Word: plo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fact, they would appear to impede the process. They call for unilateral concessions by Israel, when we should be calling for negotiations by both sides. In addition to criticizing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, we should denounce the use of violence by the Palestinians and terrorism by the PLO, including the renunciation of the section of the PLO charter that calls for the destruction of Israel. A cessation of aid to Israel, without any comparable censure of the Palestinians, forces Israel to the bargaining table in an untenably weak position. Instead of blindly legislating the creation of a Palestinian state...
Second, I am disturbed that this referendum implies that responsibility for peace rests solely in the hands of Israel. It ignores both the history of the situation (the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem by the Jordanians) and the repugnant terrorist tactics employed by the PLO. But history can only do so much; it may explain why Israel justifiably occupied the territories, but it cannot exonerate Israel's present government-sanctioned atrocities...
...Organization has repeatedly called for direct negotiations with Israel, articulated its adherence to all United Nations resolutions including 242 and 338, and stated its willingness to accept Israel's existence in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. In January of this year, Yassir Arafat asserted that the PLO would "recognize Israel's right to exist if it and the United States accept PLO participation in an international Middle East Peace conference...
Israel, on the other hand, has consistently refused to negotiate with the PLO--which the rabbis concede is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. On May, 8, 1988, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir insisted that "We will never part from Judea, Samaria and Gaza (the Occupied Teritories.)" This should come as little surprise from a man who, only five weeks earlier, likened Palestinians to "grasshoppers" whose heads will be "smashed against the boulders and walls" when they demonstrate for their right to self-determination...
...position of the main opposition party, Labor, is not fundamentally different. Labor's slogan in the 1984 election read: "NO: no return to the '67 borders, no removal of settlements, no negotiations with the PLO, no Palestinian state..." In March of this year, Labor leader Shimon Peres--commonly represented as the most "dovish" of Israeli leaders--unequivocally stated his absolute refusal to negotiate with the PLO: "I object completely to any dealings with the PLO...