Volume 26, Number 9 · May 31, 1979
Begin vs. Begin
By Bernard Avishai
When President Sadat came to Jerusalem in November 1977 he stole the initiative from Arab 'rejectionists'—not only Syria, Iraq, Libya, but all the important factions of the PLO. Among these are Yasir Arafat's Fatah, the Syrian-backed Saika, the Iraqi-backed ALF, Naif Hawatme's PDFLP, and George Habash's PFLP. What seems forgotten now is how bitterly most of these countries and factions were feuding with one another then. The Syrian and Iraqi Ba'athists were competing to dominate the region north of the Persian Gulf. Fatah and Syria (and Saika) were at odds over President Assad's strong-armed intervention in Lebanon, particularly the Syrian army's murderous crushing of Fatah at the Tel-a-Zaatar refugee camp in early 1977. Fatah was also feuding both with the Libyan-financed PFLP over Arafat's apparent readiness to negotiate with the US and with the Iraqi ALF, which had long resented Arafat's prior involvements with the Syrians. The Syrians had, after all, accepted UN resolution 242 and had negotiated a disengagement agreement with Israel; like Fatah they were eager to go to Geneva.
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