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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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248 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONOne <strong>of</strong> Arafat's biggest problems was the Black June Organization(BJO) headed by Sabri Al Banna, better known as Abu Nidal. TheBJO, who are Palestinian Muslims, have a religious fervor thatmakes them more dangerous than many <strong>of</strong> the other factions.This organization had nearly been wiped out by a combined force<strong>of</strong> Syrians and Lebanese Christians in the late 1970s, but Nidalhad survived, under a death sentence from Arafat. Any Palestiniandeaths that couldn't be pinned on Israel were blamed on AbuNidal, considered the bad boy <strong>of</strong> the terrorist world.It was the BJO's attempted assassination <strong>of</strong> Shlomo Argovê,Israel's ambassador to London, in 1982, that Israel used as anexcuse to launch a full-scale war against Lebanon. Begin called itthe "War <strong>of</strong> Choice," meaning that Israel had entered this war notbecause it had to — as with all its previous wars — but because itchose to. It may have been a poor choice, but Begin's owndemagoguery got in the way. In any event, the attempt on Argoveleft him alive but essentially in a vegetable state. And it wasblamed on Arafat, even though he had nothing to do with it.Before the Argovê affair, Israel had negotiated an under- the-tableun<strong>of</strong>ficial ceasefire with Arafat's PLO to get them to stop firingtheir Russian-made Katyusha rockets from southern Lebanon intoIsrael, a deal that was made to appear as if it was a unilateral oneon behalf <strong>of</strong> the PLO. Arafat was charging around to various EastBloc countries at the time shoring up his support. The Mossadknew he was going to attempt to purchase a large supply <strong>of</strong> lightweapons in Europe and have them shipped to Lebanon. Thequestion was why? After all, he could just go to Czechoslavakia,for example, and say he wanted weapons. They'd say, "Sign here,"and send everything he needed. It was like living by a fountain butwalking five miles down the road to get water. If you don't explainthat the fountain is salt water, it makes no sense.Arafat's salt water was a 20,000-strong force <strong>of</strong> well-trainedfighting men called the Palestinian Liberation Army, or PLA,headed by Brigadier General Tariq Khadra, who in 1983 woulddenounce Arafat as PLO leader and formally withdraw

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