanded, he added that he hoped Arafat would pick an "appropriate time" to declare a Palestinian state. However, it's clear that China regards itself as having the upper hand in the China-Israel relation. While the U.S. refuses to sell military hardware to China, the Chinese rulers apparently feel that they can purchase their advanced weaponry from France or England. Therefore, they are not about potentially losing Israel as an arms supplier, so they have no qualms about declaring their support for Israel's enemy. In fact, even while buying weapons from Israel, China has been busy selling advanced missile technology to Iran and Syria. Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently also doesn't believe that friendship should not be made on the basis of business dealings. Israel has teamed with Russian firms in manufacturing and marketing armaments. However, Putin told Arafat on August 11 that he would support the declaration of Palestinian statehood. Arafat ran into trouble in drumming up support among the Arab and Muslim states. On August 13, the Washington Times reported a PLO official as saying that Arafat "did not manage to obtain either an Arab summit or an Islamic summit or even firm Arab and Islamic support." However, Jordan, which recently signed a peace treaty with Israel to much fanfare and now receives massive amounts of water from the Israeli aquifers as part of the peace deal, declared its support for a Palestinian state on August 13. Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Khatib took a dig at his Israeli benefactors by declaring that "real and genuine efforts are needed by all parties." Significantly, Arafat failed to gain support from Iran. Iran has dedicated itself to the destruction of Israel and has long backed the rival terrorist factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad rather than Arafat's PLO. Officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad have warned Arafat that they would not support an independent Palestinian state built on compromises. A PLO source told the Jerusalem Post on August 10 that Arafat was trying to start a new dialogue with the Iranian government. Arafat wants Iran to deal with the PLO, rather than supporting Hamas and Islamic Jihad. However, Iran slighted the world's best known terrorist by sending only a deputy foreign minister to greet Arafat at the airport. Arafat, in spite of being only a semi-autonomous ruler of an impoverished and utterly insignificant territory smaller than Deleware, is accustomed to being treated as if he were the leader of a superpower, so Iran's refusal to send their president to meet Arafat was viewed as a grave insult. Further, during the PLO chief's visit, former Iranian President Akbar Rafsanjani declared that Palestinians would achieve results only through violent struggle, further undercutting Arafat's efforts to gain support for negotiating with the Israelis. Meanwhile, hardline Palestinian terrorist groups are preparing for new attacks. Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin declared on August 11 that Hamas was ready to wage another intifada against Israel. During his speech, hundreds of supporters called on Hamas to renew its campaign of suicide bombings in Israel (one wonders if any of them volunteered for duty). In Jordan, 700 members of the Muslim Brotherhood marched in a rally to call for a holy war to liberate Jerusalem from Israel. The demonstrators branded as traitors any Arabs who agree to "yield one inch" of Jerusalem. While all of this may portend trouble for Arafat, the Nobel prize winning terrorist has shown himself to be a master at ensuring his own survival. Based on his past behavior and his own declarations, Arafat's priorities can be seen as
While the PLO charter still calls for the destruction of Israel, this is not Arafat's top priority. Rather, Arafat's top priority is Arafat. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, and in direct violation of the Oslo accords, Arafat has built a police force of over 40,000 men, which he plans to turn into an army. While many observers believe that this army is being built for the purpose of achieving his third objective (destroying Israel), the lightly armed Palestinian "policemen" are no match for the large, heavily armed, and well-trained Israeli Defense Forces, even if Arafat does build his army to 100,000 men as his supporters say he plans. Rather, this army supports Arafat's first objective, maintaining power. The army helps Arafat maintain power in two ways, first by suppressing dissent and second by providing patronage to Arafat supporters, all at foreign expense (the European Union and the U.S. provide millions in support to Arafat as part of the Oslo accords and the Wye Plantation agreement). Thus, while the hardline terrorists may call for Arafat's overthrow, his internal security apparatus is strong enough crush all opposition. However, Arafat can use the hardliners' opposition as a bargaining chip with Israel and the U.S. He can now claim that he will need more concessions from the Israelis in order to guarantee the peace. This will allow him to achieve his second objective, that is creating his own nation to rule. Then he can pursue his third objective, that of destroying Israel. He will not allow the pursuit of this third objective to interfere with his first two objectives. But he will use it to further his first objective. That is, by keeping his subjects focused on an external objective (the destruction of Israel), he will divert their attention from his own government's incompetence, thievery, and despotism. Arafat, a native of Egypt, founded Al Fatah as an underground anti-Israel terrorist organization in 1956. In 1968, he became the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). For the next two decades, the PLO launched bloody attacks on Israel, and Arafat gained a reputation as a ruthless terrorist. He did not confine his targets to Israel, however, as he also attacked U.S. and other foreign interests that he saw as supportive of Israel. In 1982, Arafat masterminded the kidnapping and murder of 13 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games. In 1984, he assisted Syria in blowing up 241 U.S. marines in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1985, Arafat oversaw the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and the murder of American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. However, in 1988, Arafat decided to continue his war with Israel under the guise of peace. He told the United Nations that the PLO would recognize Israel as a sovereign state, then in 1993 signed a 7-year peace treaty with Israel. This peace treaty was arrived at in secret talks in Oslo, Norway, and granted limited Palestinian self-rule with the terrorist Arafat in charge. In exchange, Arafat was to recognize the right of Israel to exist, eliminate terrorist activities, and amend the PLO charter to delete the section that calls for the destruction of Israel. The Oslo agreement was signed on September 13, 1993, at a White House ceremony sponsored by U.S. President Bill Clinton. The treaty was narrowly confirmed by the Israeli Knesset, and only with the support of the small Arab delegation, which has openly called for the murder of Israeli Jews. In 1994, Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The resulting handover of much of the historical heartland of Israel to PLO control and Arafat's failure to amend the PLO charter sparked massive protests against the Rabin government. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli opposed to the peace process. It later was discovered that the assassination resulted from botched plot by Rabin's own security service to make the opposition look like lawless extremists. The assassination was instigated by an Israeli agent who apparently was supposed to notify the Israeli security service in time to stop the assassination. The plot went awry, however, and Rabin was killed at a peace rally on November 4, 1995, and the Israeli agent provocateur was jailed for failing to prevent the assassination. Peres took over as Prime Minister, but Arafat unleashed a wave of terrorist bombings that led to the election of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996. Netanyahu opposed the Oslo accords, but in 1998, President Clinton convened a meeting between himself, Netanyahu, and Arafat at the Wye Plantation in Maryland to pressure Netanyahu into implementing Oslo. Since the U.S. provides $3.6 billion in annual funding aid to Israel, Clinton was able to exert considerable leverage. Netanyahu finally agreed to turn more Israeli land over to PLO control, Arafat agreed to stop terrorist activities, and Clinton agreed to give Israel an addition $1.2 billion and Arafat $400 million to implement the agreement. Netanyahu subsequently turned the city of Hebron, the first capital of biblical Israel, over to PLO control. However, Clinton reneged on the funding agreement, and instead sent his campaign advisor James Carville to Israel to help retired general Ehud Barak defeat Netanyahu in the 1999 elections. The tactic worked, and Barak, who had vowed to restart the peace process, became Prime Minister in May 1999. Barak then turned more Israeli land over to PLO control and entered into new negotiations to determine the final status of Israel, the PLO, and Jerusalem.
© 2000 TruthNews. All Rights Reserved. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
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