Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...repudiated its national charter, which calls for the "liberation" of all Palestine and the elimination of Zionism. Nor has the organization renounced the strategy of terror that led to the murder of innocent civilians at Munich and Ma'alot. If Israel were to permit the creation of a Palestinian state on the occupied West Bank and Gaza -something it is not prepared to do -there is a clear danger that the fedayeen would use those enclaves for further attacks on Israel proper. Moreover, the P.L.O. is hopelessly divided in its leadership; even if a Palestinian ministate was formally bound...
...state on any soil given up by Israel, but dropped a clause added to a similar resolution in 1974 that designated such a state as a base for further struggle against Israel. Time and again, P.L.O. leaders, including Yasser Arafat, have said they would settle for a Palestinian entity on any Arab territory given up by Israel-implying a willingness to coexist, albeit reluctantly, with the Jewish state. To promise more without getting a quid pro quo would be difficult for Arafat, who has a diffused and unwieldy constituency to satisfy...
Some Middle East experts argue that a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza would be more of a safeguard for Israel than a hazard. For one thing, such a state would not be entirely free. Even P.L.O. leaders now talk approvingly about having formal links with Jordan, whose ruler, King Hussein, desperately wants peace with Israel. Moreover, it is clearly in the interests of moderate Arab nations that a dangerously radical regime does not emerge in any Palestinian state. A radical Palestine would be as likely to stir up unrest in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the Arabs...
Says one observer: "The Saudis want a Palestinian state, but they wouldn't give a nickel to a radical one." Deeply fearful of Russian influence in the Middle East, the Saudis would almost certainly insist that the defense, finance and foreign trade of a Palestinian state be monitored or controlled by established Arab states...
...agreed to a ceasefire worked out by the U.S., and pulled its troops, trucks and armored personnel carriers back behind the Israeli border. There they remained poised, as an Israeli army officer put it, "ten minutes from the Christian enclave," should fighting resume between the Christian forces and their Palestinian enemies. Said Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, who had inspected the Israeli forces: "I am keeping my fingers crossed, praying that [the ceasefire] will hold. But if the P.L.O. orders its units to open fire again or does not achieve a quick, solid and satisfying solution, we will return...