Yasser Arafat founded Al-Asifa, apolitical and military organization, in 1958 to work toward the creation of a Palestinian state. During the 1960s and 1970s trained terrorist and insurgent groups carried out numerous acts of international terrorism in western Europe and the Middle East.
FATAHAfter the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, control devolved to the leadership of the various fedayeen militia groups, the most dominant of which was al-FATAH, founded in the early 1960s by Arafat and his cronies in Algeria. "FATAH" is a reverse acronym of the Arabic, Harekat at-Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh (The Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine). The word "fatah" means conquest by means of jihad.
Note the grenade and crossed rifles, superimposed on the map of Israel in the emblem at left. This emphasizes the dedication of FATAH, along with the other "liberation" groups, to the "armed struggle" against Israel, a euphemism for terrorism against civilians.
In 1964 the Arab League, a loose confederation of fourteen Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, meeting in Cairo, established a political body to deal directly with the problem of the Palestinian Arabs. They called it the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO's first leader was an Egyptian, Ahmed Shukairy.
He coined the organization's famous slogan about "driving the Jews into the sea." He is also remembered for saying on May 31, 1956, to the UN Security Council that, "It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria."
Arab Fedayeen at the border of IsraelThe PLO's founding congress took place in May 1964 in East Jerusalem, then occupied by Jordan. The organization's charter - Palestinian National Covenant - called for the destruction of the Zionist state and for the establishment of a "Palestinian entity". The Arab League chose the word "entity" as a concession to the Egyptians and the Jordanians, who felt that a sovereign Palestinian state would threaten their own existence. Despite the use of he word Liberation, nothing and nobody was to be liberated - the only real goal was to destroy Israel.
The PLO is actually an umbrella organization for various other factions. FATAH's popularity among Palestinians grew until it took over control of the PLO in 1968. Since then it has been the PLO's most prominent faction. The FATAH leadership was originally opposed to the founding of the PLO, which it viewed as a political opponent.
Backed by Syria, FATAH began carrying out terrorist raids against Israeli targets in 1965, launched from Jordan, Lebanon and Egyptian-occupied Gaza (so as not to draw reprisals against Syria). Dozens of raids were carried out each year, exclusively against civilian targets. Arafat, a not-too-distant relative of the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Husseini, soon took control of the PLO.
In addition to its commitment to terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens, the PLO is an important member of the international terrorist network. It has provided training, money, intelligence and weaponry for terrorist movements in Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The PLO, together with other Arab states and organizations, perpetuate anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism.
In the 1970's FATAH established al-Ashbal (lion cub), a youth program to provide Arab children with basic military training in Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon and Syria. Yasser Arafat proudly exhibited pictures to the press of them firing rifles and rolling through fiery obstacle courses. At the age of sixteen, boys received $130 a month. Such training continues today
During the war in Lebanon (June 1982), Arafat ordered a mandatory mobilization order for all Palestinian Arab males between the ages of 16 and 39 to accompany PLO troops in Lebanon. Boys 12 and older were promised 80 dollars a month and were attached to regular PLO units, each serving in his father's company. These children became known as the "RPG" kids as they were armed with rocket propelled grenades. Many Israeli soldiers died as they would not shoot at children, even those armed and trying to kill them. Those Palestinian children who survived are now the parents of the children who are currently being brainwashed into hate, taught to kill and being desensitized to violence.
El-HilwehToday in Lebanon, in camps under Syrian or PLO control, the soldiers of tomorrow are being trained. Boys and girls receive the same military instruction: weapons handling, guerrilla training and ideological indoctrination.
The PLO Expands it Enemies
Israel was not the only state to have troubles with the PLO. Arafat's merry band of terrorists are not only experienced at terrorist attacks against Jews, they also quite accomplished at killing others, including Muslims. Jordan and Lebanon are prime examples.
PLO Terrorist Training Camp In LebanonJordan - Black September
In Jordan FATAH attempted to establish a PLO mini-state. The terrorists openly flaunted Jordanian restrictions on their activities and ignored the local authorities. Between mid 1968 and the end of 1969 there were no fewer than five hundred violent clashes between the guerrillas and King Hussein's security forces and Bedouin soldiers.
Serious incidents included the kidnapping of Arab diplomats and unfriendly Jordanian journalists, unprovoked attacks on government offices, rape and the humiliation of army and security officers. The Palestinians, who were legally entitled to set up road blocks, molested women, levied illegal taxes and insulted the Jordanian flag in the presence of loyal Jordanians.
Jordanian politicians called for a re-imposition of discipline and the rule of law, and the king's had a difficult time restraining the Army.
On 6 September 1970 the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) carried out one of the most memorable hijackings in history. It began with the simultaneous diversion to Jordan of a Swissair DC-8 and a TWA Boeing 707, followed six days later by the hijacking of a BOAC VC-10. The aircraft were forced to land at Dawson Field, 30 miles from Amman, which was quickly renamed Revolutionary Airport.
Meanwhile another PFLP hijack team which had failed to board an El Al plane managed to hijack a Pan American Boeing 747 to Cairo and blow it up, while the media recorded the incident for a gasping world audience.
TWA Boeing 707 hijacked to Dawson Field, AmmanFollowing the destruction of the hijacked planes, and much discussion as to a response, King Hussein declared martial law, and entrusted the formation of a military government to Palestinian-born General Mohammed Daoud. Arafat stormed around Amman making statements but there were no last minute moves to salvage the situation, even after the Arab governments showed little inclination to stand in Hussein’s way.
PLO TerroristThe following day the Jordanian shelled the PLO stronghold in Zarqa. Within hours similar attacks were mounted against refugee camps which had raised the flag of the Republic of Palestine. Jordanian tanks and armored vehicles attacked the headquarters of the Palestinian organizations in Amman. Arafat began using the word "genocide." Iraqi army units which Arafat had counted on refused to come to his aid and were seen retreating to a distant safe area.
Arab states and the Arab League issued appeals for a cessation of hostilities but did little else. Soon Palestinian units ran low on ammunition. On September 18, two days after the attack began, a small Syrian armored force invaded northern Jordan. By early morning on the 19th armoured units of the Palestine Liberation Army and regular units of the Syrian army invaded northern Jordan in a drive towards Amman. Soon they were joined by two Syrian armored brigades, which were reinforced the next day, and swelled to the size of a division.
The opening of an additional front against Jordan was the desired scenario for the Palestinians. The Jordanians were afraid that Syria aspired to exploit the war that had broken out in the kingdom in order to occupy it and to realize the dream of "Greater Syria." They confronted the Syrians with the 40th armored brigade but the Jordanians were pushed back. Arafat the propagandist rose to the occasion and declared northern Jordan a liberated area. The Arab League called for an extraordinary meeting of heads of state. Israel urged Hussein to continue and, in line with the secret agreement between them, code named Sandstorm, placed its forces on alert.
The United States announced that naval units were converging on the eastern Mediterranean to reinforce the Sixth Fleet as a precautionary measure. As the Syrian advance gained momentum Israel's airforce buzzed advancing Syrian armoured units in an attempt to slow the advance.
The fighting in the streets of Amman was bloody. Neither side took any prisoners; both sides committed atrocities, many innocents were raped and killed, and most of the city was ablaze. In other parts of the country, besieged refugee camps where PLO fighters had taken refuge were running out of food and water. Wherever possible people lived in shelters, while others abandoned their villages for the safety of empty spaces. No fewer than five thousand soldiers and officers of the Jordanian army defected to the PLO, but most did so individually: the fact that there was no defection by whole units left the army’s organizational structure intact and enabled it to continue fighting, and did little to strengthen the PLO.
After their initial setback, the Jordanians counter-attacked the invading force from Syria and halted its advance. When King Hussein sent his air force against it, the Syrian air force commander and Minister of Defence, General Hafez Al Assad, refused to use his aircraft and the Syrian ground forces had to withdraw. What lay behind the Syrian move was Assad’s calculating conviction that the use of his air force would bring the United States and Israel into the conflict.
In the midst of the fighting, on 22 September, an Arab League delegation nominated by Nasser in a hurriedly convened meeting in Cairo arrived in Amman. It was headed by the Sudanese President, Ja’afar Numeiri, who was accompanied by the Tunisian Prime Minister, the Kuwaiti Minister of Defence and the Egyptian chief of staff.
The following day, with Arafat on the move to avoid capture but remarkably still in total command of the Palestinian forces, the Arab delegates hammered out an agreement with PLO leaders Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf) and Farouk Qaddoumi, who had been taken prisoner by the Jordanians and were released by Hussein to act as negotiators. But no sooner had the Arab delegates returned to Cairo than Arafat rejected the agreement and renewed his calls for the overthrow of the monarchy.
The rejection of the agreement was vintage Arafat. Given that the PLO fighters were losing some ground and running low on ammunition, it was a supreme act of daring which undermined Abu Iyad and Qaddoumi, made him more popular with the anti Hussein Palestinians and forced the Arab delegation to return to Amman to locate him. Because the Jordanian forces kept him in hiding and on the move, the Arab peace-makers resorted to sending messages and signals.
Eventually they appealed to King Hussein to restrain his fighters in certain areas and made an open radio appeal to Arafat to contact them. When he did, they told him that Nasser had ordered them not to return to Cairo without him. According to Arafat’s version of events, he left disguised as a Kuwaiti sitting on the plane next to the Kuwaiti member of the delegation, the Defence Minister Sa’ad Al Abdallah.
However, many Jordanians continue to claim that no disguise was needed, that King Hussein knew of Arafat’s departure and welcomed it as a way of ending the fighting. In either case the strutting, fuming Arafat who arrived in Cairo was still full of histrionics and initially insisted, against all advice, on keeping his sidearm.
Arafat had returned to Jordan and set up headquarters in Ajlun in the north. From there he sent Tel and Hussein repeated messages professing moderation and promoting a policy of live and let live. His pleas amounted to too little too late, and Tel refused to consider any of his suggestions. Meanwhile Hussein was expanding his contacts with the Israelis, and by the beginning of November 1970 he had held several meetings with them in London and Tehran. The final Jordanian move to liquidate the Palestinian resistance took place in July 1971.
Having thrown Palestinian fighters out of Amman and the major towns in a series of deliberate dislodgements, the Jordanians eventually forced them into the corner of the country bordering Israel and Syria. In July the Jordanian forces, reorganized and with their spirits uplifted by the prospects of victory, hit the Palestinians with everything they had. Using tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery they pushed Arafat and his fighters into an indefensible triangle.
The Palestinians were outmaneuvered and outgunned, and this time the prospect of outside military assistance did not exist. Arafat’s screams of genocide drew Arab protests and led to the closure of the Iraqi and Syrian borders with Jordan and suspension of aid by Kuwait, but these measures could not alter the desperate plight of the Palestinian fighters. Two weeks of fighting produced another three thousand Palestinian dead. The ferocity of the Jordanian onslaught and the savagery of Hussein’s vengeance seeking Bedouin troops forced some of the Palestinian fighters to flee across the River Jordan and seek asylum in Israel.
Arafat had no way out of his military and political predicament except to leave the country. After several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with Hussein through a trusted friend, former general Radi Abdallah, he sent an urgent appeal to the leading Palestinian member of Tel’s cabinet, Munib Masri, to rescue him. The lat-ter travelled to northern Jordan in the company of the Saudi Ambassador to Jordan, Fahd Al Koheimi, and talked Arafat, who was hiding in a cave, into returning to Amman to meet King Hussein.
But Arafat knew he could not face Hussein to negotiate what amounted to terms of surrender. On reaching the town of Jarrash in the company of Masri and Al Koheimi he asked to be driven in the direction of the Syrian border. After crossing into Syria he soon moved to Lebanon with two thousand of his fighters to avoid being under the control of President Assad, a man forever opposed to independent PLO action and determined to place the Palestinian resistance under his country's control. Yasser Arafat may have been defeated but he remained arrogant and unrepentant.
Black September Organization
On 28 November 1971, an organization which was to leave an indelible mark on the history of political terror and the modern Middle East committed its first murder. Four armed Palestinians, operating in broad daylight and without the benefit of masks, shot dead the Jordanian Prime Minister, Wash Tel, as he returned to Cairo’s Sheraton Hotel from an Arab League meeting. The assassination itself was followed by a gruesome ritual as one of the killers knelt down, lapped up and drank some of Tel’s flowing blood and shouted several times that he and his accomplices belonged to Black September.
The following month the group tried to assassinate Jordan’s Ambassador to London, Zeid Al Rifai’, a leading politician who had supported King Hussein’s crackdown on the Palestinians. There was no let-up, and in February 1972 members of Black September blew up a West German electrical installation and a Dutch gas plant.
These four acts of terrorism revealed a great deal about the organization behind them. Black September's fearless members were willing to defy major Arab governments, including the very important Egyptian one. The attempt to assassinate Rifai’ in London demonstrated that they had international connections.
The attacks against the West German and Dutch installations indicated that the plans of the new terror group went beyond eliminating individuals and included a threat to the economic infrastructure of the West on its home ground.
The reaction to the attacks followed clear-cut lines. Because they acted as a safety valve for Palestinian frustration, the majority of Palestinians.
Read more:
Never Ending War on The Jews - Part 1
Never Ending War on The Jews - Part 2
Never Ending War on The Jews - Part 4
By: http://www.al-ghoul.com/forever_war_3.htm
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