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Palestinian Self-Governance Fuels Terrorism

By Yoram Ettinger

1. Due diligence of PLO’s history determines that THE MORE SOLID PLO SELF-GOVERNANCE, THE HIGHER THE PROFILE OF PLO-ROLE-MODELED INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM. A mini Palestinian terrorist base in Gaza ignited the 1956 Egypt-Israel War. PLO AUTONOMY in Jordan dramatically escalated international terrorism and fueled the 1970 Syrian invasion of Jordan. PLO re-entrenching SELF-RULE in Lebanon provided international terrorism with its largest base ever, plundering Lebanon, dragging Syria and Israel into a mini-war and Syrian occupation. PLO SELF-GOVERNANCE in Tunisia, financed generously by PLO-controlled Palestinian ENCLAVE IN KUWAIT, bolstered terrorism and provided Saddam with vital intelligence spearheading the invasion of Kuwait. The establishment of a PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY in Gaza, Judea and Samaria – in accordance with the Oslo Accord – has escalated Palestinian terrorism to an unprecedented level (1,200 Israelis murdered since Oslo 1993, which is proportionally equal to 60,000 AMERICANS!).

2. PLO-INSPIRED HIJACKING OF WESTERN AIRCRAFT, and dramatic escalation of INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, was triggered by PLO’s EFFECTIVE AUTONOMY in Northern JORDAN (1968-1970). Arafat, Abu-Mazen (who has been Arafat’s top confidant since the ’50s!), Abu-Jihad, Abu-Iyyad and other PLO chieftains, collaborated with various international terror organizations, abusing the administrative and operational autonomy, accorded to them by King Hussein. They terrorized Israel (230 Israelis murdered), plundered Jordan, violated scores of agreements concluded with the King, threatening his very survival. PLO autonomy in Jordan was a CATALYST in the 1970 Syria-Jordan war, which produced an appeal by President Nixon to Israel to intervene (thus, preventing an anti-US pro-Soviet domino scenario all the way to the Gulf States).

3. PALESTINIAN TERRORISM SUBSIDED in (Black) September 1970, when the late King Hussein – realizing the threat to his own throne – clipped the wings of PLO self-governance. He eradicated PLO infrastructure in Jordan (politically, financially, ideologically and militarily), through a swift and a comprehensive military strike, expelling the PLO to Lebanon.

4. PALESTINIAN AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM WAS EXACERBATED, once the PLO established itself as an AUTONOMOUS ENTITY in defenseless LEBANON, following its expulsion from Jordan. By 1972 the PLO assumed control of Southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut and Tripoli, adding fuel to the Lebanese civil war, severely undermining Lebanese sovereignty and regional stability. The PLO transformed Lebanon into the largest terrorist base in the world, replete with PLO-controlled training camps for anti-US Central American, Japanese, European and Mideast terror organizations. It was from PLO headquarters in Lebanon that Arafat, Abu-Mazen (the architect of PLO ties with the USSR and with ruthless East European regimes) and other key PLO leaders directed the murder of the US ambassador and deputy ambassador in Sudan and the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games, thus setting new standards for international terrorism.

5. PALESTINIAN TERRORISM SUBSIDED WHEN THE PLO WAS UPROOTED from Southern Lebanon and Beirut, by Israel, in 1982, and expelled from Northern Lebanon (Tripoli), by Syria, in 1983. Syria has not forgotten the BETRAYAL OF 1966, when the PLO murdered a number of Syrian military officers, while being provided training and operational facilities in Syria. While Syria provided safe haven, the PLO demanded self-governance!

6. PALESTINIAN TERRORISM ESCALATED as the post-Lebanon PLO expanded its AUTONOMY IN TUNISIA. However, Palestinian terror SUBSIDED DRASTICALLY when Abu-Jihad (who preceded Abu-Mazen as Arafat’s first deputy) was eliminated at his Tunisian headquarters, and when pressure was mounting on Tunisia to dramatically restrain PLO self-governance. The 1991 defeat of the PLO’s top ally, Saddam Hussein, crashed PLO’s strategic posture in the Mideast. The 1987-92 INTIFADA WAS ALL BUT SUBDUED, and the PLO became strategically irrelevant (as far as Arab leaders were concerned!), when the OSLO ACCORD was concluded, SNATCHING PLO SURVIVAL OUT OF THE JAWS OF PLO OBLIVION, fueling Palestinian terrorism to an unprecedented level.

7. What will be the TERRORIST TAX of an INDEPENDENT PALESTINIAN STATE?! Sacrificing the evidence of the last 50 years, on the altar of wishful-thinking could exert a severe price as far as human lives, vital US INTERESTS, Israel’s posture of deterrence, Israel’s personal and national security and the prospects of peace!