The PLO After Arafat

by Gary Stearman

    Yasser Arafat died on November 11th, 2004. He will forever be remembered as the inventor of modern-day terrorism. Given this dubious distinction, the world sent him off with surprising pomp, ceremony and respect. In his life, he won the Nobel Peace Prize; in death, inflated eulogies from heads of state. Like all clever despots, he had found a cause that lent him an aura of respectability. In the end, however, he was revealed as a self-aggrandizing and self-serving swindler, whose looted billions were stashed in a Swiss bank.

    The cause that he rode like a white horse was the "liberation" of Palestine. He refused to recognize Israel. The ironic overtones of the name "Palestine" date all the way back to King David; and the arrogant imaginings of a powerful Caesar. When the Roman emperor Hadrian finally conquered Israel after the Bar Cochba Revolt of AD 132 to 135, he set about to destroy any connection it might have had with it Jewish history. Place names were systematically changed: Sepphoris, to "Diocaesarea," Beth Guvrin, to "Eleutheropolis," Jerusalem, to "Aelia Capitolina." In the latter city, he laid out the plans for a great temple of Zeus. He renamed the land of Israel, "Syria Palestina," combining the names of two great traditional enemies of the Jews (Syria and Philistia) in a colossal historical insult.

   Palestina was simply the Latin way of pronouncing the name of David's ancient enemy, the Philistines. His ancient battles with these "sea peoples" reverberate with prophetic overtones. When David told Saul that he would kill the Philistine giant called Goliath, he was symbolically speaking of Israel's future enemies: "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" (I Sam. 17:37).  

    Hadrian had smeared Israel with a dishonorable name. Doubtless, in his cruel and arrogant way, he smiled at this historic moment of victory. Then time passed, and Imperial Rome; free from the constant rebellion of the Jewish people; settled into a contented transition that became the Holy Roman Empire. Through common usage, Syria Palestina became simply Palestine. 

   Across the centuries that followed, it languished under a series of thoughtless overlords, who generally regarded it as a wasteland. Wars were fought over its swamps and deserts. Like a mushroom atop the Temple Mount, the Mosque of Omar sprang up. The Turks ruled, then finally came the British.

    Finally, in 1948, Israeli statehood was declared. Israel was once again called Israel. Immediately, the Arab brotherhood went to war against the reality of a revived Israel. Then they claimed that Israel's statehood had caused the wars that displaced the legitimate heirs of the country, whom were called "Palestinians," although there had never been any such people.

A Covenant of Hatred

    In 1968, the hundred-member Palestinian National Council met in Cairo. About forty-seven of these members drafted a charter to define the modern Palestinian Arab homeland. In the end, they called the charter a "covenant," emphasizing its sanctity and sacred motives. Though many Arabs have tried to distance themselves from it, its thirty-three belligerent articles stand to this day. They have never been repealed. They present a clear and simple policy that is easily translated into a strategy of fanatical, terrorist guerilla warfare. Philosophically, they reflect a state of mind dedicated to the destruction of a nation and its people. They are unsympathetic, fueled by a religious zeal that will not settle for less than total conquest. More to the point, the thirty-three articles are made to order for the abuses of self-styled dictators like Yasser Arafat, who devoted his life to whipping up revolutionary fervor for his own benefit. It is almost irrelevant that he has been removed from the picture, since the framework and policy of the PLO remain. All that is necessary, is for the right man to step into his position. In due time this will happen, and when it does, he will remind his followers of what they've been fighting for all these years.

    An examination of a few of the covenant's articles will quickly reveal the truth about Arab plans for Israel:

Article 1: "Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland, and the people of Palestine is a part of the Arab nation."

Article 2: "Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British Mandate is an indivisible territorial unit." [Note: Under the British Mandate, all of Palestine, including territory on the east bank of the Jordan River, was given to Israel. The PLO wants it all.]

Article 3: "The Palestinian Arab people possess the legal right to its homeland, and, when the liberation of its homeland is completed, it will exercise self-determination solely according to its own will and choice."

Article 4: "The Palestinian identity is an innate, persistent characteristic that does not disappear, and it is transferred from fathers to sons. The Zionist occupation, and the dispersal of the Palestinian Arab people as a result of the disasters which befell them, do not deprive it of its Palestinian identity and affiliation and do not nullify them."

Article 5: "The Palestinians are the Arab nationals who were living permanently in Palestine until 1947, whether they were expelled from there or remained. Anyone born to a Palestinian Arab father after that, within Palestine or outside it, is a Palestinian." [Note: Articles 4 and 5 identify potential Palestinians so loosely that virtually millions of Arabs who were loosely attached to the area called Trans-Jordan can claim to be "Palestinians." If you claim to be a Palestinian, you are one.]

Article 6: "Jews who were living permanently in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians." [Note: The so-called "Zionist Invasion" is defined by the Arabs as the 1917 issuance of the Balfour Declaration. Israelis born there after that date would become resident aliens!]

Article 9: "Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not tactics;" [Note: Negotiated peace is automatically excluded by this statement. Articles 11 and 12 expand upon the concept of armed struggle, making it part of the whole Arab brotherhood. They warn that absorption of "Palestinian" refugees is forbidden.]

Article 11: "The Palestinians will have three mottoes: national unity, national mobilization and liberation."

Article 12: "The Palestinian people believe in Arab unity. In order to contribute their share toward the attainment of that objective, however, they must, at the present stage of their struggle, safeguard their Palestinian identity and develop their consciousness of that identity, and oppose any plan that may dissolve or impair it." [Note: Article 12 warns the Arab League, "Don't aid Palestinian refugees; they are a political tool."]

Article 14: "The destiny of the Arab nation, indeed the Arab existence, depends upon the destiny of the Palestinian cause;" [Note: The "Arab nation" is the entire Arab League, composed of all Arab countries."]

Article 20: "The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate Document and everything based upon them are deemed null and void." [Note: This rejects any European or UN ruling in favor of national Israel. In Article 22, the Zionist movement is also categorically defined as the highest form of evil.]

Article 22: "Zionism is a political movement organically related to world imperialism and hostile to all movements of liberation and progress in the world. It is a racist and fanatical movement in its formation; aggressive, expansionist and colonialist in its aims, and fascist and Nazi in its methods. Israel is the tool of the Zionist movement and a human and geographical base for world imperialism. It is a concentration and jumping-off point for imperialism in the heart of the Arab homeland, to strike at the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity and progress. Israel is a constant threat to peace in the Middle East and the entire world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and bring about the stabilization of peace in the Middle East, the people of Palestine looks to the support of all liberal men of the world and all the forces of good, progress and peace; and implores all of them, regardless of their different leanings and orientations, to offer all help and support to the people of Palestine in its just and legal struggle to liberate its homeland." [Note: Zionism is here defined as threat to the entire world; a tool of the "imperialist conspiracy." On this point, Article 29 justifies PLO terror attacks on any country friendly to Israel. This links the PLO with global terrorists, like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Ali Atwah, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.]

Article 29: "The Palestinian Arab people possess the fundamental and genuine right in liberating and restoring its homeland and will define its position with reference to all states and powers on the basis of their positions with reference to the issue of Palestine and the extent of their support for the Palestinian Arab people in its revolution to realize its aims." Then, the concluding article of the covenant clarifies its structure and nature, stating that it cannot be amended without a sixty-six percent vote in the PLO congress. (From 1968 to the present, this has never taken place) Article 33: "This Chapter shall not be amended save by vote of two-thirds of the total membership of the National Congress of the Palestine Liberation Organization taken at a special session convened for that purpose."

A Rogue's Gallery of Leaders--that "Palestinian leader"

    Yasser Arafat has gone way of all despots, new PLO "elections" are gathering momentum. As demonstrated from the preceding selected articles from the PLO covenant, it will make little difference who is eventually elected. The policy is already well defined, and cannot be altered without the consent of many PLO voices. That is extremely unlikely to happen.

    In March 2003, Mahmoud Abbas was made first Prime Minister of the PA. The recent talks called the "Road Map to Peace," explicitly called for the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure. Abbas has adamantly refused to let this happen. In the Arab world, he is called "the brains behind the PLO." If elected, he will slavishly follow the terrorist model crafted by his predecessor. The present hiatus will surely be followed by a new wave of terror.