P.L.O. confidence grows

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 8

P.L.O. confidence grows

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Despite temporary setbacks, the Palestine Liberation Organisation is making steady progress in its long fight for recognition by the United States and its allies in the West. In Palestinian eyes, t the resignation of Mr Andrew Young, the American Ambassador at the United Nations, in a row over ' is meeting with the P.L.O.’s man at the United Nations, served to underscore that the P.L.O. is a political force that cannot be ignored. “If we were an insignificant little outfit representing nobody, we could hardly be the ‘reason for a policy dispute which shook the foundations of the American Administration,” commented a P.L.O. official. The resignation of Mr Young, after he was reprimanded for meeting a P.L.O. representative, prompted gloomy predictions that the prospects of an AmericanPalestinian dialogue had been shattered.

But P.L.O. leaders had no illusions that useful com- ■ munications would begin be- ; fore the end of the Ameri- ; can election campaign next ! year. > “It will perhaps take a little more time now, but it ; will happen eventually,” said ' an official. The Palestinians have I often argued that they see : no reason to make con- > cessions while Israel, armed , and financed by the United t States, has insisted time and ; again that it would never recognise the P.L.O. and never • negotiate with it. Israeli Government I spokesmen describe the i P.L.O. as a “syndicate of : murderers” bent on the des- ; truction of the Jewish State. ’ But acceptance of the Israeli view, once shared by most r of the West, is gradually ■ eroding. The P.L.O. regarded as a i big moral victory last j month’s Vienna meeting of ■ the commando chief, Mr 1 Yasser Arafat, with the Austrian Chancellor (Dr Bruno Kreisky) and the former West German Chancellor, Mr Willy Brandt — both men with impeccable creden-

tials in the defence of peace and human rights. A week-end meeting of the 57-member Palestine Central Council in the Syrian capital, Damascus, gave Mr Arafat an informal mandate to continue contacts with Western European leaders.

Clearly prepared for greater political flexibility, the Palestinian leaders meeting in Damascus were careful to leave the door open for a dialogue with the United States as well, although United States policy in the Middle East was bitterly criticised. A powerful, but unspoken argument in the P.L.O.’s favour is Western Europes dependence on Arab oil, which is far greater than United States reliance on supplies of Arab crude. The Western condition for recognising the P.L.O. has been P.L.O. recognition of United Nations Resolution 242, the 12-year-old Security Council guidelines for a settlement of the Middle East conflict.

But after initially encouraging a compromise formula which would both reaffirm

Resolution 242 and endorse the Palestinians’ demand for the establishment of an independent state, the United States has now made it clear it would veto any formula that would specify Palestinian statehood.

Indirectly, P.L.O. chiefs have long recognised Israel's right to exist. As long as two years ago, Mr Arafat said the Palestinians w'era ready to “set up a State on any part of our soil freed from occupation.” Phrasing allows for a Palestinian mini-State alongside Israel, which is a long cry from the original P.L.O. demand for all the territory, held by the Jewish State. Although there is no doubt that most P.L.O. leaders no longer believe that the only way to a Middie East solution is through the barrel of a gun, there are two key demands which are not open to negotiation.

These are the right to the establishment of an independent State and the right to return to homes the Palestinians lost with the establishment of Israel in 1948. Both are unacceptable to the Israelis.