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Arafat's Latest Salvo
| Article
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12765 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1987 |
2,025 Words |
| Author
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Amos Perlmutter
Amos Perlmutter is professor of political science at
American University and is the author of thirteen books
dealing with the role of the military in politics, strategy
and the Middle East. He is the author of The Life and Times
of Menachem Begin and is the editor of the Journal of
Strategic Studies. |
Throughout the first two weeks of December 1986, PLO-organized West Bank Arab and Muslim students from the University of Bir Zeit engaged in anti-Israel riots and demonstrations. It was another salvo in the latest attempt of Yasser Arafat and his version of the Palestine Liberation Organization to reestablish themselves as the sole representatives of the Palestinian cause.
Bir Zeit, which operates out of a converted high school, is headquarters for some of the most radical fundamentalists and would-be terrorists in the area. Disguised as an educational institution, it is basically nothing more than an agitprop center. There are few, if any, genuine academic activities at Bir Zeit. The riots were an outgrowth of this atmosphere.
An Israeli policy of educational laissez faire and a policy of limited interference with the Arab press has allowed the rise of a highly volatile, sometimes informative, and rabble-rousing Arab press, which incited the students at Bir Zeit.
The recent outbursts of rioting were connected to the efforts of Arafat to lure dissident PLO members in Syria and in the West Bank to his movement. In a shift of strategy, the PLO under Arafat decided, in a meeting in South Yemen in November, to give armed struggle against Israel a renewed priority over the peace process. The change became apparent in the same month, when PLO terrorists in Jerusalem attacked a military ceremony for young recruits at the Wailing Wall, wounding several soldiers and members of their families. A PLO spokesman in Baghdad claimed responsibility and said that "the PLO has decided to escalate the armed struggle to recover Palestinian
... (1985 of 12067 Characters)
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