Word: fedayeen
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...that the tough Israeli approach has discouraged terrorists. Tel Aviv's uncompromising stance did not dissuade a Palestinian guerrilla team from seizing a Sabena jet with 90 passengers at Tel Aviv's Lod International Airport last May and trying to bargain for the release of 117 imprisoned fedayeen. It was sheer luck that only one passenger was killed when Israeli security men stormed into the plane with guns blazing to end the extortion attempt. Three weeks later, a trio of machine-gun toting Japanese radicals working for the fedayeen killed 26 tourists and wounded 85 inside Lod International...
That failure was starkly evident to guerrilla leaders who met last week in Damascus. Israel, by expert policing and harsh retaliation, has virtually sealed its borders against them and forced its neighbors to bring the guerrillas under control. The fedayeen are powerless in Jordan, kept on a tight rein in Syria, and restricted in Lebanon. The result is that they have been reduced to occasional random terrorism that is ruthless but scarcely effective in either overthrowing Arab leaders opposed to them or restoring Palestine to Arab control. Some Al Fatah leaders are even talking about investing in nightclubs and laundries...
...these circumstances, the bitterest and most extreme of the fedayeen have turned to Black September. It surfaced for the first time last November in Cairo, where four terrorists boldly assassinated Jordanian Premier Wasfi Tell as he entered the Cairo-Sheraton Hotel. Tell was a pro-Western Arab interested in negotiating with Israel; his killers are out of jail on bail awaiting a trial that has yet to be scheduled. Since that time, Black September teams have also murdered five Jordanians living in West Germany whom they suspected of spying for Israel; attempted to assassinate Jordan's ambassador to London...
...Fedayeen leaders in Beirut insist, to the contrary, that Black September is less an organization than a state of mind. It has no flag, no symbol, no offices. Its leaders are shadowy, constantly shifting and unknown. Members are drawn from all guerrilla groups and become known only when they are killed or captured. This of course may well be a self-serving defensive explanation to avoid Israeli retribution. Since they began to brag about operations against Israel, leaders of the rival Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have fallen victim to mysterious attacks. One, Ghassan Kanafani, was blown...
...more frightening aspects of Black September is its ability to export terror. "They will hit anything anywhere if they believe the target is sensitive," says a fedayeen leader. Septembrists, moreover, take pains to point out that "anywhere" includes the U.S. More than that, Black September's planners and operatives are tougher and smarter than guerrillas have generally been in the past. They are frequently the products of the refugee camps in Jordan and Gaza, where more than a million Palestinians still live-and teach their children to hate Israel. Many went to the American University of Beirut and some...