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Arafat intends to plant in any agreement with Israel a fuse that will eventually blow it to pieces
Settling the Galilee
The way Arafat envisions it, the right of return will be realized by the approximately 300,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. The explanation: Unlike refugees who have found their place in Jordan, or even in the West Bank, these people never became integrated in their country of refuge. This demand poses an existential threat to Israel – not just because of the huge number of hostile residents the country would be forced to absorb (about a 25 percent increase to the present number of Israeli Arabs), but because of the object of their yearnings: the Galilee, from which their families fled in 1948.
Cumulative experience with Arafat indicates that he means what he says: To him, limiting the right of return to refugees residing in Lebanon is a major concession. Yossi Beilin’s assertion that a formula could be found for resolving the problem of the refugees without Israel having to absorb them in great numbers still awaits convincing proof.
According to military intelligence assessments, Arafat is absolutely serious about his position on this issue. He says the same things in public that he whispers in private. The demand to realize the right of return within the borders of Israel is part of his conception of peace. Unlike the accords with Egypt and Jordan, which were based on the “land for peace” formula, Arafat intends to plant in any agreement with Israel a fuse that will eventually blow it to pieces.
Put another way: The way Arafat sees it, peace will not be secured, even in the event of a total Israeli withdrawal (or a near-total withdrawal combined with a territorial exchange), nor in an accord that gives him sovereignty over the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem – unless his demand for the right of return is completely fulfilled.
Even if he says things here and there in unofficial conversations with Israelis that leave his interlocutors with the impression that he is ready to show some flexibility on the issue, army intelligence believes his public position is what counts: He has made what amounts to a historic commitment to bring the refugees home and does not intend on – or is not capable of – retracting it.
Excerpted from “Corridors of Power” Ha’aretz 26 October 2001, with thanks to Dr. Aaron Lerner of “IMRA” for bringing this article to out attention
