Yasser Arafat and his PLO - part 4 (the way from war to Oslo)

 As described in part 3 PLO carries lots of responsibility for starting Civil War in Lebanon in 1975. Originating from French time Lebanon has a complicated constitution and balance of powers. The functions of President, Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House come from elections but are reserved for representatives of religious minorities. The President is always Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister is always Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the House is always a Shia Muslim. The sudden arrival of terrorist militants from PLO - almost all Sunni Muslims - and their creation of State within a State brought an end to delicate balance. The first battles between PLO and Christian phalanges started in 1975. Apart from religion the division run along political affiliations as one more hot manifestation of cold war. PLO had backing of the USSR and many of its sub-organizations were distinctly communist which created interesting mix of nationalism, religious fundamentalism and far-left terrorism. Remember that after 6-days war and Yom Kippur War USSR was strongly anti-Israeli, an attitude which persisted until the end of Soviet Union.

Syria intervened in the Lebanese Civil War in 1976 effectively occupying big part of Lebanese territory. In 1978, after Coastal Road Massacre intervened Israel trying to push PLO away from Israeli border to stop terrorist infiltration and cross-border fire. After short time Israeli troops withdrew, however keeping the border strongly fortified against PLO terrorists, surprisingly enough cooperating with Shia Muslim forces and - to some extent - with Christian forces. 

After Iranian revolution in 1979 it was Iran's turn to intervene in Lebanon and it wasn't shy about it.

The truly catastrophic year was 1982 when few things happened. On June 4 PLO terrorists sent from Lebanon severely wounded  in London Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov. In response on June 6 Israel started operation in Lebanon and during few days began heavy fights near Beirut. The city, where PLO was fortified quickly found itself in very hard situation. International mediation led to removing - under US, French, Italian and British protection - PLO from Lebanon and Arafat went with part of his organization to Tunisia. This constituted victory from the Israeli point of view as attacks by PLO from Lebanon reached around 100 per year. Unfortunately at the same time created by Iran Hezbollah constituted itself in Lebanon. Yet at the time nobody yet suspected such a foe. Also in August 1982 Bashir Gemayel was elected President which could raise hope for peace between Israel and Lebanon. It never happened. On September 4 Israeli forces extracted from Palestinian refugee camps 520 tons of ammunition, rockets, mortars and alike. On September 14 Syrian forces assassinated newly elected president and Israel lost hope for achieving peace with the neighbor. In this moment Christian phalanges massacred Palestinians in refugee camps without any intervention from nearby Israeli forces which later led to trials in Israel (contrary to popular propaganda IDF never took part in this massacre but it has not prevented it either). The following year brought truce between Israel and Lebanon and horrific terrorist attacks by Hezbollah on American forces in which 241 marines were killed (in all 3 attacks close to 500 people were killed, most of them Americans and French). But that was already after Israeli withdrawal and Yasser Arafat's evacuation to Tunisia.

Lebanese Civil War, which Arafat provoked to a great extend, continued until 1990. Meanwhile Arafat spent 6 years in Tunisia and by the end of 80s started series of meetings with Israeli officials which opened the way to his greatest triumph and greatest Palestinian tragedy in my opinion. 90s brought Oslo Accords and for Arafat Palestinian Autonomy, Nobel Peace Prize (really? him?), the Presidential title when he became President of the Palestinian Autonomy and open road to Palestinian statehood. All this was achievable but all it was forfeited by Arafat himself when, time after another, he refused to recognize Israel, refused Palestinian state and focused again on terrorism and destruction. 

From the point of view of blog about Israel this is the most important time of Arafat's activities, but to explain it I had not only to show how his hatred and fanaticism in 60s and 70s led to tries to destroy Israel and to create international terrorism, but also how, after setting turmoil in 3 Arab countries and organizing countless terrorists attacks he put his ego above any interest of Palestinians and brought about their calamity.

 

Hunger in Gaza - elephant in the room

 Recently so many sources (or "sources") exploit the topic of hunger in Gaza that I feel obliged to write something about it. Truly, wars are tragic. Always. Those that were fought in ancient times and known to us through poems like Iliad and those that we watch on screens of our TVs. They are ugly, brutal, tragic and bring calamities to countless victims. Hunger is and was part of warfare (intended or not) throughout the history. Below some of my reflection about what is shown and what use are these pictures put into.

1. Hamas not only started this war, in extremely brutal way, it was also provoking other military interventions in Gaza trough terrorist attacks, kidnappings or rocket fire. Once the conflict escalated Hamas was always trying to cause as many civilian casualties as possible among Gazans to use them for propaganda purposes. Organizing launching pads and military posts inside mosques, hospitals, schools or kindergartens was serving this purpose. According to international law such places ceased to be civilian structures protected by international law when they were used for military purposes.  Nevertheless we  always hear about "attacking the hospital" (or a school, or some other civilian structure) even if they are use precisely for the purposes excluding them (by law) from protection. And this propaganda is used by Hamas. Somehow the similar fate of civilian buildings used in other wars in a similar way is understood by public as leading (regretfully) to loosing the protection and becoming yet another military structure. 

2.  There were recently published quite a few pictures of hungry children from Gaza in the media. Some of them are truly horrible. Except.... some of them show emaciated children with well fed caregivers or (in some instances) with milk bottles. Some of these children were recognized as suffering from genetic diseases (one is treated in Italy, one in the USA, of these recognized and named). It is a portrait of human tragedy, but not connected to hunger or even (in this instance) to war. Such diseases consume thousands of children around the world and usually their pictures appear rarely. And if such pictures appear they create compassion (rightly so) but no anger. Yet these pictures in media are weaponized to sell the story of widespread starvation in Gaza. Children with similar medical condition look the same almost all over the world (with few exceptions of well developed countries with the right to medical care on high level).

This child shown above, with genetic condition, is already treated in the American hospital, yet Al-Jazeera used his picture as proof of Gaza hunger. His name is Fadi al-Zant and he suffers from cystic fibrosis since his birth. Two of his brothers died due to this genetic disease long before the war, as unfortunately die children around the world. In the USA 300-400 hundred ill die of this disease yearly. Expensive treatment only prolongs life a bit.

 3. There is another child looking very malnourished, whose image was used by New York Times to illustrate alleged hunger in Gaza:  Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq. It is truly a haunting photo. Yet few days later NYT had to put editors note explaining that the child has numerous genetic diseases and his emaciated state is because of pre-existing state of his health. His healthy looking siblings were edited out of the picture. New York Times make editorial explanations and.... a group of so called pro-Palestinians vandalized New York Times building accusing the paper to support Israel. 

4. Pictures of Yezidi girl (made 10 years earlier in Iraq), small children (made in 2018 in Syria) and  few others were also used in this campaign. They were made in other time and place and the victims shown on them are entitled to their privacy.  Does it mean nobody in Gaza is hungry? I don't know. I suppose many people are. War is extremely hard, especially on children, elderly, ill, poor. They are suffering and I wish this war to cease as soon as possible. And definitely there are some in Israeli authorities who are not doing everything to alleviate this suffering. Yet Israel is providing food for Gaza in stark contrast to other warlike situations before and today. Also, all that is needed to finish this war is for Hamas to give up arms and return hostages. If they care about civilian population why don't they.

5. The simple answer is they don't. They don't care and both Israel and the world fell into this trap. Israel, by trying to press Hamas into negotiations by restricting some help, and the world blaming Israel (and exclusively Israel) for the state of  affairs in Gaza. Had Hamas wanted a state - it would have one, Israel left Gaza 20 years ago and provided together with EU and the USA finances for starting of its economy. Had Hamas wanted for suffering of Gazans to end - it would have capitulated or at the very least returned the hostages (not even to mention not starting the war). Had Hamas wanted help to increase it would cease interfering with its distribution.

Hamas today broke the talks with Israel about ceasefire (which it does time and time again). It also claimed victory in the war. Because victory for Hamas is not creating Palestinian state (they don't even have it in their Charter - check yourselves). It is not finishing suffering of civilians in Gaza. It is destruction of Israel. If it might be done using suffering of Gazans and creating the story of fake hunger, so much better for the terrorists. And since France's President and UK's PM promise recognition of the State of Palestine if war lasts till September all Hamas needs to do is wait till September creating more hysteria against Israel. As Michael Rubin writes in American Enterprise Institute publication: 

"Macron and Starmer virtue signal. They know that an independent Palestine today would be a failed state and a toehold on the eastern Mediterranean for Turkey, Iran, or other terror sponsors. The French and British move would also empower radicals at a time of political transition: Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is 92 years old and in the 20th year of his elected four-year term; he has selected no successor, and so Palestinian factions manoeuvre for position.

By handing Hamas a victory and allowing it to claim that its actions enabled independence, both Paris and London show Hamas tactics work and allow it to claim victory.

If Palestine wins independence due to Hamas terrorism, but the peaceful movements in Somaliland, South Yemen, and the Syrian Kurds languish, every potential separatist group—legitimate or not—will learn the lesson that terrorism works."

So this "victory" of Hamas (hopefully to be avoided) will  not only be calamity for Palestinians (not for Hamas billionaires living in Qatar) and Israel, but for the rest of the more or less law abiding world - that would be a massage that terrorism, lies and disregard for human lives (including civilians at the same side that militants) pays off.

6. Please pay attention that among horrible pictures presented as starving Gazans there are no adults, no older/ multiply children, no elderly, no groups of people. These are individual, small children who subsequently turn out to be from other conflicts or suffering from rare diseases. And yet if there is hunger it touches all people. And pictures of Gazans receiving food, while disturbing (long lines for food, children with empty dishes trying to get food) and sad are far from pictures of starvation. Please compare yourselves:

 

Above two pictures from food distribution in Gaza. Below pictures of starvation:

 

 

 

Somalia above - more children and evidently not ill, but starved

 

Above Sudan, where the war and dismantling of USAid led to the worst at the moment hunger crisis

 Yemen where 85,000 children died of hunger

Warsaw ghetto

Burmese death railway

7. Yet today Hamas released pictures (and movies, but those are not available at the request of the families) of two really starving people in Gaza: 

 Rom Braslavski

 

Evyatar David

 

Both captured on Nova Festival. Both in their early 20s. Both almost 3 years held hostages, starved, tortured. Just for being Jews. Just for being Israelis. 

Is Israel handling the situation perfectly? For sure not. But somehow nobody pays attention to the fact that Hamas shows greatest disregard for Palestinian lives.  And Israeli army is the only one providing supplies for enemy population during the wartime. 

Living under the terror

 Israelis have so much vitality as I rarely witness. Maybe it comes from living under constant threat.

Continuing on my story of Arafat and explain why IDF intervened so many times in Lebanon let me recall some, just some, of the terrorist attacks committed by PLO and its affiliates gathered under Arafat in years leading to civil war in Lebanon and later to first Israeli-Lebanese war. Just… it was not Israeli-Lebanese but rather Israeli-PLO war.

TERROR ATTACKS:

1.       1. Avivim Bus attack. On 22 May 1970 two rocket-propelled grenades shot from both sides of the road in ambush set by PFLP, affiliated at the time with PLO, hit an Israeli school bus killing 12 civilians, 9 of them children, some as young as 7 years old. Five of them from one family! Additional 25 were wounded, some children very hard, one later died from the piece of shrapnel in the brain. When all 3 adults on the bus were killed and the bus crashed terrorists kept shooting at it.

2.      2. Lod airport massacre. On 30 of May 1972 on an international Lod airport in Tel Aviv 3 Japanese Red Army members recruited by Palestinian PFLP opened fire into random persons. 26 have been killed and 80 wounded, among them 17 pilgrims from Puerto Rico, where up till today the day of the massacre is remembered and the memory of murdered celebrated. Among 8 Israelis killed was Aharon Khatzir, internationally renowned biophysicist. All three perpetrators were trained in Lebanon and the plot was made by PFLP. Kōzō Okamoto, the only surviving perpetrator, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 13 years later exchanged for captured Israeli soldiers. He remains in Lebanon still sought after by Japanese authorities.

3.      3. On 11 April 1974 in Kiryat Shmona, close to Lebanese border, 3 PFLP terrorists who crossed border from Lebanon entered elementary school. It was empty due to the Jewish holiday. They proceeded to a block of apartments and killed 18 persons, 8 of them children, whom they also threw from upper balconies before their explosives and rocket propelled grenades pack was hit by Israeli fire and all three were killed.

4.      4. Ma’a lot massacre. On 14 May 1974 3 Palestinian terrorist infiltrated Israel from Lebanon and hijacked van killing two Arab-Israeli women (so much for regards for Arabs), then entered the apartment building, killing a family with a 4-year-old son, wounding their 5-year old daughter and not spearing 7-months pregnant woman. Early in the morning of 15 of May entered Netiv Meir Elementary School taking 115 hostages, 105 of them children. They demanded releasing 23 terrorists. Israeli authorities agreed, but terrorists didn't receive the agreed code from Damascus. Shortly before deadline Israeli commandos attacked, however terrorists killed 25 hostages, including 22 kids with grenades and automatic fire.

5.  5. On Friday, 4th of July 1975, PLO placed refrigerator with 5 kg of explosives in front of the shop in Jerusalem. 15 people were killed. The perpetrator was arrested and sentenced to life and thirty years in prison, but was released by Israel in 2003 after serving 27 years as a gesture to Arafat, who then appointed him his adviser on prisoners affairs rewarding for yet another PLO murder.

6.  6. Finally came Coastal Road Massacre when on 11 March 1978 Fatah and Arafat organized a terrorist attack aimed at dismantling peace process with Egypt (excuse my dark humor, but as everybody knows terrorists love to fight for peace, and if there is peace they would be prevented from fighting for it so they do what they can to prevent it). 11 terrorists who infiltrated from Lebanon hijacked a bus and drove it shooting from it and taking passengers as hostages. Finally 38 people, including 13 children were murdered. 3 days later IDF entered Lebanon in operation Litani to push PLO from the border region...

If If you wonder how one lives under terror here is one Israeli tale (published by him online, thank you, Sir).

 The first incident described is the 5th on the list above the second is the 6th...

 Here is the exception from David Ben-Gershon tale

1.    In 1975 when my 19 year old wife was 9 months pregnant with our eldest daughter she went one morning to a knitting supplies shop in downtown Jerusalem, where we lived at the time, in order to buy yarn to knit a blanket for our unborn child. I was working in a national security service. A terrorist placed a mortar bomb in a refrigerator and left it on a sidewalk in the center of town in front of the huge windows of the knitting shop, and it exploded killing and wounding dozens. I couldn't leave my job and I sent a police car to check on Celina at home and they informed me that our apartment was silent and dark. She didn't answer the phone. She was not listed with the casualties, but there was no sign of her or from her. There was no way for me to know if she was or was not one of the “Jane Does” that filled the hospitals but there was no report of a pregnant Jane Doe, so I took confidence. I arrived at home well after midnight, the apartment was silent and dark, I feared the worst. I opened the door and in the dark I could hear her sobbing and gasping, I turned on the lights and there she was, soaked in blood and body parts. When she saw me she broke down. The gore was from other people that were in the shop. She stuttered that a flaming head hit her, and she ran, pregnant and blood spattered the 3 miles to our home, and stared at the wall until I returned. I carried my pregnant love to the tub after removing her clothes, to wash away the blood, and spent the night holding her. Next day I reported as usual to my job. Our daughter Tali was born less than a month later.

2.    2 years later my son Shaul, our 2nd child, was born, and while Celina was in labor in hospital with me holding her hand a messenger came into the ward with an emergency “number 8” call up orders for me to immediately report for army duty to fight off some terrorists have hijacked a bus full of families on a tour. They murdered 39 civilians. I did my duty, returned home afterwards and missed the birth of my son, and next day I was back at my job as a social worker, life as usual.

3.    During one of the recent Gaza wars(“Pillar of defence”), a missile launched from Gaza hit my married daughters (Nicole, child #4) building in Kiryat Malachi during a phone call with me. I heard the impact and Nicole's screaming on the phone. Her husband was on reserve duty in Gaza, and she was with 2 babies in a shelter less top floor apartment. The missile killed 3 with more family members injured in the apartment next door. Life went on as usual.

4.    During the Protective edge operation my Son Shaul was in the army, my son Doron (child #3) as well, and Shaul's wife delivered my 9th grandchild and a ham-ass missile slammed into Doron’s home in Ashkelon…. Life as usual. I stood and waited for the new arrival on the lawn of the Soroka medical center in Beer Sheva as dozens of med-evac helicopters in what seemed to be an endless convoy brought casualties from the front to the hospital, and I know that Shaul could be in there. Kfir (Lion Cub) was born, and life as usual.

5.    My youngest child (#5) Shir was an army medic during her service. During protective edge she was posted at a field hospital set up for Arab (enemy) civilians injured in the conflict. She phoned me frantic that the Gazans were actually shelling the hospital set up to assist in saving the lives of their wounded! They were preventing their own people, our enemy, from being rescued by us! And life as usual.

There is more, much more, but I will not give more details because enough is enough, but life as usual.

 Below a picture of the hijacked bus

 

 

Yasser Arafat and his PLO - Part 3 (Lebanese civil war)

 

Before his expulsion from Jordan, described in part 2 of these blog entries, Arafat entered into Cairo Accord brokered in 1969 by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser between PLO represented by Arafat and Lebanese army commander (yes, not Lebanese state) general Emile Boustany. The exact official text of this accord has never been made public, but the unofficial version was published in Lebanese paper in 1970. Under this agreement 16 refugee camps based in Southern Lebanon and housing at the time some 300,000 Palestinian refugees were removed from the jurisdiction of Lebanon, executed by Lebanese Army’s Deuxieme Bureau and put the camps under Arafat’s command. Here a slight digression: in 1948-49 some 100,000 Arabs escaped war to Lebanon, but since Lebanon did not offer them any path to full rights, citizenship or even possibility of entering many professions the problem was growing through subsequent years as – contrary to what one might expect – the number of refugees grew instead of diminish. The first freedoms for the refugees/ emigres were actually proposed in Cairo Accords, and only then have they been given the right to work, reside and move about in Lebanon. But this poor treatment of fellow Arabs had nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with Lebanese wish to show them as victims. The same Cairo Accord has given Palestinians in Lebanon the right to engage in armed actions against Israel. In practice the accord turned Southern Lebanon to a launch pad for attacks against Israel for which Lebanon was blamed but could do nothing to prevent them, as PLO established a state within a state (a role later taken over by Hezbollah). The victim, apart from Israel and Israelis, were local villagers who found themselves living and working the land on what turned to be guerilla-controlled battleground. Their misery was later blamed on Israel but brought on by Palestinian terrorists under Arafat.

The great influx of Palestinian terrorists to Lebanon and the Cairo Accord establishing officially PLO military bases for attacks against Israel destabilized Lebanon and were huge stepping stones towards civil war in Lebanon that started in 1975. Thus, for the third time in his life (but not the last) Arafat brought war and misery to his Arab compatriots and neighbors whom he claimed (always falsely) to represent.

It is worth noting that already in 1968 there were clashes between Lebanese army and PLO and in 1969 Arafat was 3 days late for signing the Cairo Accord as PLO was busy fighting Lebanese army, shooting a helicopter down and killing the Lebanese general.

The Cairo Accord was to remain a top secret. No wonder, if we take into account, that it required Lebanese Army to facilitate the work of the medical, evacuation, and supply centers for guerilla activities to release terrorist detainees and confiscated weapons and for all practical purposes was establishing a state within state (PLO’s in Lebanon). In effect the Lebanese Army gradually lost its control over the scope of the PLO’s armed activities, which widened beyond the areas limited by the agreement. In April 1975 clashes erupted between the PLO and the Lebanese Phalange (Kataeb Party) following the attempt assassination of Sheikh Pierre Gemayel, head of the Kataeb Party. This was an ultimate path to civil war.

This is the text of the Cairo Accord (unofficial, the official one was never published, and voided in 1987 by Lebanese president Amine Gemayel, nevertheless accurate).

It is true that the raids by PLO brought actions by IDF in Southern Lebanon. That was exactly what Arafat was after, but the list of atrocities committed by PLO acting from Lebanese soil in Israel was extensive and could not remain without Israeli reaction. Probably the worst was Ma’alot massacre of school children by terrorists infiltrating from Lebanon.