Word: plo
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...Israeli leaders freely admit that the growth of Hamas was partly a tragedy of their own making. Israel made a conscious decision to allow the Islamist movement to grow in the West Bank and Gaza in the early 1980s, hoping that this would undermine support for Yasser Arafat's PLO. "In retrospect we made a mistake," former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer told the daily Maariv last week...
...Israeli military administration in the territories had prohibited the PLO from operating openly, but it was instructed to allow the Islamists the freedom to establish a large-scale religious-welfare-political infrastructure. The Islamist welfare effort, which gave Hamas a claim on the hearts and minds of Palestinians living under occupation, was, of course, driven by an agenda even more poisonous than the PLO's to Israel's interest. But, says Ben Eliezer, "by the time we realized what was happening, it was too late...
...reason the Palestinian flag was excluded, alternatively, has much to do with what the flag symbolizes. The Palestinian flag is the official symbol of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a ruthless organization that has committed atrocities worldwide against both Israeli and American targets. Attempts to convert terrorists into diplomats failed tremendously; the Palestinian Authority, after refusing the 2000 peace offer from Israel, proceeded to send over 100 suicide bombers into Israeli civilian areas claiming the lives of over 850 individuals. As a result, a Palestine is now further away than it has ever been...
...running debate in Washington and Jerusalem over the prospects for pursuing a peace agreement without the aging Arafat will have been settled. The question of Arafat's succession is complicated by the fact that his power derives from the three separate offices he holds: Palestinian Authority president, PLO chairman and leader of the Fatah movement. The PA constitution requires that if the president is incapacitated, his post would be temporarily filled by the Speaker of the Palestinian legislature. However, the Speaker's position is currently vacant, following Ahmed Qureia's resignation from it in order to become prime minister. Following...
...next week to petition the Bush administration to lift its prohibition against physically removing Arafat. It's unlikely, however, that the PA would survive such a move - and Qureia appeared to be warning that the Palestinians themselves won't try to keep it going if the leadership of the PLO is excluded. And as Israel discovered during the 1970s and 1980s, no Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza will step up to negotiate with the Jewish State unless authorized by the PLO...