Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee356terrorism: it will carry out bombings throughout the world,hijack airplanes, and murder many Israelis. In this way, thePLO will lose part of the political legitimacy that it hasgained and will mobilize the large majority of the Israelination in hatred and disgust against it, undercutting thedanger that elements will develop among the Palestiniansthat might become a legitimate negotiating partner for futurepolitical accommodations. 52Other commentators made the same point. Danny Rubinstein wrotein Davar that “The PLO as an orderly political body is more terrifying tothe government of Israel than the powerful terrorist PLO.” This is thereason why “the government of Israel planned the Lebanon war for theentire past year (as Sharon has testified) and planned to reach Beirut (asall the commanders have testified).” Israel’s security had never been sogreat, but Arafat’s success in maintaining the cease-fire was a greaterdanger than any security threat because of the “political power that thePLO had developed,” so that “fear was growing” that it could not beexcluded from negotiations, and negotiations would undermine Israel’srejectionism, leading to Palestinian self-determination, i.e., a Palestinianstate. The PLO must be forced back to “murderous terror” to overcomethe danger of pressure from Western liberal opinion and the U.S.government (a dubious prospect) in favor of a two-state settlement. 53Always the same “panic” that there might be a peaceful politicalsettlement, so that Judea, Samaria and Gaza would have to be abandoned,an intolerable prospect to both major political groupings. In linewith this rather plausible analysis, one can expect that much of the U.S.press (the New Republic, New York Times, etc.), will eagerly seize uponany indication of PLO “radicalism,” which may indeed develop in thewake of the disaster that the Palestinians suffered in Lebanon, thoughClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky