The Story of a Compromise

by Tauqeer Abbas
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The chain of events concerning the compromises on Palestine began with the Rogers plan, gained prominence at Camp David, intensified in Madrid, set in ink in Oslo, and reached their height in Washington and Camp David 2.

 

Today, September 17th, coincides with the 36thsigning of the “Camp David” accords by the then President of Egypt Anwar al-Sadat, and the then Prime Minister of Israel, for which the stage was set by the then President of the United States. The leader of the revolution had this to say on the accords: “the sole goal of these traitorous actions that began with the shameful Camp David Accords is the ending of resistance and persuading Palestinians and Arab countries to accept the legitimacy of the makeshift Zionist regime.”

 

 

This path was continued by “Yasser Arafat”, who once was the leader of the resistance in Palestine. The narrative of how Arafat became ready to put aside the “path of resistance” against the Zionist regime, and give himself away to the occupiers, may contain some important and valuable insight, the revisiting of which may be of value:

 

 

The Beginning of a Fighter

 

 

On August 4th 1929, Yasser Arafat, whose given name was “Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abdul Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini”, was born to Palestinian parents in Cairo, Egypt. His father was a well-known textile salesman in Egypt, and his mother a pure Jerusalemite [descended from an al-Quds family]. When he was five years old his mother passed away and his father placed him in his uncle’s care in al-Quds.

 

 

At that time, Palestine’s capital was under English mandate, and the Palestinians were fighting against them. Arafat’s mst important childhood memory was that of a nightly raid conducted by English soldiers on his uncle’s house, which cause the injury of a number of his family members. Four years later, he returned to Egypt, and continued his studies there.

 

After he graduated from Cairo University, he left for Kuwait, founding an engineering firm there with like-minded friends. However, he spent most of his time dealing in political matters. At that time, “Abu Ammar” was looking for ways to achieve the wishes and goals he had as a college student, and so thought of himself as a warrior.

 

 

In 1958, Arafat, along with “Khalil al-Wazir” (Abu Jihad), “Khalid Yashruti” and “Salah Khalaf” founded the Fatah movement (the Palestinian National Liberation Movement), which was at first an underground movement. At the same time, they also published a political magazine, which mostly published material against the Zionist regime.

 

 

Having established the first base for Fatah in Kuwait, recruiting immigrant Palestinians began at full pace.

 

Calling for the liberation of all of Palestine’s land, Fatah came to be accepted among the youth that support armed struggle [against the Israelis], and after a short while, began instructing its members in guerrilla warfare. Then, the organization’s central council decided to commence military operations, and so its young combatants conducted the organization’s first military operation in December 1964, blowing up a water treatment plant in the occupied territories.

 

After the operation’s success, Arafat decided to expand his revolutionary movement, and so left Kuwait for Jordan to expand and strengthen the organization. The most important event of the 60s for the organization was the Zionist regime’s attack on al-Karameh in Jordan. Fatah’s combatants resisted powerfully against this aggression, and despite many casualties, were able to force the Zionist regime to retreat. This is why the “Battle of Karameh” is considered a legendary battle for Fatah, and in contrast to the Zionists’ expectations, within the first 48 hours after the end of the battle, 5 thousand Palestinians registered in the organization.

 

The epic of Al-Karameh fostered unity between Jordan and Palestinians. Not much time had passed however until Palestinian guerrillas were able to gain power on Jordanian soil, which made Jordan’s king worry about Fatah. This led to a bloody confrontation between Jordan and Fatah in September of 1970, which led to the deaths of many Palestinians, and came to be known as “Black September”. It was after Black September that Arafat decided to leave Jordan and transport the organization’s combatants to Syria and Lebanon. In addition, a military formation was formed in Fatah and dubbed the “Black September Organization,” whose goal was to enact vengeance upon the Zionist regime (which had control over the king of Jordan). The group managed to attract international attention after its killing of 11 Zionist athletes during the Munich Olympics. From thereon out, Fatah would become known as the main group struggling against the Zionist regime. Yasser Arafat’s epic speech at the UN made the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) reach the height of its popularity in the Muslim world.
 

Gradual Death by Compromise

 

Taking the aforementioned into account, the height of the popularity of Fatah and its number one man very quickly neared its end. In 1988, many sweeping changes took place in the organization’s activities, which greatly differed from the goals this resistance faction had at the beginning. In an unexpected statement in Geneva, in a UN General Assembly special session, he said: “the PLO, in the interest of peace and security in the region, especially for Palestine, Israel and other neighbors, renounces its armed activities!” Later, the PLO would officially recognize Israel’s right to exist in 1988, and accept Resolution 242.”

The year 1988 can thus be considered the beginning of the decline of the battles of Yasser Arafat and his organization. He even proposed the “Palestinization” of the Palestinian cause so that other Arab and Islamic countries would not interfere in it. In those days, the leader of the Islamic Revolution referred to Yasser Arafat’s intellectual and practical change in the following manner: “Yasser Arafat is not fighting. Today Yasser Arafat’s position is like that of Anwar al-Sadat ten years ago. He also used to deny it at first, but did not deny it later on, meaning holding talks with Israel, reconciliation with the U.S, kissing your enemy and setting confrontation aside, even denouncing battling [one’s enemy].” (April 28th 1989)

Five years later, Yasser Arafat even laid down his arms; and in a move unexpected by the resistance axis and Palestinian fighters, traveled to the White House to hold talks with the Zionists! As Palestinians were stupefied by this move, he signed the “Oslo accords” with the Zionist regime’s then Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. According to this unilateral agreement, all of the efforts of the combatants and the blood of the martyrs of the Palestinian resistance were trampled over, and Yasser Arafat officially recognized the Zionist regime. In this meeting, he shook hands with Rabin in front of cameras, letting everyone know how far the number one man in the fight against Zionism strayed from his own goals.

 

 

The Results of the agreements

 

This peace agreement did not yield any positive results for the people of Palestine, as the results were severe restrictions in the people’s movement on occupied lands, severe Zionist control over the natural and lively resources of the people of Palestine, and stopping the occupying regime’s settlement construction. This means that the peace accords and agreements between him and Zionist officials not only failed to improve the situation of Palestinians, but also made the Zionists even more insistent on their claims.

Of course this wasn’t the end of Arafat’s compromises, because in the Oslo 2 talks which took place in September 1995, he completely turned his back on the PLO’s primary goals and ideas. According to these accords, Arafat agreed that the independent government in the cities of Jenin, Toulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya, Ramallah, and parts of al-Khalil, Arafat agreed to remove any mention of the destruction of Israel from the Palestinian national charter and the PLO’s charter.

As Arafat’s distance from the resistance axis increased, the Zionist regime’s demands also increased, reaching their apex in the “Middle East Peace talks” in 2000, and came to pass in “Camp David 2”. The parties who took part in the talks were Bill Clinton, the then President of the United States, Eihud Barak, the then Prime Minister of Israel, and Yasser Arafat, the then President of the Palestinian authority. During these talks, the Israelis entered the negotiations with a shameful demand, with their own red lines, which were met with opposition from the people of Palestine. Eihud Barak stated that the Zionist regime had 4 red lines: that Israel govern al-Quds; that there be no going back to the ’67 borders; that the Palestinian authority not be allowed to have an army; and the preservation of Zionist cities on the border to the West in addition to those bordering the Gaza strip.

In reality, the more Arafat distanced himself from the path of resistance and fighting the Israelis, the more the Zionist regime was able to make advances. However, the people of Palestine grew angry at Arafat’s strategic changes before their enemy, and again they preferred “the path of resistance” to that of agreements, thus beginning the second round of fighting against the Zionist regime, which came to be known as the “Aqsa Intifada”

On the other hand, the more the PLO went forward in its series of compromises, the Zionists gained more power and the blockade on Arafat grew tighter, so much so that the Israelis had the PLO leader’s headquarters in Ramallah completely surrounded. The Zionist regime, being aware of Arafat’s dwindling popularity among Palestinians, and in a humiliating move, had control over all his action. Arafat then spent two years without any connection to the outside world. It was in that time that he fell ill.

The Israelis, despite Arafat’s full compliance with them, were vindictive, and according to Soha Arafat – Yasser Arafat’s wife –, they poisoned him. Yasser Arafat passed away on November 11th 2004, meaning that the Zionists couldn’t even tolerate someone such as him, someone who compromised and complied with them.

The leader of the revolution, in a meeting held some time ago with university student, said regarding Yasser Arafat’s end: “the Zionists could not even tolerate someone such as Yasser Arafat, someone who complied with them as greatly as he did. They placed him under house arrest, humiliated him, poisoned him, and killed him. It’s not as if the Zionists would show others mercy or take notice of anyone, or preserve someone’s right if we decide not to make a show of strength before them; not at all. The only cure short of destroying this regime is that Palestinians be able deal with them with force; should they deal with them as such, then it is possible that their enemy – this same wolfish, violent regime – would withdraw.”

 

 

pk.shafaqna.com

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