Arab Radicals Form Anti-PLO Alliance

Arab radicals today announced the formation of a new alliance in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip that includes Muslim fundamentalists and pro-Syrian extremists opposed to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat’s recent peace overtures.

In a leaflet issued today, the Palestinian radicals accused Arafat of “selling out Palestine to imperialism and Zionism” in his announcement at a news conference in Geneva last month that he recognizes Israel and renounces terrorism.

“We demand the establishment of a militant leadership to replace the diminishing leadership of Yasser Arafat,” said the leaflet, which was signed by the United National Front in Occupied Palestine.

The group is an alliance of Islamic extremists and pro-Syrian radicals, including members of Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Abu Moussa’s breakaway faction of Arafat’s mainstream Fatah.

The leaflet said the group “rejected all surrenderist solutions” and advocated “liberating the whole of Palestine through armed struggle.”

The leaflet also called for the formation of a new Palestine National Council.

Also today, police said they suspected Palestinian nationalists were responsible for the killing of an Israeli shot to death in the occupied West Bank Thursday night.

Israeli hikers clashed with Arabs as they made their way past the West Bank village of Beit Inan today, Israel Radio said. The hikers opened fire at youths, who hurled large rocks at them, but there were no reports of injuries, Israel Radio said.