Arab Israeli Conflict

The territorial entity known as Palestine has been the object of contending religious attachments and political claims for centuries. Palestine has been the object of no less than six major wars, and countless other conflicts in between. The conflict is of such magnitude that it has been elevated to an issue of global concern. At its root, however, the conflict is a bilateral one; it persists between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine and their respective leadership: the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The PLO's demands throughout its conflict with Israel have evolved significantly over the years. The organization's overarching goal remains, as it was originally devised, the creation of a Palestinian state. However, its conception of such a state, its objectives in achieving this state, and the means sought to attain it have been modified in light of changing events. The most significant shifts, of which there are three, occurred in between the 1967 War, with the ascendancy of Fateh and Yasser Arafat, and the signing of the Oslo Accord, or Declaration of Principles, in 1993. The evolving policy of the PLO during these years shows an increasing tendency towards moderation.

This paper will trace and explain the causes of the PLO's moderation. It will examine the shifts in objective and strategy mentioned above, considering the historical and political context of each. Originally dedicated to the complete annihilation of Israel, the PLO has since come to accept the partition of historic Palestine as the ultimate solution to the conflict. This reversal of policy can be attributed to a crisis of survival, in which the two-state solution became the only means for ensuring the permanence of the PLO. The two-state solution was embraced at a "ripe" moment in order not to maximize gains, but to minimize and preclude losses.

The Question of Palestine

The "Arab-Israeli conflict" did not begin as an inter-state conflict, but originated at first between the inhabitants of mandated Palestine: the Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews. The conflict is, at its root, a clash between two nationalist movements (Harkabi 35). However, Palestine became an issue of greater Arab concern in the late 1940s, and remained at the center of inter-Arab politics for decades to come. In the crisis that developed in Palestine over the Balfour Declaration, heightened Jewish immigration, and ultimately, the creation of the State of Israel, the Arab states assumed responsibility for the Palestinian cause within the framework of pan-Arabism. As a result, the Palestinians relied mainly on the Arab states to defend their rights, and during this time, uniquely Palestinian organizations, parties, and leadership were subordinated to a myriad of larger Arab political movements (Cattan 115, Quandt 49). Between 1948 and 1967, then, Palestinian nationalism was relatively dormant, and the struggle for Palestine was dominated by the Arab states. In its earlier conceptions, Palestinian nationalism lacked a momentum of its own, and was merged in the