In November 1988, PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat declared the independence of "Palestine", and pledged to recognize UN Security Council resolution 242 as it pertained to Israel, and to end terrorism. He never made any move to fulfill these two pledges, and to this day they remain empty promises. Witness two Arafat quotes made within five days of each other. On December 14, 1988 at a Geneva conference, Arafat promised, "We totally and absolutely renounce all forms of terrorism." On December 19, in a Vienna television interview, he stated, "I did not mean renounce.... I am still committed to what I said in Cairo in 1985 (when he retained the right to attack Israel and the territories)."
Israel's government, correctly, paid no attention to Arafat's rantings, instead believing the facts on the ground. Those facts were that the Intifadah had been underway for a year, and had cost Israel seventeen deaths and over 100 injuries by the end of 1988. Israeli forces were fighting an urbanized guerrila war with terrorists bent on the destruction of the country and the dispersal of its people, and these terrorists were under the direct control of Yasser Arafat.
Let us now move forward five and a half years to the present day. On May 4, Yasser Arafat signed an agreement with Yitzchak Rabin granting the PLO almost total control over significant portions of Israeli territory with the proviso that more territory will later be subject to the same conditions. PLO terrorists were given arms by the Israeli government and the authority to patrol the streets. To date (May 25), one Israeli has been shot at by PLO armed forces, and ten other terrorist/soldiers have been arrested by Israeli authorities for their participation in attacks upon Israelis since the agreement.
On May 10, less than one week after signing the agreements, Yasser Arafat spoke in Johannesburg calling for a "Jihad to liberate Jerusalem". When the Israeli administration complained, Arafat claimed he meant "a jihad of peace, not a holy war of violence".
Shimon Peres seems to have been satisfied by Arafat's "explanation". Rabin has been a trifle more cautious. He has voiced a demand for a written public retraction from Arafat of his incitement. One of Arafat's aides went on record this week as saying that no such letter was forthcoming. Rabin has been making noises that without it the current diplomatic process is in danger of faltering. Yet, Rabin will continue in his efforts to give the terrorists their dearest dreams on a blood-drenched platter. When one Israeli was shot at on the northern edge of the Gaza region earlier this week, Rabin applauded the manner in which the PLO soldiers handled the incident.
On May 17, the Jericho yeshiva was vandalized and desecrated by PLO soldiers out for kicks. Torah scrolls were strewn about, clothes and garbage, and a picture of Arafat, were left in the Ark of the Bible, religious articles were removed and destroyed, and the room was left in severe disrepair. Yet Arafat calls for absolute control over the religious sites that will come under his rule.
I feel I must ask just who does Rabin think he is fooling? He has concluded an agreement with a terrorist making him a statesman. He has concluded an agreement with a liar expecting him to tell the truth. Now that Arafat has abrogated the agreement by calling for more violence instead of the peace that was supposedly to take hold in Israel, and has proven himself once again to be the liar he always has been, Rabin asks merely that Arafat offer a retraction and an apology for his latest hate-mongering.
Let us for one moment assume the unlikely. Let us assume that Arafat does retract his statement as Rabin has demanded. Arafat is still a liar, and quite a slick one at that. There is nothing to prevent him from re-asserting his invalid claim to the land of Israel at a later date. There is nothing to prevent a further clarification of his stand to his own constituency by calling for the take-over of the Old City of Jerusalem, or any other part of the country.
56 Israelis have been killed and over 700 injured since the end of August 1993. Of these 45 attacks and 11 deaths have come at the hands of Arafat's own people. Rabin has latently, and now publicly, acquisced in this tremendous increase in anti-Jewish violence.
Yet, Rabin continues to believe that the terrorist and murderer have left Arafat. Just what is Rabin to believe from Arafat, and what not? Better yet, what are Israelis and Diaspora Jews to believe from Arafat and what not? I propose one sentence that cannot be, and hasn't been, "clarified".
"Armed Struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine." (PLO Covenant Article 9).
Copyright 1994. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
