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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1982)
Page 2 Portland Observer, June 17,1982 PLO: A Jewish point of point of view Editor's note: This article wss provided as a response to the ar ticle on the PLO that appeared in the June 10, 1982 Observer. Submitted by Laurie Rogoway Portland Director, American Jewish Committee Any discussion o f the Palestinian L ib eratio n O rg an izatio n must in clude a discussion o f the history which u ltim ately led to its fo rm a tion. International power struggles have dom inated the region known as Palestine since Biblical times. The contem porary c o n flict in the area has its origin in the break-up o f the Ottoman Empire during World War I and the d ivision o f the area be tween Britain and France. The o b jective o f the m andate awarded to Britain by the League o f Nations was made clear in the 1917 Balfour Declaration: His M ajesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine o f a national home for the Jewish people and w ill use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement o f this object. . . M iddle East; its desires can only be achieved with the destruction o f the Jewish homeland. The P L O is a ter- orist organization created in M ay o f 1964 by the A ra b League w ith a single a im — the elim ination o f the State o f Israel through the use o f vi olence and force. It is most im p o rta n t to un d er stand that the P L O was bro u g ht into being before there were any so- called “ occupied territo ries ,” and was constituted as an umbrella o r g an iza tio n fo r existing terro rist groups which had been active fo r ten years prior to its form al estab lishment. The question must, there fore, be asked: what territory was the P L O attempting to “ liberate” in the years before Israel came to ad minister the territories presently un der its control? A t its creation in M a y 1964, the P L O adopted the “ Palestine N a tional Covenant,” which is its basic charter and accepted by all its fac tions. Its main theme is that only the Arabs are entitled to self-determina tion, and that the State o f Israel has no right whatever to exist, as clearly expressed in the following excerpts: In the preamble to the Mandatory A rticle IS: The liberation o f Pal A greem ent o f July 24, 1922, the estine. . .aims at the elim ination League o f N atio n s C o un cil en o f Zionism ___ dorsed the Balfour Declaration and A rticle 21: The Arab Palestinian noted that recognition had been giv p e o p le .. .re je c t a ll solutions en thereby “ to the historical con which are substitutes for the total nection o f the Jewish people w ith liberation o f Palestine___ Palestine and to the grounds for re Despite the repeated expectations constituting their national home in that the P L O w ould m o d ify its that country.” The M andatory A d “ C o v e n a n t,” this has never been m inistration was called upon to fa done. On the contrary, it has been cilitate Jewish immigration and land reaffirm ed at every meeting o f the settlem ent, and to w ork w ith the Palestine N ational Council, as well Z io n is t O rg a n iza tio n to e lic it the as by the spokesmen for the indivi support o f Jews around the world dual factions. for the Jewish national home. A t its m eeting in Damascus in The B ritish g ra d u a lly w h ittled M a y , 1980, Yassir A r a fa t’s A1 Fa down their commitment to Jews un tah, the largest and most influential der the Balfour Declaration. Thus, constituent faction o f the P L O , re when the ‘ ‘ Palestinian question” a ffirm e d the “ C o v e n a n t” and its was placed by B ritain on the U .N . "aim to liberate Palestine complete agenda in M ay, 1947, the discussion ly and to liquidate the Zionist entity was limited to the disposition o f the politically, economically, militarily, te rrito ry on the West Bank o f the culturally and ideologically.” Jordan River. A U .N . Special Com M ore recently, Farouk Kadoumi, m ittee on Palestine (U N S C O P ), head o f the “ Political Department” composed o f neutral states with no o f the P L O , stated unambiguously vested interest in the region, even (R eu ters, B e iru t, A p r il 9 , 1981) tually recommended the termination th a t, “ W e C an never a llo w any o f the British Mandate and the par party to interfere in our affairs, es tition o f Palestine into two indepen pecially in two m ajo r matters: our dent states, linked by an economic non-recognition o f Israel and our union and with free access by both refusal to amend our National Cov to an international enclave contain enant in any w a y ___ W e have said ing Jerusalem and Bethlehem. On over and over again that we refuse N o vem b er 29, 1947, a tw o -th ird s to recognize Israel. This is an un m a jo rity o f the U .N . G eneral A s changeable, permanent policy.” sembly approved the p a rtitio n George Habash, leader o f another proposal. constituent faction o f the P L O , has This broad international consen also warned grim ly that his organi sus included the United States and zation "w ill not abandon its strateg the democracies o f the W estern ic goal— the destruction o f Israel.” European c o n tin en t, the Soviet Habash is all in favor o f a national U n io n and the Eastern European authority in Judea and Samaria (the bloc, Latin America, Australia and West B ank) and G a z a , provided New Zealand. that this is not "seen as an alterna H o w ev er, even such a lim ited tive to the strategic g o a l.” ( A l H a - plan failed to gain acceptance by the da f , Beirut, A pril 20, 1980). Arab states. Instead, at the moment The P L O is the "um brella organiza o f Israel’s birth on M a y 15, 1948, tio n ” fo r a num ber o f terro rist they launched a war against the new groups created by A ra b govern state, a war which they expected to ments and individuals and financed win with ease. In spite o f this, in a mainly by the Arab states, primarily battle against overwhelm ing odds, Saudi A ra b ia . A ll the constituent Israel emerged victorious. Conse factions are united on two basic is quently, the Palestinian state envi sues: they share a com mon goal— sioned under the U .N . P a rtitio n the destruction o f the State o f Is Plan was stillborn. rael, and employ the same methods The Palestinian A ra b refugees — the use o f indiscriminate violence emerged as a tragic consequence o f against defenseless civilians. that war. The problem intensified as The list o f terrorist attacks perpe a result o f the wars o f 1955, 1967, tuated against Israel and against Is and 1973, a ll started by A ra b na raeli citizens in other countries is tions determ ined to e lim in a te the long. It includes grenades thrown at State o f Is rael. Since 1948 the Israeli embassies in H o lla n d , G e r United Nations and responsible in many, and Guatemala; letter bombs d ivid u al countries like the U n ited sent to Israeli government represen States have struggled to find a solu tatives in London, P aris, N igeria, tion to the refugee problem. Numer C h ile and B o liv ia (to name ju st a ous proposals have been rejected by few ). It includes attacks w ith in Is the A ra b states, which have been rael on school children, on bus loads u n w illin g to accept any solution o f civilians, on synagogues, in pub which takes in to account Is ra e l’ s lic squares and private homes. In re right to exist. cent years, those attacks have often The situation o f the Palestinian originated from Lebanon, a country Arab refugees became unique in the which has been overrun by the P L O annals o f p o s t-W o rld W a r I I and its Syrian a llie s. P L O camps refugee m ig ra tio n . M o re than 40 and training bases w ith in Lebanon m illio n persons w o rld w id e were have provided a base which has a l made homeless a fter 1945, but as lowed the P L O to launch a reign o f pointed out by the United Nations, terror against Israeli kibbutzim , vil most o f them "uprooted themselves lages and cities using m obile and broke w ith th e ir past to seek Katyusha rockets and long range ar a new life in new surroundings and tillery. in a new country.” O nly the Pales On July 24, 1981, Special Ambas tinian refugees persisted in seeking a sador Philip H abib negotiated a ces solution which, according to their sation o f hostilities agreement be definition, would necessitate the de tween Israel and the P L O . H o w struction o f another people. ever, the P LO has used the interven The creation o f the Palestinian ing period o f tim e to b u ild up its Liberation Organization has intensi military arsenal and to intensify the fied the Palestinians’ nationalistic m ilita ry tra in in g p ro vid ed by the aspirations and complicated the res Soviet U n io n . Recent m ilita ry ac- toration o f peace and stability to the quisitions by the P L O include mod ern weapons o f types not previously supplied to the P L O , such as S A M -9 anti-aircraft missiles. The P L O has also acquired large numbers o f heavy m ilita ry cannon and rocket launchers, 130mm cannon w ith a range o f over 17 miles, and BM-21 rocket launchers capable o f firin g rapid salvos o f up to 40 Katyusha rockets at targets o f over 13 miles distant as well as sophisticated elec tronic accessories. These new acqui sitions have g reatly enhanced the P L O ’s a b ility to strike at c ivilian concentrations w ithin the territory o f Is rae l— fro m more distant and "safer” locations within Lebanon. M a jo r training installations a t tended by P L O terrorists in the So viet U n io n are located in the M os cow suburbs and Baku, Tashkent, Odessa and Sim feropol in the C r i mea. Similar camps exist in Czecho- slovakia, B ulgaria, H ungary, East Germany and Yugoslavia. The training includes command and staff courses, as well as a variety o f professional courses— .«uch as communications, electronics, engin eering, artillery, maintenance and, even pilot training. Since 1974, at least 1,000 terrorists have received training in m ilita ry camps and se cu rity service in stallation s in the USSR and other Eastern-bloc coun tries, including Cuba. Thus, the P L O has succeeded at one and the same time in being a ter rorist organization in the classical sense and in developing an expertly trained military arm with tanks and artillery in another. Rather than the underdog too often depicted, it is a well-trained and extremely w e ll-fi nanced organization with one p ur pose: it is dedicated entirely to the destruction o f the State o f Israel. Monachini Begin FATHER'S DAY JUNE 20 W in your dad a trip to th e 1 9 8 3 S u p e r Bowl! Includes Portland/L.A. roundtrip airfare, 3 nights at the L.A. Hilton, chance to meet pro football celebrities, more. Register in Men’s Sportswear, all stores through June 20. that's my dad.,. in Members Only a outgoing jacket with a lot of continental style —in every newsmaking color of the season Europecraft jacket for the man who appreciates such touches as epaulet shoulders, zippered pockets, a throat-latched collar. 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