At a time when newspaper headlines are—-once again—heralding a “new flexibility” by the “realists” of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a non- flexible, truly realistic picture of this barbarous group is highly welcome. Inside the PLO provides it.
This book is the most comprehensive exposé of the PLO ever published. Based on information obtained from the intelligence organizations of six countries, the authors identify the PLO as the largest criminal organization the world has ever known.
Informed readers will not be surprised at the detailed descriptions of PLO- sponsored terrorist activities. Nor will they be surprised at the documented cowardice of Western nations in responding to the terrorism. But they may be shocked by the enormity of the PLO’s invidious reach, and by the financial empire that sustains it.
The PLO is a multi-national crime syndicate with assets of $8-$14 billion, which are on deposit in countries all over the world. It has its own bank and has 55 missions with full diplomatic status. Apart from its ostensibly legitimate businesses, such as radio stations and newspapers (whose ownership is carefully concealed), the money comes from: PLO “taxation” of Palestinians from many nations; donations from pro-terrorist states such as Libya, Iraq and Syria; robbery and murder on “contract”; drug- and arms-sales; and protection money from Middle East potentates (especially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), as well as from various airlines and oil companies, which want to avoid “trouble.” Even the U.S.
government, some may be surprised to learn, has paid off the PLO to refrain from attacking American embassies. In fact, Washington has been willing even to negotiate with the very same PLO members who had been responsible for the 51 killing of U.S. citizens. Few better historical examples of the consequences of compromising with evil could be given than those presented in this book.
The authors include portraits of many leading PLO figures. Although the organization IS somewhat fragmented and beset by internal conflict, all factions share the same basic goals: the destruction of Israel and the paralyzation of the Western nations, particularly the U.S. PLO chief Yasir Arafat, whose power derives mainly from his control over the PLO treasury, is shown to be a consummate manipulator who talks peace even as he is approving new terrorist acts. His periodic peaceful overtures to the West represent tactical machinations, not strategic reversals. (An informative Afterword, written just after the Persian Gulf War, describes the PLO’s heinous role in the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.) The book deals only briefly with the PLO philosophy, which is a mongrelized combination of Marxism, pragmatism, Palestinian nationalism and Islam. But the constants are: irrationalism and brutality.
This book is must reading for anyone who wants in-depth knowledge of how the PLO operates and what its sources of support—material and moral—are. The authors do not equivocate in their firm condemnation of the PLO. This is an organization that makes the Mafia look like harmless amateurs by comparison.
And it will remain a powerful and dangerous force as long as the West continues to appease it rather than squash it. Of all the countries in the world, only Israel has stood up to the PLO by retaliating for terrorist acts. One can only hope that this book will give others the courage to do the same.
This review is made available by the Ayn Rand Bookstore (formerly Second Renaissance Books)
