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The Refugee Weapon

The following are excerpts from a speech reprinted on the official website of Yasser Arafat's Fatah (http://www.fateh.org/e_public/refugees.htm). Titled "The Palestinian Refugee Issue From a Fatah Perspective," it was given by Sakher Habash, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, at a seminar on "The Palestinian Refugee from the Political Parties' Perspective" which was held recently at A-Najah University, in Shechem (Nablus):

...The existence of the Palestinian people has been the only concrete fact on the Palestinian land. Furthermore, the Palestinian issue has become part and parcel of the Palestinian people whether those who remained in the land occupied in 1948, or those who were evacuated and lived as refugees in the rest of the Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or those who settled as refugees in neighboring Arab countries: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, or those who scattered in the Arab and international Diaspora.

...To us, the refugee issue is the winning card which means the end of the Israeli state. They have, therefore, refused to solve it this way. Meanwhile, we
should not seek negotiable solutions. And as we see Netanyahu up the tree, we should neither help him down nor send him a safety net. Adherence to the principle regarding the refugee issue and Jerusalem is what may enable us to exercise pressure in the future to remove settlements. Netanyahu is trying to expedite solving the three issues in order to impose his own solution. Our real power rests in our abiding the PLO which together with the cabinet will not resume negotiations unless a real revolution in the settlement principle takes place and settling in Abu



To us, the refugee issue is the winning card which means the end of the Israeli state.



Ghuneim Mount [Har Homa] is stopped. Thus, we will kill two important birds with one stone.

...The transitory solution of the refugee issue in the future is through confederation with Jordan. I visualize the future in establishing a democratic state by peaceful means. This will come true when the Zionist illusion comes to an end, the thing that has begun to occur in the Labor Party and Meretz.



An Opportunity for the President

(Continued from p.1)

have not brought peace and will not bring peace, because the Arab side does not yet sincerely want peace. Accept the fact that the Oslo accords were deeply flawed from the start, that the concept of "land for peace" is a fraud. Stop pressuring Israel for concessions to the PLO and Syria. Israeli retreats will only weaken the Jewish State and thereby impair America's strategic interests in the region.

8. Stand up for human rights. Don't let business interests or other factors deter you from standing firm for human rights. From pro-democracy dissidents in China to black slaves and persecuted Christians in the Arab countries, we must take steps to bring hope to the world's downtrodden.

The signs are not good, but it's still not too late for President Clinton to be remembered as a live hawk rather than a lame duck.

Herbert Zweibon is chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel.



Where is the Outrage?

(Continued from p.10)

youngsters are ambushed and killed by Arab terrorists? It seems that the outrage is reserved for those who might demand justice and revenge for random murder of innocent youths. In Israel and among so many American Jews, the outrage is reserved for those who bravely claim their patrimony in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It is reserved for the Orthodox, and for the nationalists. It is reserved for those who dissent from the government policy of assisted suicide. It is, alas, reserved for Zionism.

Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.


September 1998               - 11 -               Outpost

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