THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 32, February 13, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ARAFAT'S WAR -- A BRIEFING BY EFRAIM KARSH:
A SUMMARY ACCOUNT OF THE BRIEFING
By Zachary Constantino
In recent months, several well-publicized proposals designed to end the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians
have gained enormous attention and praise. The Geneva Accords, in particular, made world headlines. Yet all of these
well-intentioned schemes for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fail to grasp a central reality: Yasser Arafat and his Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) have no desire to end their war against Israel.
It is plain to many that the Oslo peace process was an abject failure. In the twenty years prior to the accords, approximately 400
Israelis were killed by terrorists, while, in the post-Oslo years, four times this number have been slaughtered by terror. This calamity
was of Yasser Arafat's making.
If one simply reads what Arafat and his lieutenants have said over the past ten years, discovering the roots of anti-Israeli terrorism
becomes obvious. From the beginning, Arafat declared Oslo to be a great deception; a political stepping-stone to achieve what the
PLO has always struggled for – the end of Israel. This strategy of deception and terror was adopted decades before the principles
and architects of the peace process were assembled. Shortly before he assumed the leadership of the PLO, Arafat gave an interview
to a German magazine, stating his clear objective: to move his "resistance forces" (seasoned terrorists) to the West Bank and Gaza
Strip to wage a devastating war against Israel, to undermine Israel's security, economy, and confidence. However, in the late 1960s,
due to the efficiency of the Israeli security services and the reluctance of the Palestinians living in the Territories, Arafat was forced
to revise his course of action. This rethinking spawned the 1974 Phased Plan, which called for the PLO to use violence as well as
political means (i.e., negotiations) to extract concessions and ultimately destroy Israel. Therefore, Oslo emerged as the perfect means
by which the PLO could apply the Phased Plan.
On the very same day that Arafat signed the Oslo Accords, he broadcast to the Palestinians inflammatory anti-Israeli speeches, which
invoked the Phased Plan. For the next decade, he continued to go on record with talk of "liberating" the "territories of 1948," not 1967,
and recapturing the whole of Jerusalem. Before a Muslim audience in South Africa, he spoke of jihad for Jerusalem and likening the
peace process to the temporary agreement reached between the Prophet Muhammad and the rulers of Mecca. It was this very
agreement that allowed Muhammad to increase his military strength, then terminate the pact and conquer Mecca.
Arafat cleverly used Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as a pretext to unleashing a campaign of organized terror against Israel.
He opened up the jails, armed the militias, and incited mobs to engage in violence. Months after the outbreak of war, top Palestinian
officials like Marwan Barghouti admitted that intense preparations were made long before 2000 to launch a terrorist offensive.
To this day, the poisonous incitement of terror remains a serious problem within the Territories. The Palestinian Authority continues
to promote the most venomous anti-Semitic broadcasts, writings, and literature. Palestinian textbooks, newspapers, television
programs, and religious sermons all glorify the annihilation of Israel and the killing of Jews.
Where do we go from here? Israel will find no security and peace as long as Arafat and his thuggish PLO remain in power. These
veteran murderers are committed to the destruction of Israel. Israel must end Arafat's reign of terror, remove the 20,000 to 30,000 PLO
terrorists in its midst, and disarm militant Islamist groups like Hamas. It will take time and it will be bloody, yet Israel must persevere.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Israeli-Arab Conflict
The Middle East & the Arabs
Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
More on Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
War & Peace in the Real World
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
The paragraphs above constitute a summary account of the briefing presented by Professor Efraim Karsh; on December 2, 2003, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Middle East Forum. The summary was written by Zachary Constantino, a Research Assistant at
the Forum. The original version can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
February 11, 2004
Professor Efraim Karsh is the Director of Mediterranean Studies at King's College, University of London. He has held academic
posts at the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics, Columbia University, Tel-Aviv University, and Harvard University.
Professor Karsh is a regular commentator on current events, often appearing in the media in the United States and the United
Kingdom. He has been published in many periodicals, including the Middle East Quarterly.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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