An Israeli news site last week quoted a Hamas leader telling a Lebanese newspaper that his group plans to declare independence in the Gaza Strip*. The Israeli site posted a follow-up analysis that noted with a certain degree of fascination that if the declaration takes place, it would mark the first time a full-fledge terrorist organization had become a government in charge of a territorial entity.
What the writer of the analysis overlooked was the fact that Yasser Arafat’s PLO already accomplished that feat more than a decade ago.
It’s been less than 15 years since the Olso peace process began, and already everyone (even Israelis) has been fully conditioned to view the PLO as the legitimate, if not rough-around-the-edges, political and diplomatic representative of a large population of people.
What is for some reason forgotten by most people today is that the PLO attained that position by first becoming the world’s premier terrorist killing machine. And it was not only Jews who fell prey. More than a few non-Jews around the globe, including American diplomats, were taken down by the PLO as well. Just 20 years ago, Yasser Arafat was Osama bin Laden, and the PLO was Al Qaeda.
In fact, the PLO was so much more than Al Qaeda. While bin Laden’s group is large, it pretty much works alone, except for that alliance with Taliban. But the PLO in its heyday was the place to go if you wanted to hone your terrorist skills. PLO bases in Lebanon are credited with training a whole range of other terror groups, from Ireland’s IRA to Japan’s Red Army.
- The original report from the Israeli news site can be found here, for those who read Hebrew: http://www.omedia.co.il/Show_Article.asp?DynamicContentID=6239&MenuID=821&ThreadID=1014010
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