THE UPRISINGS within the occupied territories orientation.
The PLO has traditionally seen liberation as coming from Israeli state, whether this is in the form or action the Arab regimes, guerilla diplomatic manoeuvres.
1974, Fatah, the bourgeois nationalist facheaded by Yassar Arafat, has oriented the PLO towards reaching an accommodation with imperialism the Arab states around the project of a Palestinian mini-state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip This 'realistic' goal it practice replaced the officially declared objective of destroying the Zionist state through a protracted 'people's war.
La transitional demand the call for a PalestiTHE DIVISIONS among the supporters of the Israeli state which have opened up at an international level as a result of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied terrotories have also found a reflection within the Zionist state itself. Although these divisions represent tactical disagreements framework of Zionism, unleashed present Zionists in the Israeli state.
Polarisation: has been growing within the Israeli tate for a long time. Th break-up of he nationa consensus He I speeded by the traumatic experience of the invasion of Lebanon the first that Zionism had been unable hold together its forces during war and by the depth nd length of the present Palestinian uprising.
The Israeli national ulty covertment te is the perverse logic of Zionism hat allows ultra-right Liked the Party to unite) is coming and the resonance they have struck within the Israeli state itself poses serious challenges to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leadership's present nian state could create the for mobilising Palestinian LIC Hilasscu within the occupied territories even the possibility of winning section of the Isaeli working class. However, the independence of such a state would be illusory unless it was coupled with a strug tionary Hashmetite monarch Jordan Zionism in its crimes This course would be anathema the Fatah eadership.
For tion while maintaining a formal commitment to the destruction of the Israeli state. Instead of leading an anti-imperialist struggle based on the oppressed Arafat sought a negotiated settlement with the Israeli state with the help imperialism, Arab regimes. and even This policy, based on the forlorn hope that the Zionists would negotiate a withdrawal from the occupied territories was doomed failure. Moreover the left factions within the PLO, and even radical nationalists were potential threat to Arafat's plans.
Following the Zionist invasion of seige Beirut, Arafat entered negotiations with the US for the evacuation of the PLO The evacuation removed the last remaining autonomous base of fighters strengthened Arafat's the PLO. dependent state. in the oc The plan incupied territories now gave way to a demand for Jordanian-Palestinian confederation the option favoured by Reagan Presently this takes the form of Arafat calling for an peace The uprising in the occupied territories has for the first time shifted the axis of the liberation strug into 'ralestine response to the anger and uprisings frustration that has built Zionist under of oppression. The waves of demonstrations have united young and old, camp and city dwellers, cut across all classes taneous actions soon led to The initially attempts activists to committees in Gaza Irom Popular for the of Democratic for the Liberation of SCHiL this will serious to gain the territories The • the fundamenBUNS SN Zionists proa sort of betcamps a. their efforts have been directed against thẹ Zionist troops.
. The uprising nów pose sharp •questions for the Palestinia liberation movement. The dinlo male Halecuve of the Arafat leadership have led the movement into a dead The leftist factions themselves compromisec the alliances with various regimes, have failed to challenge Fatah and develop an alternative bas ed on the independent interests of the oppressed masses of the region.
The PLO can go forward if rejects the of Fatah, bases itself on the thousands of SOW drawn into struggle in the occupied territories and within the Israeli state reorganises itself in accor - that the struggle has the heart of Palestine itself. soldiers not to obey the orders to beat up people If the uprising continues protracted period with rising Zionist casualties and more information about the repres sion seeping through the Israeli censorship, we can expect this movement to grow strongly.
• For a description of the Pot see Protein of see International Marxist Review, spring 1987.
International Viewpoint carries regular interviews and reports from the occupied territories and See particularly issues 133 and 134 for interviews with Israeli anti-Zionists on which these articles are based.
Both publications are available from OTHER BOOKS, PO Box 50, London N21 2XP.