Arafat and the PLO
Your editorial about the PLO (“The PLO: Why It’s Hurting the Cause,” Feb. 26) contained a lot of facts. One was the not often publicized fact about Saudi payments to the Palestine Liberation Organization. But your characterization of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s support of Saddam Hussein as a blunder is incorrect. That support is consistent with previous Arafat positions, such as when he embraced the Ayatollah Khomeini at the time Iran held American hostages.
The Palestinian cause for 60 years should have been for security and opportunity for economic advancement for the Palestinian people. This was not advanced by the PLO, as you said, because that was not really on the agenda of the PLO or Arafat.
Arafat used the Palestinian cause as a front for his real purpose. His embrace of Saddam was no blunder; for those that hadn’t understood it before, that act exposed him as an enemy of the U.S. and the West.
Perhaps now that he and the PLO have revealed what they really are even to those who hate to admit it, Palestinians may be able to get some legitimate representation and finally find the way to peace and justice.
AL BENGUIAT
Carlsbad
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