Master terrorist: the true story behind Abu Nidal

Since World War II, terror has become one of the major problems of our time. This is all the more true of Palestinian terrorism, to such an extent that the words "terror" and "Palestinian" have come to be almost synonymous. And indeed, since the end of the 1960's the Palestinian terror organizations I have not only disturbed the delicate balance in the Middle East, but have become a burden on the entire world.

The founding in the late 1950's of the Fatah organization by a young Palestinian engineer in Kuwait named Yasser Arafat helped to shape the new direction of the Palestinian movement. Within a few years, Arafat and his Fatah took over the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.)- the umbrella organization of the Palestinian groups - and became the dominant force within it.

Though the actions of the various Palestinian organizations provided clear evidence of the continued existence of the Arab Israeli conflict, the problem seemed to be declining between the 1973 Yom Kippur and 1982 Lebanese wars. This was due to an extent to the fact that the world has learned to live with terror, and has developed certain preventive measures against it. Part of the reason for this decline, however, was that the majority of the Palestinian organizations had reduced their reliance on armed struggle against Israel as the only way to achieve their goal: the establishment of a Palestinian state. The number of terrorist acts accordingly decreased considerably. Instead of, or correctly, together with, the use of force, the Palestinian organizations began to stress the use of political and diplomatic means to achieve their end. And even if they did not lay that great a stress on diplomacy, they at least tried to combine both methods.