Britannia Radio

"We have not occupied a foreign land;

we have not ruled a foreign land;

we have liberated the land of our

forefathers from foreign occupation."

(Maccabees I, Chapter 15, verse 33)

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The PLO-UN Axis of Evil:

Part I*

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

The PLO, the Pale Liberation Organization, was founded in 1964, three years before the Six-Day War of June 1967, when Israel regained possession of Judea and Samaria, which Jordan named the “West Bank” to erase Jewish history. During the nineteen years that Jordan ruled Judea and Samaria (1948-1967), not a word was heard of a “Palestinian people.” In fact, Arabs began to flock into this area only after the Six-Day War, when this utterly desolate land came under Israeli management.[1]

Now recall my previously mentioned meetings with Shimon Peres and his advisers ("My Talks With Israel's Leaders"). What prevented them from exposing the fiction of a Palestinian people and its fictitious right to self-determination or statehood? Surely Peres’ expert on Arab culture, Professor Harkabi, knew of the eminent Arab-American historian Philip Hitti who, in 1946, described the common Arab view: “There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not.” Palestine was never “perceived as a distinct entity deserving national self-determination but as an integral part of a unified regional Arab order ….”[2]

No Arab nation ever set its historical roots in this soil, and no national claim was ever made to the land by any national group other than the Jews. This is why the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations Mandate, having affirmed the land as the National Home of the Jews, charged them with guaranteeing the civil and religious rights of other inhabitants. No mention was made of anynational rights of other inhabitants if only because it was recognized that the only national

claim to the area was that made by the Jewish people.

But this confirms that the PLO is an Arab hoax. So again I ask: “Why didn’t Israel’s government expose this hoax—which could have been done before the PLO was given observer status in the UN General Assembly in 1975?” It is one thing for the UN to serve as a cover for con artists; but why did Israel’s policy-makers refrain from exposing a hoax that endangered their country’s existence?Why didn’t they combat this lie with this simple truth: the PLO is nothing more than a congeries of terrorist groups drawn from various parts of the Middle East and North Africa? Let's me dispel this noxious political atmosphere.

Yasser Arafat, the notorious PLO chairman and godfather of international terrorism, was an Egyptian. Until his demise in 2004, Arafat also served as president of the Palestinian Authority (PA). He was succeeded by his second-in-command Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen). Abbas was implicated in the Munich massacre, when 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team in the 1972 Summer Olympics were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, Arafat’s personal security guard. Abbas was also implicated in the Ma’alot massacre of May 15, 1974 in which 22 Israeli high school students from Safed, ages 14–16, were murdered. Finally, and more recently, when Muslim riots broke in Jerusalem during the October 2009 annual Succoth holiday (the Feast of Tabernacles), Abbas, in an interview on Yemenite television, virtually called for another intifada.[3]

Just as Arafat had been festooned as a “moderate” to justify Israeli negotiations with that terrorist, so the same script was adopted for Abbas (even while he exalted suicide bombers). Recall my meeting with Mr. Peres’ political adviser Asher Ben-Natan. To say “we can’t lie as well as the Arabs” implies that Israel’s political elites are quite capable of deceiving the public. Not only has Abbas been called a “moderate” by Shimon Peres, but Benjamin Netanyahu, upon becoming Israel’s Prime Minister after the February 10, 2009, expressed an ardent desire to negotiate with that “moderate”!

Just as the PLO is a consortium of terrorist groups drawn from various parts of the Middle East and North Africa, the so-called Palestinian people consists of an aggregation of Arab clans and tribes drawn from these far-flung areas. One way of identifying these Arabs is by their family names, which refer to their places of origin: Masri (Egyptian), Mugrabi (Moroccan), Ajami (Persian), Haurani (Syrian), Halabi (Aleppan), Kurdi (Kurdish), and many more. The multifarious origins of these “Palestinians” involve family, tribal, and sectarian rivalries. These facts are seldom heard.

The Palestinians are commonly referred to as the Arab inhabitants of the “West Bank”—the fabricated rendering of “Judea” and “Samaria,” both Hebrew names. These Arabs are portrayed as an oppressed minority seeking national self-determination. Not only do most of these Arabs carry Jordanian passports, but their brethren, the “Palestinian” citizens of Jordan, comprise a large majority of Jordan’s population. Mention should also be made of the “Palestinians” who are citizens of Israel. To these add the “Palestinians” in Lebanon and Syria.[4] Far from being an oppressed minority, these so-called Palestinians are part of the Arab Nation, of the Sunni-Arab-Muslim majority which has ever aimed to smother the non-Muslim and non-Arab minorities of the Middle East.[5]

Who speaks for these ersatz “Palestinians”? Until the Oslo Agreement of 1993, it was the PLO. That agreement produced the Palestinian Authority, the PA, whose parent, the unreconstructed PLO, has a long record of terrorism, of hijacking civilian aircraft, kidnapping, drug-dealing, and cold-blooded murder, even of two American diplomats in Khartoum.

The most powerful faction of the PA is al-Fatah, founded in 1959. Fatah itself underwent fission, most recently with the emergence of Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Also competing in the leadership of the PA is the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a faction linked to Syria. To this welter add the leftwing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) based in Damascus. Another faction is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which was responsible for the assassination of Israel’s Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on November 17, 2001.[6]

It should also be emphasized that none of these or other terrorist groups could exist without state support. Various countries in the third world provide training grounds for terrorists, as Afghanistan did for Al-Qaeda. These groups would not survive were it not for the support of the United Nations and the appeasement and suicidal policies of the West, including the United States, which has bankrolled the Palestinians. Of course, Western ignorance about these Arabs also perpetuates their existence. But it beggars the mind that the government of the United States, a superpower, has kowtowed to the murderous thugs of the Fatah-led PLO.[7]

But what about Israel’s government? It knew quite well that the 1966 version of the PLO Charter called for Israel’s destruction. The document may be summarized as follows:

● Principles: (1) Palestine is part of the Arab world, the Palestinians are part of the Arab nation and their struggle is part of the struggle of the Arab nation. (2) The Palestinian struggle is an integral part of the worldwide struggle against Zionism, colonialism and international imperialism.

● Goals: (1) Complete liberation of Palestine and the economic, political, military and cultural elimination of Zionism. (2) Establishment of an independent, democratic state in all of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.

● Method: (1) Military struggle is the sole method of liberating Palestine. (2) This struggle will not be complete until the Zionist state is destroyed and Palestine in its entirety will be liberated.

The 1989 version of the Charter was softened to facilitate Israel’s recognition of the PLO. It calls for Israel’s “replacement” by peaceful means. More significant than official documents intended for foreign consumption is the ceaseless propaganda in the Palestinian media calling for Israel’s destruction. Even while PA leader Mahmoud Abbas extolled suicide bombers as “martyrs,” he was called a “moderate” by Israeli prime ministers.” Their deviousness did not skip a beat when Abbas selected as his successor Muhammad Ghaneim, a founder of Fatah who rejected the 1993 Oslo Accords as too moderate!

Israel’s annihilation is still on the agenda of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, especially in view of the fact that Arab children are educated to hate Jews and emulate suicide bombers—hence to love death.

Much more will be said about the insidious character of the PLO in the sequel, Part II.

*Based on my book "An American Political Scientist In Israel" (Lexington Books 2010), updated September 2011.

NOTES:

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[1] According to George Gilder: “Under Israeli management, economic growth in the West Bank and Gaza surged for some twenty years at a rate of 30 percent in 1979, averaging 25 percent per year …” He goes on to say: “…without the presence of the Jews, there is no evidence that the Palestinians would particularly want these territories for a nation.” The Israel Test (Richard Vigilante Book, 2009), 26, 27. Gilder cites Professor Efraim Karsh: “…conditions in the territories were quite dire. Life expectancy was low, malnutrition, infectious diseases, and child mortality were rife; and the level of education was very poor. Prior to the 1967 war, fewer than 60 percent of all male adults had been employed … During the 1970s, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world … with per capita GDP expanding tenfold between 1968 and 1991 … Life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72 in 2000 … By 1986, 92.8 percent of the population … had electricity around the clock, as compared to 20.5 percent in 1967 … [Similar advances occurred in hygiene, healthcare, child mortality, immunizations, and communications, which all rose to levels equal or exceeding other Middle East countries]. The number of school children … grew by 102 percent … Even more dramatic was the progress in higher education. [From zero in 1967] by the early 1990s, there were seven [universities] boasting some 16,500 students.” The Israel Test, 49-50. The growth rate began to decline with the ascendancy of the PLO (after the Oslo Accords) and the introduction of foreign aid, which increased the power of Yasser Arafat’s emerging kleptocracy.

[2] See Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press 2006), 139.

[3] See Caroline Glick, “The newest round of war,” Jerusalem Post, Oct. 9, 2009, 24.

[4] See Dan Nimrod, “Inflation and the Refugee Problem,” Jerusalem Post, May 11, 1992, 6, which shows how the PLO inflates the number of “Palestinian” refugees. The Palestinian Arabs inflate their number to 6 million, perhaps to evoke in the public the idea of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust. See Adam Garfinkle, “Israeli and Palestinian Proposals for the West Bank,” Orbis, Summer 1992, 436.

[5] See Mordechai Nisan, Minorities in the Middle East (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers, 1991), 15.

[6] See Neil C. Livingston & David Halevy, Inside the PLO (NY: William Morrow, 1990), 72-79, 289-294; Raphael Israeli (ed.), The PLO in Lebanon: Selected Documents (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983), 182-185.

[7] Fatah forces in Judea and Samaria, have received military training from the U.S. under Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton. See Jerusalem Post, Oct. 9, 2009, 24.