Create a 12 page essay paper that discusses Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization.The formation of the PLO was one of the results of the recognition by the Arab States of the existen

Create a 12 page essay paper that discusses Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The formation of the PLO was one of the results of the recognition by the Arab States of the existence of “Palestine” as a cohesive entity (Tzahal 2010), and this led to the increasing use of small groups of terrorists - operating from bases in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria – to carry out attacks on villages and areas in the demilitarized zones created after the War of Independence [1947-1949].

Events soon escalated and the Syrians – who in 1966 had signed a “mutual defense pact”- with Egypt (Tzahal 2010) called upon their ally for assistance in what they believed would be an assault from Israeli forces. As a result, Egypt sent a military force into Sinai, the Egyptian President ordered the blockade of the Straits of Tiran and declared that their [the Arab States] intention was the final destruction of Israel. The forces of Saudi Arabia and Iraq moved to threaten Israel’s border, and later Jordan opened fire on a number of targets including West Jerusalem.

Israel’s response was swift and deadly: the Arab air-forces and their airfields were destroyed by bombing, Israeli forces moved into Sinai and, by the fourth day the war was over leaving Israel in possession of The Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, the whole of the West Bank, the Sinai peninsula and the whole of Jerusalem (Tzahal 2010). After the Six Day War the PLO was obliged to carry out its terrorist strikes from a number of different bases: in Jordan until 1970. from southern Lebanon until the US-sponsored peace plan caused them in the early 1980s to locate in a number of “friendly” Arab countries, including Tunis in 1982. These events are also treated in Chapter 10 of White’s book (2008).