Word: fatah
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Arafat's campaign to reassert his dominance over the P.L.O. was prompted by an unprecedented rebellion within the ranks of his Fatah organization, which has been his main power base ever since he helped found it in 1959. The mutiny, which at its peak in mid-May involved only a few hundred of the 10,000 to 15,000 P.L.O. fighters in Lebanon, apparently never posed a serious threat to Arafat's leadership. But it dramatized the weakened condition of the P.L.O. in the wake of its expulsion from Beirut last year by Israeli forces, particularly the organization...
...documented that the PLO provided military and financial support for European neo-Nazi groups, including military training at former terrorist bases in Southern Lebanon PLO links to groups which have carried out the bombing of synagogues and Jewish schools in Europe have also been well documented. For example, al-Fatah, Arafat's group, trained members of L'oeuvre Francais, an extreme right-wing French group, to carry out terrorist operations for the PLO. These activities are consistent with the PLO strategy of inciting anti-Jewish sentiment throughout the world. Just last week, in an abhorrent display of hypocrisy...
...wonder of the P.L.O. is that it has managed to stay together so long. The umbrella organization is actually composed of at least eight groups. Foremost among the factions is Fatah, which holds an overwhelming majority of the seats on the Palestine National Council, the organization's de facto parliament. Headed by Arafat, Fatah enjoys the support of middle-class moderates and has few ideological goals other than the liberation of Palestine. Though Fatah receives most of its funds from the gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian diaspora, it is the only group without binding ties...
...P.L.O. position ambiguous enough to satisfy the hard-liners who oppose the Reagan plan or any other concessions to reach a real peace in the Middle East. The danger was that the P.L.O., a loose coalition of eight groups that run the gamut from Arafat's own moderate Fatah organization to the hardline Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine led by George Habash, would emerge from Algiers even more divided than it already is. To guard against any real threat to his leadership, Arafat made sure that thousands of Fatah supporters turned out from all over...
...political settlement. The P.L.O. is committed to withdrawal; it has no choice. From its new headquarters, in Cairo or elsewhere, the organization will have reduced military power, but it will still receive support from the Saudis and the other gulf states, which have long backed Arafat and his Al-Fatah organization. In time, the P.L.O.'s political and diplomatic influence may well increase...