Volume 1, No. 8, October 2000

The lengthy July West Asia Peace Process at Camp David sought to put the seal of enslavement of the Palestinian people by the Zionists. The failed weak-long talks between Barak, Arafat and Clinton resulted from the fact that US/Israel sought to go back even on their earlier agreement in a ‘solution’ that would have exposed Arafat as an outright traitor. Fearing total isolation, Arafat is ‘negotiating’ a deal which gives him at least a fig-leaf of respectability.

These talks were taking place in the background of the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and the surrender of its mercenary South Lebanon Army (SLA). Having flouted UN resolutions for decades the withdrawal/surrenders was forced on the mercenaries due to the consistant attacks by the Hezbollah guerrillas. The Hezbollah took control of the occupied territory putting an end to the inhuman harassment, tortures and killings by the SLA and Israeli forces.

Whether a Palestinian ‘state’ gets declared on September 13/November 15 or not is immaterial as far as the liberation of the Palestinian and Arab people are concerned. The road to "peace" in Palestine is lined with the blood of thousands of guerrilla warriors who laid down their lives for the national liberation of Palestine. Yassir Arafat, once a legendary figure, bartered nationalism for imperialist patronage, principles for opportunism and revolution for peace. The story of the Palestinian revolution is one of valor and sacrifice on the one hand, and of cowardice and betrayal, on the other. It is a tragic end of one of the most popular national liberation movements of the past century, an end which is brought through a number of factors including among other things, conspiracies and deception of the reactionary Arab states and blatant use of force by them. All through this, social imperialism played the role of a real criminal to betray the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people in its bid to compete for world hegemony.

By obliterating the historicity of the whole process of the Palestinian struggle everything is being reduced to create the impression that the Palestinians have secured, or are about to secure, their rightful place through "peace deals" under the aegis of U.S. Imperialism. The latest "deal" to be struck up revolves around the question of East Jerusalem. Having acceded to the creation of Israel on the land of Palestine, the tug-off-war concerning Jerusalem, lays bare the opportunistic and plagiarist approach of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) and its chairman Yassir Arafat. Abandonment of the claim to the whole land of Palestine lays bare the approach of the PLO leadership towards peace. The Jerusalem question too has been reduced to only the Arab sector of the city i.e., East Jerusalem. The objective of a secular Palestinian state has been replaced by a Jewish and Muslim approach which has forced the PLO to lay claim only to the eastern part of the city while accepting the right of Israel to the central and western Jewish sectors. A division of land on religious lines which legitimizes Zionist and Muslim states slur the ideal of a secular Palestine where Jews and Palestinians would have lived together in a single state.

But the Zionists are reluctant to even give up East Jerusalem. They inflict further humiliation on the Palestinians, when they say that they are only prepared to share East Jerusalem with the Palestinian Authority if the latter accepts the overall sovereignty of Israel over Jerusalem and rest content with a separate municipality of the eastern part. Although, ultimately the Israeli state may accept Palestinian "rule" over East Jerusalem yet that will be done only after extracting a more humiliating price from the Palestinians. The U.S. has been stressing all along that "peace has a price" and the Palestinian leadership under Yassir Arafat has made it a habit to pay one price after the other ever since it started kow-towing before U.S. imperialism.

The step-by-step decline of the PLO has its roots in its approach towards the question of national liberation. The biggest faction in the PLO, the Al Fatah of Yassir Arafat, depended too much on the reactionary Arab States and Soviet Social imperialism to conduct its war against Israel. The Arab States, like Israel, were fearful of a radical Palestinian revolution, which could have triggered a chain of revolutions in the Arab World. Pressed hard by the people in their own countries and the just cause of the Palestinians, most of the Arab States, even the kingdoms of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, were forced to support to Palestinian cause but always tried to sabotage it from within. The Arab rulers worked against Palestinian Revolution by creating factions loyal to them or by direct military assault on the movement as was done by Jordan in 1970 in Amman (the Black September), or by Syria during the 1976-79 civil war in Lebanon and again in 1983 when the PLO had to ignominiously exit from Lebanon by surrendering before the British and U.S. forces. Egypt under Anwar Sadat had already banned PLO activities after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. States like Saudi Arabia, while they fully collaborated with the US imperialists, continued to fund various factions in the PLO and Yassir Arafat never stopped going to these states for securing their "support" for the Palestinian struggle. In spite of the 1970 blood bath in Amman, Yassir Arafat never made a decisive break with King Hussein. At times Yassir accused him of complicity with the US and the Zionist state, and at others, rushed to him to secure support in his "diplomatic offensives".

The PLO chairman Yassir Arafat also acted as a pawn in the hands of the Russian bear, which was utilizing various national liberation struggles the world over in its contention with the US imperialists for world hegemony. Although the Syrian Arab regime of President Assad openly collaborated, sometimes, with the reactionary, pro-Israel Christian Phalange militias in Lebanon, and at others, with the reactionary Lebanese army yet it also created and supported factions loyal to it in its bid to enhance its own interests to the detriment of the Palestinian cause. Syria continued to dump huge arms supplies from imperialist Soviet Union into Lebanon to make one faction of Palestinians fight against the other. In the 1976-79 civil war it occupied Bekka valley in Lebanon with 30,000 troops and launched a full-scale war against the Palestinian fighters who were already engaged in a war against the Israeli army and pro-Israel Christian militias. Palestinian fighters who were fighting along with the Lebanese army in this civil war experienced the third betrayal of the Arab reactionary States after King Hussein and Anwar Sadat, now in the person of Hafez Assad of Syria. Though Syria was in the orbit of Soviet Social imperialism, yet the PLO and Yassir Arafat refused to recognize the reactionary nature of the Syrian State and that of the imperialist Soviet Union and continued to receive political patronage and arms supplies from the Soviet Union. The Russians even supplied the Zionist State with the much needed man-force (hundreds of thousands of Jewish émigrés). No Arab State ever ‘supported’ a movement within Israeli borders.

The Al Fatah faction of the PLO relied on each and every kind of reactionary force in the middle-east in spite of the glaring examples of betrayal by Arab rulers and clearly visible vested interests of the Russian imperialists. Instead of correcting the past mistakes Yassir Arafat turned to the diplomatic realm more opportunistically: "Guerrilla Warfare to serve Diplomacy Rather Than to Win Battles and War."

Yassir Arafat never made it a point to launch a guerrilla movement within Israel itself and only carried on sporadic adventurous actions from outside. First he made Amman (Jordan) as his base, then Lebanon, a brief period in Damascus (Syria) and lastly Tunis (Tunisia). Except Tunisia he was forcefully expelled from Amman, Damascus and Lebanon and Palestine guerrillas were banished from Egypt leaving no scope to operate from the Arab capitals. Among the numerous Palestinian guerrilla groups only one faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) had earlier stressed the need to develop a broad based guerrilla movement within Israel. The overall thrust of the PLO was not only to base itself and carry on its activities from outside of Israel, it also relied primarily on diplomatic moves and used guerrilla tactics only to highlight the Palestinian cause and for inflicting some heavy causalities on the Israelis to force them to the negotiating table. Waging of a popular war of the people never practically came on the PLO agenda. The reactionary Arab States and social imperialists were equally fearful of the Palestinian struggle transforming into a real revolutionary people’s war because it could have triggered a chain of revolutionary wars breaking out in the Arab world. Such was the revolutionary potential of the Palestinian revolution and that is why reactionaries of all kinds conspired against it and ultimately succeed in throttling it.

Exit from Lebanon proved a turning point for the Palestinian struggle. Diplomacy became an instrument to achieve its declared objectives. Every Arab country refused entry to the Palestinian fighters or imposed conditions to not to allow guerrillas to use the country of refuge as a base to launch guerrilla attacks on Israel. Tunisia was far off and could not be used. Traveling from one Arab capital to the other and from one European capital to the other he tried to muster international support for himself and Al Falah without a strong movement in Israel. And without any real help from the Arab capitals, Yassir started looking towards the US. But the world super cop demanded that as a pre-condition to any round of negotiations the PLO must denounce its guerrilla tactics as terrorism and come to the table not as an independent Palestinian entity but as a part of the Jordanian delegation. After years of back door parleys Yassir Arafat, in 1987, denounced guerrilla struggle as terrorism and the Oslo round of negotiations began between Israel, Jordan, the PLO and the US leaving Russia and Syria out in the lurch. The descent downhill to humiliation started. The Palestinian masses screamed in the occupied lands, "If we can’t liberate Palestine then it is a shame to sell it." But Yassir continued his betrayal. The PFLP and a few splinter groups started confronting the Israeli security forces in mass revolts known by the name of Intifada.

The Intifada (1987-93) assumed the proportions of a nationwide resistance movement throughout occupied Palestine. Palestinian youth, men and women fought the Israeli armed forces with bare hands and stones. The rebellion went on for a long five years and showed that a great potential had existed within Israel for mass revolutionary struggles. Had the PLO been serious in its approach towards the liberation of Palestine the rebellions in the occupied lands would have been easily converted into a powerful guerrilla movement within Israel. But Yassir Arafat had abandoned the path of armed struggle and his faction, Al Fatah, followed him in near unanimity. Intifada forced the Zionist authorities to admit that whereas it was relatively easy to counter guerrilla attacks from outside of Israel it was "impossible to control the Intifada". Not a single Arab State extended support to the Intifada, and neither did the Russian renegades dare to praise it. Yassir, on his part, tried to utilize it as a pressure to bargain with the Israeli authorities. He paid lip service to the glorious rebellion, while in reality, worked against it.

Abandonment of the path of armed struggle earned Yassir a place in the good books of the US imperialists. After years of negotiations an accord was signed between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority on 13 Sept. 1993 in Washington, which came to be known as the notorious Oslo Accord, as it was based on an understanding reached at Oslo. In this sell out Yassir Arafat legitimized the existence of Israel and got the Gaza Strip and the ancient town of Jericho in the West Bank. The cause of liberating Palestine was dropped and the criminal creation of the British and US imperialists was extended recognition. Not that the price paid was enormous, it was an outright betrayal and Yassir got the role of a policeman who was entrusted with the task of ensuring peace and security for the Jewish settlers, with Al Falah guerrillas turning into law enforcing agents meant to prevent any recurrence of anti-Israel movements in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

The notorious Oslo Accord not only separated the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israeli territory; the West Bank itself was divided into three parts — A,B,C. C, comprising 70% was still under Israel; B, comprising 9% was under joint Palestinian and Israeli control and only A was under Palestinian control. Besides in all areas Israeli administration overlaps with the Palestinian Authority. It is difficult to see where one begins and the other ends. In all areas Israeli has the right to search, arrest, kill any citizen. The PA was merely a transfer of one form of occupation to another.

The handing over of the Gaza Strip and Jericho to the Palestinian Authority, was a trial conducted on Yassir and his men, to see if they could maintain law and order in the areas under their jurisdiction. The PLO knelt-down and was praised by Clinton. For the imperialists the Palestine Revolution was the biggest headache in the middle-east and its liquidation was the most prized achievement for them.

Three days before the 13 Sept. Accord, Arafat wrote a letter to Clinton saying, the "PLO recognizes Israel’s right to exist." He renounced [revolutionary] violence and promised to push through amendments in the PLO Charter which were offensive to Israel. Thus all the basic precepts of the Palestinian revolution were abandoned before the Oslo Accord was signed.

Quite on the heels of the Oslo Accord, Israel and Jordan signed a separate pact on the lines of Camp David where previously Sadat had prostrated before the Zionists. King Hussein had acquired notoriety by being the first Arab ruler to drench thousands of Palestinian revolutionaries in blood in 1970. Yassir, though, he broke off relations with Jordan, later he revoked this decision when he started heavily relying on diplomacy after the Lebanese civil war of 1976-79. When the Oslo negotiations started Arafat came much closer to the Jordanian King, though the PLO never recognized the Jordanian claim over the West Bank. Jordan played a nefarious game by refusing to strike a deal with Israel before the PLO could do it only to pose itself as a friend of the Palestinian cause. The wounds of September 1970 and the shameless alliance of Jordan with the US imperialists will remain as a blot on the Jordanian renegade regime.

But Syria had opposed the Oslo accord on the plea that only a "comprehensive peace plan" for the middle-east including Syria – would deliver the goods. Assad accused Arafat and King Hussein of betrayal and posed himself as a true champion of the Palestinian and the Arab cause. Soon after, it also started hobnobbing with Washington and went through a few rounds with the enemies of the Arabs and Palestinians. Talks with Syria broke off in 1996 over the question of the Golan Heights and a part of Southern Lebanon. But it continued to do the servile job for the imperialists and proved its slavishness when it expelled Abdullah Ocalan from Syria, in early 1999, bowing to US and Turkish demands.

Then came the Wye River accord of 23 Oct. 1998 between Israel and the PLO under the patronage of the US and in the presence of King Hussein. With this accord a few more areas were transferred to the Palestinian Authority and it was termed the ‘Land for peace’ accord. Another accord was struck in Sept.1999, the Wye River Accord-II, and it was termed "security for peace". As many groups of the Palestinians, had pledged to continue the armed struggle against Israel after the 1993 Accord and the 1999 Accord, the US further directed the Palestinian Authority to do the Policing and ensure the security of the Israeli security forces and Israeli settlers. The Palestinian police, mainly of Yassir Arafat’s Al Fatah faction, had considerably succeeded in curtailing Hamas and the Hezbollah’s armed activities in areas under "Palestinian rule", yet Hamas was able to organize mass militant protests on the question of releasing the Palestinian guerillas from Israeli jails and had conducted few armed actions against the Israeli security forces. The Security for Peace deal was to further strengthen the capacity of the Palestinian police to combat armed resistance and militant protests while a few more towns in the West Bank were handed over to the Palestine Authority. But, over all security remained in the hands of the Zionist forces.

As Yassir Arafat proved himself worthy of maintaining law and order, a plan was chalked out to declare Statehood for Palestine by May 2000 with certain limits over the military affairs of the "new state". But the question of sovereignty over Jerusalem came up as a new problem. Firstly, the PLO had demanded control over the whole of Jerusalem, which both Netanyahu and then Ehud Barak had vehemently opposed. Then the PLO asked for control over East Jerusalem, which too was contested by the Israeli Prime Minister Barak. Without control over Jerusalem Yassir Arafat finds it difficult to convince the Palestinians that they have a "state" of their own. Many a times Arafat threatened to declare Palestinian statehood but later yielded to the US and Israeli pressure. May 2000 went without such a declaration. Later it was agreed upon that by September 2000 all the issues concerning Jerusalem, water and security affairs of the so-called Palestinian state will be sorted out and the final agreement on statehood will be reached, but again it went into a deadlock.

Now there is talk doing rounds in Israel and the PLO that Statehood will be declared without sorting out the issue of Jerusalem. What happens about the control of Jerusalem is less significant than the kind of sovereignty, which the ‘new state’ will have on all-important matters of economics, security forces and the contiguity of the areas under Palestinian control. Already, the Gaza Strip and West Bank are far apart and the road connecting both these areas lies in the territory of Israel. Moreover, not to say of an independent secular Palestine over the whole land known as Palestine even the Security Council resolution concerning the establishment of a separate Palestinian Israeli States has been thrown into the dustbin. The UN proposal for demarcation of borders between Israel and Palestine does not lay apart the Gaza Strip and West Bank regions. But the present "negotiated settlement" under US patronage reduces Palestine further into a number of fragmented pieces of land separated by Israel (See Map). A truncated Palestine, surrounded by the Zionist bull dog, and its security bartered off, makes a farce of a sovereign state, especially, when the whole process of such a creation has gone through a chain of humiliating agreements of sell-out to the Zionist settlers. The Palestine being secured by Yassir Arafat and being bestowed by the imperialists and Zionists is of a crippled, dependent and bonded character, which will remain in perpetual fear of intervention and intimidation from bullish Israel. It is anything but a free homeland of the Palestinians. Dependence on the reactionary Arab States instead of the power of the Palestinian people, dependence on diplomacy instead of revolutionary war and dependence on imperialism instead of the strength of the masses has taken a heavy toll of the cause of liberation. The dream of the Palestinian people to be the masters of their own land remains a dream. Sooner or later, Palestine is bound to explode again to set history right.

Already, newspapers of September 17 reported an explosion in Tel Aviv; another in the northern Israeli city of Hader; clashes between Palestinian students and Israeli soldiers at the Jewish settlement of Netzarim near the Gaza strip; and the pelting of Israeli soldiers with stones and bottles on the Erez-Karni road crossing.

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