Word: intifadehs
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Dates: during 1988-1988
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...more moderate, reasonable role. Arafat was strongly urged to do so by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan's King Hussein and, after the cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. For the U.S., which sharply criticized Israel's heavy use of force against the intifadeh, an overly close relationship with Israel became a liability in its relations with nearly every other nation...
...West Bank, however, jubilant Palestinians toasted one another with mabrouk, the Arabic word for "congratulations." To the foot soldiers in the intifadeh, the yearlong rebellion in the occupied territories that has won worldwide sympathy for Palestinian national aspirations, this was the first tangible victory. "If we succeeded in forcing America to sit with the P.L.O., we will force Israel to recognize the P.L.O.," crowed a 17-year-old Palestinian activist from Jerusalem...
...P.L.O., the U.S. move vindicated a trend they have encouraged in recent years: greater moderation and realism on the part of Palestinian nationalists. Even George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh, leaders of two notoriously radical pro-Syrian factions within the P.L.O., hailed the American decision as a triumph for the intifadeh. But the renegade group of Abu Musa issued a veiled threat. "We fully reject the Arafat concessions and will prove our stand practically, in a way that neither Israel nor the United States would expect," said a spokesman in Damascus...
Most of all, the unexpected and unquenchable uprising in the occupied territories emboldened Arafat to take a chance. He risked losing control of the Palestinian cause altogether unless he could win the "children of the stones" some tangible gain for a year of pain. At the same time, the intifadeh blessed the Palestinians, and by extension even the P.L.O., with a legitimacy Arafat had never been able to earn. Perhaps the past 13 years of diplomatic isolation by the U.S. was simply the necessary learning period for the movement...
...past year, Yasser Arafat has been able to solidify his leadership among those involved in the intifadeh as well as among Palestinians in exile. As a result, the P.L.O. is established more firmly than ever as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. Israel can no longer reasonably hope that a group of West Bank or Gaza leaders unaffiliated with the P.L.O. will emerge...