Richard Becker on how the Six-Day War unleashed the Palestinian resistance movement

With the conquest of the remaining 22 percent of Palestine in 1967, it appeared that the fate of the Palestinian people had been sealed.  But in a seeming paradox, the Six Day War led to the rise of the Palestinian resistance movement and new wave of popular radicalization across the region. 

Until the 1967 war, organizations such as Fatah- Palestine National Liberation Movement, and the Arab National Movement [ANM] led by George Habash, had placed their main hope for the liberation of Palestine with the Arab armies.  The outcome of the war brought that period to a close.  In 1968, Fatah and two organizations which emerged from the ANM, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine, took control of the Palestine Liberation Organization and launched mass resistance against the occupiers. 

Since then, the struggle has continued in many forms and the vicious Israeli repression funded by the U.S., has taken an enormous toll.  The dispossession of the Palestinian, the killings, systematic torture, the illegal settlements, the house demolitions, the destruction of olive and fruit groves, the theft of water, the lethal blockade and isolation of Gaza, the apartheid practice of the right of return, the apartheid roads, the apartheid everything – continue day after day. 

Since the 1967 war, according the Addameer prisoner rights organization, 800,000 Palestinian men, more than 40% of the adult male population, have been imprisoned.  Today, there are more than 6,300 Palestinians in Israeli prisons – every one of them held in violation of international law.  And there are 0 Israelis held in Palestinian prisons.  If that were the one and only fact one knew about the conflict there, one would know who is the colonizer and who is the colonized, who is the oppressor and who are the oppressed. 

The Palestinian liberation struggle continues under the most difficult conditions.  Many times since 1948, the Palestinians have been counted out, but they have never surrendered.

~ Richard Becker, "Fifty years later: Myths and facts about the Six Day War," Liberation, June 7, 2017

(This article is based on a talk by Richard Becker at a PSL forum in San Francisco on June 3, 2017.)

Murray Rothbard on rise of Hamas and decline of the P.L.O.

The P.L.O., child of the 1960s, was the last major organization born of the Old Islam: that is, led by secularists who were genuinely devoted to a unitary secular state in Palestine, with complete freedom to be enjoyed by all religions, Jewish and Christian, as well as Muslim.  At the same time that Israeli leaders were demonizing the P.L.O. as eager to hurl all Jews into the sea, the P.L.O. always insisted on distinctions between the aggressive "Zionist entity," which they hated, and the Jewish religion, which they had nothing against.

But that was Old Islam.  Within the last decade or so, as everyone knows, a militant New Islam has emerged, determined, "fundamentalist," and heaping only scorn on "Western" ideals such as religious freedom that had so influenced older groups like the P.L.O.  And so the upsurge of the New Islam, the "hard right" such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, hard-core Muslims who have no use for secularism or religious freedom.  And never, ever are they in a spirit to compromise, to surrender, to the hated Zionist entity.  The Palestinians of the poor, wretched Gaza Strip are almost totally devoted to Hamas, as are much of the Palestinians on the West Bank and among the remainder of the Palestinians, the P.L.O.'s only trumpcard has been the person of Yassar Arafat, beloved by rank-and-file Palestinians as the George Washington of his people.  But even that devotion began to erode a few years ago when the Muslim Arafat displayed the temerity to marry a Christian wife.

~ Murray Rothbard, "The Israel-P.L.O. Accord," Rothbard-Rockwell Report, October 1993, p. 4

September 13, 1993

Major James Larry Fields on how the Irgun influenced the PLO

The Irgun traces its roots to groups of individuals intent upon achieving Israeli statehood by whatever means available.  The Irgun's leaders, especially Menachem Begin, have represented a continuous force in Israel's political history.  Upon the dissolution of the Irgun organization, Begin and his cohorts entered the legitimate Israeli political system and rose to power within the Knesset.  Even though Begin formally withdrew from politics in 1983 he remains today an influential force within the major opposition party in Israel--the Likud.  Finally, this study illustrated the impact of the Irgun upon current Arab-Israeli relations. Ironically, the arch enemy of Israel, the PLO, has copied many of the tactics employed by the Irgun in their struggle for independence. 

Many authorities on the subject of terrorism and Israeli history have demonstrated that the activities of the Irgun Zvai Leumi served as a model for other subsequent terrorist movements with similar purposes.  One noted author, Albert Parry, shows how a seemingly diverse array of contemporary terrorist movements trace their roots to the Irgun model.  Ironically, the chief adversary of Israel, the Paletine Liberation Organization, could be included among those terrorist organizations that were heavily influenced by the Irgun model.  Today, a form of "Arab Zionism" has emerged within the ranks of the PLO stimulated in part by the loss of Palestinian land to Israel.

The Palestinians, especially the PLO, have in fact adopted the Irgun's symbol, methodology and tactics. These tactics and methods were proven effective during the Zionist's quest for statehood.  It is intriguing that the Palestinians, driven by fervent nationalism, have reversed roles with the Israelis.  Specifically, the PLO is to present day Palestinians what the Irgun was to the pre-independent Zionists.

~ Major James Larry Fields, USA, "Irgun Zvai Leumi: The Jewish Terrorist Element of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Air Command and Staff College student report, April 1985

1976