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Palestine: PLO Wins Major Victory

By VVAW

Several dramatic events in October and November of this year have drastically changed the balance of power in the Middle East, weakening the hold that the US had on the area during the years of the Nixon-Kissinger doctrine. Coming one-two-three, these events have strongly improved the political position of the Palestinian people, the most forgotten group in the Middle East.

First came the overwhelming vote of the General Assembly of the United Nations to invite a delegation from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to address the whole world-body in November. The General Assembly voted 105 to 4 to invite "the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people, to participate in the deliberations of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine..." Only the United States, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic backed Israel's opposition to the invitation. Britain, West Germany, and other Western European countries (expect for France and Italy) were among the 20 abstention, while almost the entire Third World voted in favor of the motion.

Then, a week later, at the Arab summit conference in Rabat, Morocco, leaders of 20 Arab nations agreed to acknowledge the PLO as the "sole legitimate" representative of the Palestinian people. When the Rabat conference began, Jordan and Egypt were still the hope of Kissinger's policy of ignoring the Palestinians. But strong pressure from the other nations at the conference, combined with pledges of annual military subsidies to Egypt, Syria and Jordan from the oil-rich Arab construes, caved in what pro-US sentiment there was and the conference gave its unanimous support to the PLO.

For Israel, which has consistently refused to negotiate with the PLO, and for the United States, which has been trying to create peace in the Middle East by getting Arab nations to abandon the Palestinians, these events are a crushing setback. The Arab unity that emerged from the Rabat conference is a clear rejection of the US attempt to buy its way into the Middle East with promises of enormous aid to Egypt and Jordan. In addition, the recognition of the PLO by the United Nations sets a precedent in recognizing national liberation movements, something the United Sates has resisted for years -- largely because many of those liberation struggles are being waged against US domination.

Israel quickly responded to the recognition of the PLO by reaffirming its refusal to negotiate with the PLO and by beginning preparations for war. Premier Yitzahak Rabin said, "There is no one to talk to about peace on the Eastern border. We will not negotiate..." Israeli newspapers are full of articles about how peace is dead and war is the only course open. Admitting the realities of Israel's refusal to negotiate with them, PLO leader Arafat said, "Victory is close at hand. This enemy, this military gang, is a pack of wounded wolves. They are preparing for a fifth war, and we must get ready for it."

A fifth war is exactly what the United States is trying to avoid, but not for humanitarian reasons. Israel's economy is already weak and massive aid from the US is desperately needed. More importantly, the US is seeking to avoid war in order to protect the reactionary Arban governments of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and others from being influenced by people's movements represented by the PLO. The PLO is a threat in that it could lead to the development of other liberation movements in Arab countries that would oppose the current feudal governments that are sympathetic to the West. "Energy crisis" rhetoric to the contrary, the US oil companies maintains friendly relations with the governments of the wealthy Arab oil countries. The aim of the US is to head off any shifts in power that would threaten the US oil supply from the Middle East. The PLO represents just such a threat.

In his speech before the United Nations, Yasir Arafat (PLO representative) exposed the propaganda campaign that has been waged by Israel which says that the Palestinians want to drive the Jewish people into the sea. Addressing the United Nations, Arafat said, "Mr. President, we DO distinguish between Judaism and Zionism. While we maintain our opposition to the colonialist Zionist movement, we respect the Jewish fait. Today, almost one century after the rise of the Zionist movement, we wish to warn of its increasing danger to the Jews of the World, to our Arab people and to world peace and security. For Zionism encourages the Jew to emigrate out of his homeland and grants him an artificially created nationality."

Arafat continued, "For when what is proposed is that adherents of the Jewish faith, regardless of their national residence, should neither owe alliance to their national residence nor live on equal footing with its other, non-Jewish-citizens -- when that is proposed we hear anti-Semitism being proposed. When it is proposed that the only solution for the Jewish problem is that the Jews must alienate themselves from communities or nations, of which they have been a historical pat, when it is proposed that Jews solve the Jewish problem by immigrating to and forcibly settling the land of another people -- when this occurs, exactly the same position is being advocated as the one urged by anti-Semites against Jews."

Since 1948, over 1,500,000 Palestinian Arabs have been forcibly exiled from their homeland. Since that time, the artificially created state of Israel has continued to expand the territory it holds by war and terrorism. For years, the Zionists, those who wish to keep on expanding, have maintained an aggressive, hostile stance towards their Arab neighbors. The recognition of the PLO lays the foundation for a real settlement of peace in the Middle East because it forces the Zionists to deal with those people they would like to forget -- the Palestinian people.