Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 15, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 1 August by Doyle Mcmanus los Angeles times Beirut to most the Tern is confusing to the diplomats who work for peace m the Middle it has become sadly d secret envoys of the Palestine action Organiza Toft Tell european and american officials that the Plo is ready to live in peace with a few months later palestinian guerrillas kill six jewish settlers in the West Bank town of d Plo chairman Yasser Arafat sends a secret message to Washington hinting that he will recognize Israel if the United states recognizes the Palestin ians claim to a National a few months later Arafat chief foreign policy aide vows that the Plo will never recognize even if a palestinian state is d Arafat guerrilla faction within the adopts an official Reso Lution calling for the Complete Liquida Tion of a week later Arafat disavows the measure As Only a Sug d the Plo meeting in issues a that strongly condemns terrorism of any a few Days later palestinian officials say they do not consider their guerrilla attacks on Israel As terror to european and american Diplo Mats sympathetic to the the baffling inconsistency of Plo pronouncements is a reflection of what they consider disarray and irresolution in the guerrilla to the israeli government of prime minister Menachem it is a sign of evil duplicity at the top of the Brilliant synthesis to Arafat the apparent contradictions Are a Brilliant synthesis of toughness and we Are walking on a Arafat Salah said and we cannot stand per cent straight because then we would so we sometimes to the right and sometimes to the but to other of Arafat the conflicting Sig nals coming from Plo Headquarters Here Are evidence of failure failure to free the guerrillas from a history of political paralysis and unite them in Pursuit of realistic outside the Middle these com plex issues Are sometimes boiled Down into a More simple question Are Arafat and his men terrorists or Are they says Richard president Rea Gans National Security adviser theres no question that we must identify the Plo As a terrorist organi until it provides convincing evidence to the one mans moderate is another mans terror but on closer the in fictionalized Plo eludes such easy the Plo won its terrorist Label with a series of airline hijackings and International outrages that began in 1968 and peaked with the massacre of 11 israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich but the organization officially renounced hijackings in when the leadership decided that tactic had out run its usefulness in gaining world attention no Plo faction has carried out a terrorist action outside Israel or the Israel occupied terrorists since 1978 and the number of attacks on Israel has at the same the title of Moder ate also fits Arafat frequently proclaims his willingness to engage in peaceful but he never quite reaches the Point of acknowledging israels right to before which even the most flexible israeli govern ment will not Arafat refuse to be pinned Down off the essential said i Europe an Diplomat who has been working on the european common plan to bring the Plo into peace he makes up his there is not much we Scafi a Basic reason is the Broad diversity of the political organisations that make tip the from the extremist fringe of diehard terrorists to conservative mayors like Ellas Preijs of Bethlehem Shawwa of Gaza who had Only recently begun lending verbal sup port to the Pip in flee at uncompromising Hie Plo is organization made up of elements with various Alexander mow Secretary of observed to i French interviewer last some Are just and responsible while others Are obviously dominated by the financially As Well As umbrella group More Haig carefully de scribed the Plo As an umbrella organization containing some elements which have avowed the splinter groups on the left of the known loosely As the rejection front for their opposition to any to nations with represent Only a Small part of the organizations Mili tary strength no More than guerrillas out of a total of roughly but they exercise considerable influx the Are concentrated in the palestinian of a squalid Refuge Ecamp neigh boyhood where Arafat Headquarters so the fringe groups make up a Large part of his immediate Environ Are Quick to condemn Arafat and his men for any sign of in this sense Arafat is a relative moderate for in Muddy streets of the refugee Camps most of the pressures on him come from the not the right Plo officials often argue that one of the organizations greatest strengths is that it remains open to any faction no one is expelled for disagreeing with but that laboriously achieved Unity also has a great some critics for it gives the fringe groups a virtual veto Over Arafat halting diplomatic in when Arafat addressed the in Gener Al Assembly in new he originally intended to declare his readiness to join a Geneva peace conference with Plo sources but the rejection lists threatened to split from the Organiza Tion if he and so the passage was they will never make it to the stage of negotiations unless they solve this and that getting rid of the the european Diplo mat sooner or there will have to be a night of the Long knives a reference to Adolf hitlers ruthless purge of a rival faction in the German nazi Arafat is subject to pressures not Only from palestinian but from Arab governments As Well for the Plo depends on these governments for most of its Money and the guerrillas Are particularly Sensi Tive to Syrias for the syrian army controls All their Supply lines in the difficulty of keeping so Many constituencies from Hartline guerrillas to West Bank villagers to Arab and european has led the Plo leadership into the habit of speaking to different audiences in Dif Ferent last Summers Fatah Resolution calling for the liquidation of Israel was an after the Tough sounding measure was for the Benefit of Fatah own left Plo officials simply assured european diplomats and Western reporters that it was when the israeli Yasser Arafat walks shifting line Between terrorist and moderate wings of Palestine liberation Ern ment said the Resolution was proof that the Plo was merely a gang of Arafat said the text was unofficial and other palestinian spokesmen said it had been misinterpret the hardliners insisted it was the question of whether the Plo is a terrorist organization is complicated by the fact that people use the word to mean different this years ses Sion of the Plo the Palestine National issued a statement strongly condemning terrorism and International palestinian spokesmen Point to the organizations Clear policy against hijackings or other operations outside the occupied yet Plo officials also say openly that they Hope to step up guerrilla attacks against israeli they argue that their attacks should not be consid ered but instead As Resis Tance to foreign military a concept recognized by International to support that they Point to none other than Menachem whose Airgun organization was outlawed As a gang of terrorists when Palestine was ruled by in his younger begin publicly claimed responsibility for the 1948 bombing of Jerusalem King David in which 88 people and for the Airgun attack on Deir a palestinian Village where British authorities said 254 arabs were Many of them women and children although begin denied the reports of High civilian Ca articulating a Tenet that would be echoed by his palestinian begin wrote we therefore we those justifications might help explain Plo attacks on israeli military or even on armed jewish settlements in the West erected As part of a military Security but it is difficult even for Arafat to justify the deaths of unarmed women and 1 am against he told an viewer earner this l am against but it but you have to ask these Why Are they living in my Homeland by living they Are participating in this they Are participating in this crime with their them with draw from my Plo guerrillas know that their Mili tary Arm is no match for the israeli armed and that in any direct confrontation they Are More Likely to lose than but even moderate and pragmatic palestinians defend the idea that guerrilla warfare should be car ried on for Rea psychologically important they say the attacks on israeli Settle ments increase israels economic prob discourage foreign jews from and Force israelis to con front the reality of palestinian opposition to their Conquest of the West Bank and Gaza say the military operations Are psychologically important to the scattered Palestin for they show that the Plo is capable of armed resistance on their they say the guerrilla operations Force Israel and the world to listen to the palestinians if Arafat is Ever invited to go beyond making trouble and begin making he will have to answer two Basic questions is he ready for a final peace agreement with and of what terms Arafat has frequently hinted that the Plo will give up violence if the palestinians Are Given an Independent state in the West Bank area and the Gaza but the habit of guerrilla War is so deeply ingrained in the Plo that some of Arafat own aides admit that they find it difficult to imagine them selves turning into civilian bureaucrats in a demilitarized equally Muddy is the question of the plos ultimate israeli spokes men frequently charge that the Plo seeks nothing less than the annihilation of but some Palestin ians say that All they want is an Independent state and the right to re turn to their pre1948 in the Plo now say it has never advocated the annihilation of shifting objectives but it can be difficult to pin the palestinians Down on their current for they Are a subject of almost constant debate and after the establishment of the state of Israel in the Palestin ians goal was Blunt and Clear to destroy the new replace it with an Arab state and Force the jews who had settled in Palestine to return to the right is anything that hastens the disappearance of an Early Fatah manifesto the Only Good is anything that leads to the collapse of the usurper and peace is vengeance against the butchers of Deir but in the palestinians realized that the state of Israel was growing deep roots in the soil of and they Laboured to find a policy that would take account of the israeli the first new proclaimed in 1968 after years of was to demand a single secular democratic state in what used to be in which christians and muslims would live As equal if this did not mean the destruction of it still meant dismantling the specifically jewish state the zionist movement had struggled to the Plo failed to change an article in its covenant that declares the presence of jewish immigrants in Palestine israeli leaders dismissed the whole thing As a by it wits to Arafat and his me that the proposal for a secular democratic state was consid ered unrealistic even by those sympathetic palestinian after More passionate the plos major factions agreed on a new Trine the interim solution of a palestinian staged formula under this formula which is still the plos official policy the palestinians would agree to set up a state of their own in any part of Palestine from which Israel would but would retain the ultimate goal of creat ing a secular state that would include the territory of pre1967 Arafat has since said that a palestinian mini state would tacitly recognize Israel and would pose no Security threat to the jewish but he has also told his own people that it would constitute a first step toward the reunification of a Promise the israelis find to Arafat has hinted that reunification is now Only a and that a Plo state would renounce violence against but he has never said that in Public to an audience of his of whom Are frontpre1967 Israel and still Hope for a return to Haifa and the areas outside the West Bank and Gaza in these ambiguities of Plo policy have been tested in repeated at tempts to persuade the guerrillas to accept Security Council Resolution which Calls on Israel to with draw from territories occupied in the 1967 Middle East War but also upholds israels right to a secure and Independent if the Plo accepted the it could negotiate directly with the United which is now bound by a Promise to Israel not to talk with the palestinians unless they recognize israels right to the Carter administration failed to work out a formula under which the guerrillas could embrace the principles of Resolution Arafat objected to 242 because it did not acknowledge the palestinians claim to a National Home he was not certain that he could gain the support of the entire Plo for a Compromise in the he decided that the United states was not offering him enough for what he has called the Only card in my the recognition of competing pressures some of Arafat Hartline critics believe he has already gone too far along the Road toward concessions with but there Are a few moderates and some who be Lieve that the leadership has been too too attentive to the pressure of the Radical guerrilla and too wary of making con these Plo doves have been exposed to attack and intimidation from the and so rarely speak in if they they might agree with a British supporter of the palestinian lord Nicholas Beth who recently wrote that the plos greatest need is for a Little consistent Are they still As they sometimes to destroy Israel Root and Branch Bethell or Are they As they declare on other to living in a Palestine Arab state Side by Side at peace with the jewish state we do not because their representatives will not make it and if we cannot be far less can the eternally liberals seek comeback provincial Liberal Leader Doug Ian is a faceless entity to Manitoba voters and his with Only one appears to have less political credibility than the instant protest created by three dissident new democrats earlier this the liberals once hopeful of a comeback in the next provincial Onee they say their testing of the polities winds tells them that this they have a it is an refrain from the hapless liberals heard in 1979 from Jazzy Asper and in 1977 from Charles Huba Deach the party predictions of revival were greeted by yet a further slippage at the in the four elections the liberals have sunk from per cent of the Voje and official opposition status with h seats to m per cent of the vote and Distant third place with one the Literals Are Basing their Hopes on their assessment that a voters Are angry at the governing tories but reluctant to return to the nip which they decisively rejected Only our years says one prom Gene teral the anti socialist Seroj Tanj that was so Strong in 1977 bag but it to m Many of the tofiss1 supporters from such As Frances Russell the Small business feel really let Down by the government and they wont Nave As compelling a reason to keep the tories if no one Clear Issue emerges and the electorate to the polls in Blase there is 4 Chance for us to pick up some this analysis makes in the politics is the m egg of All sciences ind what sounds Gold in theory often foes not happen in and the biggest reason die liberals Hopes May Iraln be cashed is what for freely i dolts is the credibility in order for the Literals to capitalize on the feeling of voter with both major they must not Only appear to the i realistic Altema they also must become Knowd the electorate has frankly a Foi Notten the Ftp and it is it of Way from Teton unrecognised to we considered a Factor of vote Lauchland problems Are he has no seat in the while he is a Manitoba he was absent from the province for 20 years prior to his return in to be a senior adviser to employment and Tion minister Lloyd he has Aleidy been characterised As a carpet Bagger in the Media and he has no Public political or As if an this was net enough of a Lauchlan assumed the Lead ers Post last november after it had been vacant for two years following he during Hose two the provincial Parry bad become virtually moribund and its constituency associations almost a Schlan and other liberals think the election will the late Likely november that is not much time for any new party Leader to establish himself with the voters and certainty m time at in Jot i Leader who has to rebuild bus party from the ground up and from a to the third floor of party to get a forum to gain spine Public attention uric plan is doing relatively Well at the Literals have 13 candidates Aptt coated and motto som about the same number they ran in both 1973 and a Schlan is also adopting the Wisest admitting that it will the difficult for the liberals to achieve a presence in time for the Lauchlan instead plans to treat the election As a series of by eject two will enable the party to concentrate its efforts in the eight or so seats their polling snows they have a fair to Good such As where a Schlan himself is the Candi fort which june Westbury now Portage i River Heights and the selection strategy will focus entirely on the attractiveness of individual and the liberals Are counting heavily on the personal Appeal of people such As Hugh Moran in Portage la Prairie and Bob Hawkins in Dauphin to Over pome the Lack of identification with the where has been singularly less successful has been in the vital area of attracting he is san Guine about the to be Hon Why should you phone i dont have seat in the legislature and the Liberal party simply is viewed As the Only solution to our credibility problem is the beginnings of electoral we have to Deal with the credibility question on a constituency by constituency while party officials talk about win Ning eight their real goal is official party or and they would Likely be Happy if they just got a Schlan into the for All the Liberal leaders he is a thoughtful individual with a lot of ideas for if Manitoban got a Chance to listen to the liberals revival Hopes would but the Uteralt face a cacch22 they need to revive before us Chan will be Sqq Newbury to at at us time it Tig ;