05/23/2002
Arafat and the PLO, Part II
As we pick up our story on Yasser Arafat and his reign of terror, it is 1972 and the PLO, now firmly ensconced in Lebanon, kept up its pressure on Israel and the West.
In May of ’72, 3 Japanese terrorists hired by the PLO killed 28 at Tel Aviv Airport. Then in September of that year, the world got sick to its stomach as Arafat’s Fatah organization wreaked havoc on the Munich Olympics.
Over 90% of the sources you will come across in describing the horrific events in Munich never mention Yasser Arafat’s name, as if he had nothing to do with it. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as Richard Nixon himself wrote. The group that was responsible, Black September, was really just a cover for Fatah. Here now the story, as I wrote in another link for this site back in November 1999.
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12,000 athletes and staff were housed in Munich’s Olympic Village, with every precaution being taken to protect them. However, in the early morning hours of September 5, eight armed men managed to infiltrate the compound.
The terrorists, who were to identify themselves as Black September, stormed into two apartments housing some of the Israeli team members. 13 Israelis were rounded up, but in the chaos that followed, two team members successfully escaped, while two others were shot and killed as they tried to do the same. The remaining 9 became hostages.
Black September made their demands; the lives of the hostages in exchange for the freedom of 236 Arab prisoners held in Israel, plus air transportation to fly them and their captives to an unspecified location. If their conditions were not met by 9:00 AM, they would begin killing the Israelis.
Images of the hooded terrorists standing on the balcony were flashed across the world. A standoff ensued.
The terrorists were eventually presented two alternatives in exchange for the release of their hostages; they could be paid a large ransom and given safe passage out of Germany, or West German officials would take the place of the Israeli athletes as hostages. [Understand that just 27 years removed from World War II, Germany was petrified this whole incident would have a huge, negative impact on the world’s impression of a country that had been making tremendous strides.]
Black September rejected these offers. Instead, they demanded a plane to Cairo, saying that by the time they landed the Arab prisoners were to have been released.
The Olympic task force gave in to the request for transportation. At 10:00 PM the commandos and the Israeli captives were transported to two helicopters and flown to a military airfield where they would presumably make their escape. Upon their arrival at the airstrip, however, German police launched a surprise attack.
For about 90 minutes the police marksmen and the terrorists waged a continuous gun battle. It ended in further tragedy when one terrorist threw a grenade into one of the helicopters, killing all five hostages inside, while the other terrorists shot and killed the remaining hostages. The final death toll was one German police officer, five terrorists and eleven Israeli athletes (including the two killed in the village). The other three terrorists were captured.
In a further tragic twist to the story, many in the world were led to believe that the Israelis had been released. Israel had celebrated the false reports at the time and settled in for the night.
The International Olympic Committee, under heavy criticism, nonetheless decided to resume the Games on September 7th, after a memorial service on the 6th.
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In the fall of 1973 (October 6), Egypt and Syria launched another failed effort at destroying Israel, the Yom Kippur War, while Yasser Arafat escalated his own terrorist plans against both Israeli citizens as well as the West. In December 1973, for example, Palestinian terrorists killed 31 at Rome’s airport. Then in April 1974, Palestinian guerrillas entered the town of Kiryat Shmona and killed 18 men, women and children. A month later 20 schoolchildren were killed in Ma’alot. Arafat then announced that all foreign tourists in Israel are legitimate targets as well.
So what does the world do? Why invite Arafat to the UN, of course. Back then the organization was dominated by African and Asian states opposed to the U.S. (nothing has changed, really) so they were anxious to hear the chief terrorist, live and in person. As you’d expect, given the crowd, he was well received, and then the body voted not to allow Israel to present its own case. The next year the UN granted the PLO “observer” status as it denounced Zionism as a form of racism.
Meanwhile, back in Lebanon, the PLO was turning the country into a battleground. By 1975 the Palestinians were 20% of the population, alarming the various factions and leaders in Beirut. The shooting of 27 Palestinians in that city in April ’75 sparked 18 months of civil war.
While this was going on Arafat PLO kept up his terrorist activities in Israel, with one of the more high-profile incidents coming in March 1978 when Fatah hijacked a bus en route to Tel Aviv, killing 34 Israelis. Israel then sent 25,000 troops into southern Lebanon, with 140,000 Palestinians fleeing north into Beirut’s refugee camps, exacerbating an already tense situation in the capital.
Finally, in 1982 Israel’s bombing of Beirut drove Arafat out of Lebanon, and his power and prestige plummeted. [See any parallels to today? I do.] The PLO’s headquarters were transferred to Tunis, where they remained until 1994. By the late 1980s, though, the Palestinians in Israel had launched the Intifada and a new wave of terrorism swept the nation.
But it was in 1993 that top secret talks were held between Israeli and Palestinian representatives in Oslo to, in the words of one present at the time, “put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognize mutual legitimate and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful co-existence and mutual dignity and security and achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement and historic reconciliation.” [J.M. Roberts]
An autonomous Palestinian Authority was to be established, covering the West Bank and Gaza, including the transfer of police power from Israel to the Palestinians. By ’94 Arafat was allowed to return home.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was concerned back then that Arafat would be replaced by a far more extreme Palestinian leader, which is why he signed the Oslo Accords. [Rabin was himself assassinated in ’95 by an Israeli hard-liner.] Since ’93, that has been the predominant feeling in the West as well. Or, as historian Paul Johnson put it:
“The essence of geopolitics is to be able to distinguish between different degrees of evil.”
For his part, Richard Nixon wrote of this period, “Rabin knew that Arafat was evil. But the choice was not between Arafat and somebody less evil, but Arafat and somebody more evil. Arafat needs to deal because he is weak. Israel can risk making a deal with its worst enemy because it is strong.”
Sources:
David Reynolds, “One World Divisible” Martin Gilbert, “History of the 20th Century” Bernard Lewis, “The Middle East” J.M. Roberts, “Twentieth Century” Joe Garner, “We Interrupt This Broadcast” Richard Nixon, “Beyond Peace”
*Hott Spotts will return on June 6.
Brian Trumbore
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