The Rebellious Palestinians

The Palestinian Arab people rejects every solution that is a substitute for a complete liberation of Palestine.

--Palestinian National Covenant

EVEN if every Arab government should agree to observe a cease-fire in the Middle East, the Rogers plan still faces a formidable threat from the Arab side. It comes from the fedayeen, the Palestinian commandos who live and fight on the soil of Israel's neighbors but feel bound by none of their policies--especially any that might formally recognize Israeli control over a single foot of the Palestinian homeland.

Since the Six Day War, the fedayeen have emerged not only as a troublesome guerrilla threat to Israel, but also as a force to be reckoned with in the domestic politics of nearly every Arab nation. "We are the joker in the deck," boasts Dr. George Habash, leader of the extremist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (P.F.L.P.), whose specialty is the hijacking of airplanes. "Without our consent, the other Arabs can do nothing, and we will never agree to a peaceful settlement. If the Arab countries now think they can gang up and make peace over our heads, they are mistaken. All we have to do is assert our power in one country and the rest will lose their resolve and start backsliding."

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The Palestinians have some understandable doubts about other Arabs' resolve. Twenty-two years after the vast majority were driven or fled from their homes in what is now Israel (only 340,000 are Israeli citizens), they have little to show for their brothers' endless promises to reconquer Palestine. Of their total number (2,500,000), about half are registered as refugees with the U.N., and half of those live in squalid refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Arab leaders have no intention of completely giving in on the Palestinian issue. But most leaders are willing to consider a compromise, especially as part of a deal that would return the territories captured by the Israelis in the 1967 war. Even Egypt's Nasser has spoken privately of a negotiated plan that would allow "significant numbers" to return to their homeland.

But there is yet no evidence that Palestinians, now more united than ever by the fedayeen's brand of Middle East machismo, will change their adamant refusal to bargain on their dream of total repatriation. Says Yasser Arafat, leader of the largest commando group, Al-Fatah: "A return to 1967 really only takes Palestinians back to being refugees on the West Bank of the Jordan or in Gaza under Arab rule. It doesn't take them all home under self-rule, and that is what we are struggling for."

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In conducting almost nightly raids on Israeli border outposts, the fedayeen often depend on artillery cover from regular Arab army troops. In the event of a ceasefire, the Arab governments presumably would withhold that tactical support, as Jordan's King Hussein last week ordered his troops to do. But the guerrillas could still shower Israel from three countries with their small-arms fire and with rockets and mortars. Israelis who live in settlements near the Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese frontiers will almost certainly have to continue sleeping in shelters, even after a formal cease-fire begins.

Although some of the fedayeen weaponry is provided by Arab governments, most is now purchased through European arms suppliers and freelance gunrunners. Thus as long as the fedayeen have sufficient funds, it will be difficult for the Arab states to cramp their fighting style. The funds are not likely to dry up soon: China is opposed to Soviet peace efforts, and large numbers of Palestinian refugees contribute despite their poverty.

Should the Palestinians become alarmed at the course of peace talks, they may thus have the means and the numbers to wage an armed struggle against most of the Arab participants. Even if they stop short of starting an inter-Arab war, the Palestinians might force Arab negotiators into a position of such intransigence as to doom any chance of a settlement. Or by keeping up the fight after a settlement, they might give Israel an excuse to renounce it and resume the hostilities.

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