On November 29, 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, which divided Palestine into two pieces, the 14,000 square kilometers for the Jewish state and the 11,000 square kilometers for the Arabs. Five months later the Jews established Israel, while the Arabs gathered their armies in five months, stuck early in the morning of the second day of the establishment of the State of Israel, and started the first Middle East war.
When the war broke out, 19-year-old Arafat was studying in the department of civil engineering at Cairo University in Egypt, and when he heard about this, he was excited and simply skipped class and returned to his hometown to participate in the war. Arafat, like countless Palestinians, expects the Arab states to take the lead and help them build a State of their own after the battle.
People who can study abroad in those years are not simple, the family is not rich or expensive, even if they come out of the university with their eyes closed, they can also occupy important positions in the future, a college student does not go to class and runs to fight, what does he think in his heart?
In fact, long before the United Nations met and separated the family, the Jews began to prepare for the establishment of the country, when the Palestinians and Jews had already moved, the young Arafat was not a well-behaved bystander, he bought weapons and ammunition from Egypt and hid all the way to the front line in Tibet, and it was not surprising that such a baby skipped class and went to the battlefield a few years later.
The First Middle East War changed the fate of many Palestinians, who went from being discouraged to discouraged and then becoming refugees on foot to make a living in surrounding countries, where they lived in slums drinking dirty water and doing their physical work, some of whom have not yet returned.
Arafat's mother died when he was 3 years old, and he lost his father in the first Middle East war, so the 19-year-old Arafat has lost both parents. The war struck this hot-blooded young man so hard that he understood one thing: the Jews could not be killed without strong force. Arafat, who had been mixed up with 100,000 refugees, returned to Egypt to continue his studies, and his father had been a rich man, so he did not have to go to the slums.
A year later, activist Arafat became president of the Palestinian Students' Federation, a position where he met a large group of like-minded activists. In an era when there was no TV, no phone or the Internet, how could we expand our influence to attract more activists? There was a unanimous decision to start a magazine: Our Palestine.
The enthusiastic young people had many ideas, and later unanimously elected Arafat to express everyone's intentions to Egyptian President Nasser, hoping that he could help palestine build a state. Nasser heard that the cup was going to fall, the founding of the country is not to build a student union, not only to get their own people but also to get the Jews, after the fact, find a bunch of reliable people to maintain the situation, do you understand these things? Nation-building is not fighting, killing and killing, nation-building is human nature!
Poured cold water by Nasser, Arafat was not discouraged, and in 1955, the World Youth Congress was held in Warsaw, Poland, and Arafat took the stage as a representative of the Palestinian Student Union, and he spoke of the Palestinians' desire for statehood. I don't know how the audience reacted at that time, a student said this at an international conference, and he is destined to be a character in the future.
(Speech by Arafat)
In 1956, Britain and France were not happy that Egypt had nationalized the Suez Canal, and after all diplomatic efforts were useless, they pulled Israel together to attack Egypt and wanted to snatch the Suez Canal back, which was the second Middle East war. At that time, there was a shortage of people on the front line of the Egyptian army, and Arafat took the initiative to enlist in the army, and went to the battlefield for the second time to fight with the Jews.
The war was only fought for a week, and the Egyptians behaved rather badly, and if the United States and the Soviet Union had not stopped in time, we do not know what the consequences would have been. The young Arafat, who was once again battered by the war, realized that it was not realistic to pin the idea of statehood on others, and that the Palestinians had to have their own armed forces to fight the Jews.
In 1957 Arafat registered a company in Kuwait called the Free Palestinian Construction Company, and if it was really a construction company, then Arafat was worthy of a professional class teacher, in fact the business of this company was not to build houses but to raise money for Palestinian guerrillas. After two years in Kuwait, Arafat and a few of his most reliable friends set up his own organization: the Palestine Liberation Movement, or Fatah for short, which means "open the door to victory" and whose philosophy is to fight Israel to the end.
"Fatah" had no influence at first, Arafat advertised in his own publications to recruit people everywhere, and at the same time pulled investment to the entire Arab world, and when the money was almost the same as people, the "Storm" commando team was formed, and a Palestinian armed organization that did not rely on Arab countries and relied entirely on its own appeared.
Later, Arafat went to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and other countries to open the "Storm" commando training class, the members of the training ended with the graduation certificate, they can feel the Palestinians to launch guerrilla warfare against Israel, by the way to the crowd to give magazines, but also recruit those who are not afraid of death and death is not afraid of the ugly new people to join.
On Monday, June 5, 1967, Israel suddenly launched a war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and Arafat took part in the live-fire exercise with Fatah. Although the war lasted only 6 days, Israel's gains were unreasonable, not only occupying all of Palestine, but also taking the Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and the three Arab countries lost only the bottoms.
Arafat was beaten by war for the third time, he was able to see the military incompetence of the Arab countries thoroughly, but also saw the strength of the Israeli army, understood that the biggest problem of the Palestinians is that they have no national identity, and have always regarded themselves as Arabs, so they mistakenly pinned the ideal of statehood on the Arab countries, and these Arab countries have a large territory but are not very capable, and they will not sacrifice themselves for Palestine like their relatives.
Seeing the overwhelming combat effectiveness of the Israeli army and comparing it to his poorly equipped Storm commando, Arafat sadly realized that it was impossible to defeat Israel militarily in this life, and it was time to change his thinking and consider political means. What is political means? That's negotiating, meeting, signing agreements.
It was only in the years when palestinians were at odds with each other that it was dangerous to have such an idea as an army leader, when he could not be promoted openly, so that he would be labeled a traitor, or even tear apart the already small team.
The fiasco of the 3rd Middle East War also severely hit King Hussein of Jordan, he lost a large amount of land, and realized that Israel could not afford it, and he was embarrassed to leave Hamas in the country for training, he was not embarrassed to receive American assistance, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that "Fatah" could not stay, and simply ordered arafat's gang to be driven away in 1970.
Arafat went to Lebanon to find a new office and continued to fight guerrilla warfare with Israel.
(Portrait of Arafat on the Palestinian-Israeli wall)
In 1973, Egypt joined forces with Syria to sneak up on Israel and take back the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights that had been taken by Israel last time, and Egyptian President Sadat told Arafat: Come with your people and win Gaza and the West Bank for Palestinian statehood, which is the fourth Middle East war. The war lasted for 10 days, Egypt and Syria were counterattacked by Israel in the case of a successful sneak attack, and finally the two sides stopped under the pressure of the international community, and the result was barely a draw, if you interview Arafat, he will say that he was beaten by the war again.
Arafat was determined to change the way he thought about the struggle, so he interviewed PLO members one by one, talking to more than 300 people, and finally at the June 1974 congress, the organization accepted the decision to use armed struggle and political means together. In November 1974, Arafat was invited to the 29th session of the United Nations General Assembly, and he said the most famous thing in his speech: I am standing here with an olive branch and the guns of the soldiers, hoping that the old iron will be more supportive and not let the olive branch fall from my hand.
Although Arafat is very famous, although he is recognized by all parties as the Leader of Palestine, but he can not control all anti-Israel organizations, the idea of peace negotiations has been brewing in his heart, but the attacks of various organizations on Israel have never stopped, how to break this bureau makes him very entangled in his heart, in the Lebanese entanglement, Arafat waited until the 5th Middle East War sent to the door.
On June 6, 1982, Israel sent more than 20,000 people to attack Lebanon with the aim of eliminating the Palestine Liberation Organization and teaching its supporter Syria a lesson. The war lasted for 3 months, and finally ceased fire under the criticism of the United Nations, the PLO was seriously injured, and then left Lebanon under the supervision of the multinational force, some to Algeria, some to Syria, some to Egypt, Arafat and the rest of the people to Tunisia to establish a new headquarters of Fatah.
Arafat, who had been beaten five times by the war, completely decided to negotiate peace with Israel, but other Palestinians who had not been beaten could not understand, they felt that Arafat was timid and retreated, the PLO was divided, and the people who opposed Arafat continued to work with Israel with their men and horses, becoming the spoilers of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, the most typical representative of which was Hamas founded by Imam Yassin in 1987.
The content of the Hamas Charter is as strong as the personality of this organization, which regards the recovery of palestine as its supreme platform for struggle, from the Mediterranean to the West Bank, and it recognizes neither Israel nor any documents signed by Arafat, nor all United Nations resolutions on Palestine, and threatens not to give up without eliminating Israel.
In addition to Hamas, similar groups include the PFLP, FDP and Islamic Jihad. Arafat claims to want to negotiate with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians, but there are always a bunch of people who sabotage every three to five minutes, which is very embarrassing. If these people could not be defeated, Arafat's political efforts would eventually go bankrupt, and of course he did not deal with them until his death.
Having lived through 5 Middle East wars in its entirety, no one knows better than Arafat what level of strength he is. In 1988 Arafat expressed acceptance of UN Resolution 181 in Tunisia and proclaimed the establishment of a Palestinian State, and the following year he was elected as his first president. This is the first state of Palestine on record, 41 years after the partition of Palestine and Israel in 1947.
(Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Abbey Rabin)
After the declaration of statehood, Arafat began to negotiate seriously with Israel, he proposed the concept of "land for peace" in 1991, and signed the Oslo Peace Agreement and two other autonomy agreements with then Israeli Prime Minister Razak Bin in 1993, because of these agreements, the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Rabin, Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Perez, which was the brightest moment in Arafat's life.
This famous peace prize has been received, and the two families are always embarrassed to fight anymore, right? However, the situation has not moved in a peaceful direction.
The Oslo Peace Agreement is only a directional document, and the specific issues have to be slowly polished by the bureaucrats on both sides for many years, grinding into a formal Palestinian statehood and Israeli good-neighborliness and friendship.
Of the many palestinian demands, three of the most serious are the most important. First, Israel had to ensure that the West Bank and Gaza were completely given to the Palestinians, so the Jewish settlements had to be demolished; second, israel had to pay a sum of reparations to settle them if 5 million Palestinian refugees were allowed to return home; third, it was really difficult to give at least half of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
Land, money, and religious shrines, these three things are difficult to choose with God, And Rabin wanted to say to Arafat: Can we change something else? Arafat was also embarrassed: we would not agree to another person. Rabin's embarrassment is certain, these three demands a large number of Israelites can't figure out, why should the land of the ancestors be given to the enemy? Never lost a war, why pay compensation? Will the holy land taken with blood be surrendered to others?
On November 4, 1995, when Rabin returned to the car after delivering a speech in King's Square, an incanthinkable Jewish youth squeezed through the crowd and pulled out a pistol and fired four shots in a row, killing Prime Minister Rabin to death. Rabin's sudden departure brought the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, which had little hope, to a complete end. After Israel will change its new prime minister, will the new prime minister dare to continue to talk to Arafat about land, money and Jerusalem? Of course not.
At that time, Israel was the Labor Party and the Likud Group taking turns in power, and the Labor Party belonged to the dovish faction and was willing to try political peace talks to solve the Palestinian-Israeli problem; the Likud Group was a hawk who would only choose to kill and maim the other side to achieve peace when Israel's military strength had a clear advantage. If Labour is likened to Fatah, then Likud is Hamas.
In the eyes of the Likud group, the entire Palestine from the Mediterranean to the West Bank is Israeli territory, do not think about the demolition of Jewish settlements, the refugee problem is self-inflicted by the Arabs, the reparations are impossible to lose in this lifetime, Jerusalem is divided into two parts is even more impossible, the Palestinians are either self-governing under Israeli rule, or see you on the battlefield.
In the five years since Rabin's burial, Israel has changed four prime ministers, with Labour's Peres and Barak serving for seven months and one and a half years respectively, while Netanyahu of the Likud group has been in office for 3 years, and Sharon, known as the "butcher" by the Palestinians, has been in office for 5 years. From 1995 to arafat's death in 2004, Labor negotiated with Arafat about agreements that had not been implemented, which would be thrown aside after Likud came to power, and they seized on the handle of Hamas and others to fight against the Palestinians, thus triggering more confrontation, Arafat was helpless, and peace became far away.
After Sharon the Butcher became prime minister in 2001, Hamas organized a massive uprising that was not only numerous but also used firearms and explosives, and launched a series of terrorist acts against the Israeli people, and every week Israeli cars, shops, pedestrians were attacked, which doubled Sharon's revenge, and this back-and-forth conflict accompanied Sharon's entire 5-year term.
(Arafat under siege by Sharon)
The Israeli prime minister who accompanied Arafat in the final stage of his life was Sharon, and there was obviously no way to talk with this person, and arafat at an old age could no longer get into the line of fire, he was powerless against the out-of-control situation, and in the face of Israel, which was killing people every day, it was impossible for him to criticize his own people for destroying peace, which made Sharon firmly believe that Arafat was behind all violence, and simply ordered the special forces to enter the West Bank and surround Arafat in the official residence and not let him go anywhere.
Since 2001, Arafat has been trapped in the house by Israel, and his words and deeds are under Israel's control, and he can no longer play any role in the Palestinian-Israeli situation. On 28 October 2004, a sedan pulled out of the presidential residence and carried Arafat, who was in critical condition, to the airport, where he was first taken by a helicopter to Jordan and then taken to Paris on a special plane provided by the French government for treatment.
On Singles' Day, 11 November 2004, Arafat, 75, died at the Bercy Military Hospital in France, where he died as a result of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. The next day Arafat's body was transported to Egypt, where a military-style memorial service was held at an army club in Cairo, and in the afternoon the body was transported to the West Bank for a temporary burial in the official residence where he lived, and Arafat wanted to be buried in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, so he was temporarily buried in the official residence, all 17 years later.
After Arafat's death, there have been various legends about his cause of death, under pressure in 2012, the French government launched an investigation into arafat's death, and experts from Switzerland, France and Russia opened the coffin to take Arafat's bones back for testing, and finally detected the radioactive material polonium beyond normal levels, in October 2013, the British "Lancet" impurity released an investigation report by Swiss scientists, confirming that Arafat died of radioactive material polonium-210 poisoning. The number one suspect is, of course, Israel, but suspicion is doubt, no evidence, no witnesses and no powerful force, who can avenge him?
(Arafat's Mausoleum)
The "Fatah" established by Arafat is still adhering to the will of the old leader, and this organization sees the situation of hitting the pebble with pebbles in the Palestinian-Israeli struggle, so it fantasizes about building the country through political channels, but this goal cannot be achieved for a long time, and can only watch as the West Bank is eaten away by the Jews little by little, and the Palestinians who are disappointed in "Fatah" can only support the hard-line "Hamas".
"Hamas" is ostensibly more backbone than Fatah, but its strength determines that it cannot bring much hope to the Palestinians, and it is surrounded by Israel in the prison-like Gaza City, and can only use inferior rockets and tunnel warfare to launch a painless struggle against Israel, and it has to pay several times the heavy price after each move, and it has little way to block, strike and encroach on land.
Although Arafat declared the establishment of the State of Palestine in 1988, this so-called "state" has no clear national boundaries, no decent government, no ability to manage the political organization in the country, no clear economic plan and public policy, and it really does not have the appearance of a normal state, and can only be "observed" by the United Nations indefinitely as an "observer state".