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Marie Colvin profiles Yasser Arafat and the PLO leader's newfound commitment to reject terrorism and accept Israel's right to exist.

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00:00Frontline is made possible by the financial support of viewers like you, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
00:11Tonight, who is the real Yasser Arafat?
00:16He is still seen as someone who wants to have it both ways, the Kalashnikov in one hand, the terrorist image, so to speak, and the olive branch in the other, the statesman image.
00:26On the move with Arafat, Frontline examines his controversial career, and the credibility of his new peacemaker image.
00:34This is an old cynical part of the world, and men don't just reinvent themselves overnight.
00:40Tonight on Frontline, the faces of Arafat.
00:44From the network of public television stations, a presentation of KCTS Seattle, WNET New York, WPBT Miami, WTVS Detroit, and WGBH Boston.
01:06This is Frontline, with Judy Woodruff.
01:14Good evening. After years of refusing to do so, the United States is talking to the Palestine Liberation Organization,
01:22as part of ongoing efforts to promote peace in the Middle East.
01:26Tonight on Frontline, we present a profile of Yasser Arafat, one of the key players at the center of the standoff in the Middle East.
01:36It is about Arafat's life and career, a way perhaps to understand someone who has long been an ambiguous figure.
01:45For tonight's program, BBC producer Anthony Geffen followed American journalist Marie Colvin,
01:53as she gained unusual access to Arafat and his world.
01:57Marie Colvin is Middle East correspondent for the London Sunday Times.
02:02Our program is called, The Faces of Arafat.
02:06Tunis, headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
02:18Basal Abu Sharif, targeted by the Israelis as a terrorist, his face and hands scarred by a letter bomb,
02:28was on the phone to the PLO's leader, Yasser Arafat.
02:33For weeks, we had been following the journalist Marie Colvin,
02:37as she tried to catch up with Arafat and make a film profile of him.
02:42But it had not been easy.
02:45Don't panic.
02:47I'm not panicking, so I'm not panicking.
02:49Don't panic.
02:50Give me a minute to panic.
02:51Don't panic for a few minutes.
02:52Everything has a solution.
02:53Every problem has a solution.
02:55Fear of the assassin keeps Arafat constantly on the move.
02:59But we finally found him here in a PLO safe house on a back street in Tunis.
03:08But it was still not clear how close we would be allowed to get to the real Yasser Arafat.
03:16The opportunity came within hours.
03:19The leader without a land was on the move again.
03:25Arafat, with his bodyguard and advisors, is the state of Palestine.
03:31To most Palestinians, he is the soldier and statesman who has won diplomatic recognition throughout the world for a country that exists only on paper.
03:41To most Israelis, his past resorts to violence have made him the terrorist with whom they will never negotiate.
03:52In his quest to be recognized as a legitimate statesman, Arafat has flown hundreds of thousands of miles on a private jet supplied by sympathetic Arab supporters.
04:03Western journalists have been judged useful to his cause.
04:07No doubt, that's why on this flight, we were allowed to glimpse his private face.
04:12Do you know what it is?
04:14This is a Palestinian disaster.
04:19It's Palestinian money?
04:20Yes.
04:21How much is it worth?
04:22One cent.
04:23Is that from what year?
04:24This is before the Israeli occupation.
04:28Look.
04:30This is one...
04:32Money that lost its value 40 years ago.
04:35But beyond price to him, as symbols of a lost land.
04:39And proof that Palestine did exist.
04:42So, is this the plane that you've been using for how long?
04:45Would you change your plane?
04:46No, no.
04:47It's according to what they will send to me.
04:50I ask my brothers.
04:51Yeah.
04:52The Arab leaders send me one of their cars, one of their...
04:57Really, it's like a car for you, isn't it?
04:59Because you've used them so many times.
05:00It became...
05:01It became...
05:02Do you have any idea how many flights you do a year?
05:05Average per month, I have 10 flights.
05:11How do you stay in touch with all your nation?
05:14We have this very important communication.
05:17Yeah.
05:18Very strong communications.
05:19We are...
05:20We are using, in an extant way, the...
05:22The sophisticated...
05:23Your technology.
05:24Your technology.
05:25Your technology.
05:26Your technology.
05:27Faxes and...
05:28Everything.
05:29Faxes, communications.
05:30I have here in my...
05:31My special telephone.
05:32You can call from the plane.
05:33Yes.
05:34Yeah.
05:35Easy.
05:36Anywhere in the world.
05:37Anywhere, everywhere.
05:38Anywhere, everywhere.
05:39On the move, there was no privacy.
05:56A man with no time, Arafat compressed the five sets of prayers a Muslim must say every
06:03day into one quick session.
06:18The next 24 hours were crucial to Arafat.
06:22He was on his way to the Arab summit.
06:24He snatched sleep wherever he could.
06:38His ritual is always the same.
06:40He folds his keffiye meticulously.
06:43It has to hang in the shape of the old map of Palestine.
06:54Casablanca.
06:56Another red carpet.
06:57The uncertain rendering of another national anthem.
07:04Arafat, the landless nomad, was greeted by the king of Morocco, who traces his dynasty
07:10and land back more than 2,000 years.
07:15Other heads of state might regard such pomp and circumstance as a mere sideshow.
07:25But for Arafat, and for five and a half million Palestinians scattered throughout the world,
07:30all this gives status to him and to his cause.
07:41While other Arab leaders were still unpacking, Arafat was already scheming and maneuvering.
07:47In a villa on the outskirts of Casablanca, an extraordinary meeting took place.
08:07Yasser Arafat, an apparently convivial conversation with two men who in the past have wanted him dead.
08:12Colonel Gaddafi of Libya and President Assad of Syria.
08:19To survive in a world of constantly shifting alliances,
08:23Arafat cannot afford to be too fussy about the company he keeps.
08:29At the meeting, Arafat persuaded Colonel Gaddafi, who has supported rival Palestinian leaders,
08:35not to make difficulties at the formal session.
08:37Now Arafat could concentrate on his speech and look forward to the official summit with a degree of optimism.
08:55Here, at least, he was received as a head of state.
08:58But these men represent different national interests, and their support for Arafat is never certain.
09:09Arafat's delicate balancing act has been described as getting into their pockets while staying out of their hands.
09:15The difficulty of Arafat's task was apparent in the press room.
09:30Here, every word and phrase was weighed and interpreted for different audiences.
09:35Some Arabs wanted to see a militant, some a moderate.
09:44Arafat, in order to survive in the snake pit of Middle East politics that he's had to survive in for all these years,
09:53and in order to keep a very diffused Palestinian national movement together under one umbrella,
09:58has often had to be all things to all men.
10:03He's had to be radicals for the radicals, moderates for the moderates, et cetera, et cetera.
10:09And as a result, I think he's said a lot of different things at a lot of different times,
10:14which has not inspired, I think, the confidence of many Israelis that there is kind of a consistent line there developing.
10:243 a.m., 15 hours since he arrived in Casablanca, and Arafat was planning his next move.
10:41His secret? Trying to be a day ahead of the game.
10:44In running the PLO, an organization as bureaucratic as a multinational company,
10:51Arafat has the advantage of a keen memory,
10:54but he often gets bogged down in his obsessive need to control every detail.
10:59Even the purchase of an office desk must get by his red pen.
11:03He has a fantastic memory to very small details and things.
11:20For example, he remembers that he had put 12 years ago a green file
11:26in the library of Mr. X in Damascus, which has three papers.
11:34The middle one is important, and it carries this sentence.
11:39He astonishes people at that, you know?
11:43He has electronic memory for information, faces and names.
11:50His aides say he rarely sleeps for more than three hours at a stretch,
12:09and now he was off again.
12:11It's exercise, part of an unchangeable daily routine he follows,
12:22despite an unpredictable schedule.
12:24He is 60, unmarried, and obsessive about his health.
12:30He walks half an hour every morning, and neither drinks nor smokes.
12:35He is a man of habit.
12:36Although his breakfast was being prepared in a grander style than usual this day,
12:47it consisted of the same extraordinary mixture of hot tea poured over cornflakes laced with honey.
12:52This is his only real family, the loyal entourage of aides and advisors who've shared with him the triumphs and disasters of previous decades,
13:10and who travel with him now wherever he goes.
13:12On this day, Arafat was on edge, waiting to see if the summit would back him politically and financially.
13:28He was not answering questions.
13:30He had become moody, unapproachable, tired of the camera crew dogging his footsteps.
13:40One aide asked the team politely to leave Arafat alone to his thoughts.
13:47Arafat has always been evasive about his birthplace and early life.
13:59Records show that he was born in Cairo, not Palestine.
14:03He was named Mohammed Abdel Rauf Arafat al-Husseini,
14:07and he was the sixth child of a wealthy Palestinian merchant who had moved here from Jerusalem.
14:11The family still owns the house where Arafat grew up in a middle-class suburb.
14:17They say he was a lively, almost hyperactive child who'd jump through windows rather than use the door.
14:24School friends nicknamed him Yasser, which means carefree.
14:28But even as a child, he was fascinated by the military.
14:32His brother remembers him marching the local children up and down the street with metal dishes on their heads,
14:38hitting them with a stick if they got out of line.
14:42When his mother died, Yasser and his younger brother Fatih moved to Palestine,
14:48at that time under British control, to live with an uncle.
14:51But the growing tension between Arab and Jew, with British troops in the middle,
14:58all this had a profound effect on the young Arafat.
15:01I remember I have seen it first in 36 when we were in Jerusalem.
15:08And looking the troops coming to our home, arresting one of the family, my uncle and others.
15:16I feel he is looking, he is taking responsibility. I feel that from that time.
15:21By 1947, the situation was explosive.
15:27Jewish refugees from Europe had been pouring into Palestine,
15:31despite opposition from the British authorities and the Arab population.
15:34As events unfolded, Arafat has claimed that at 18, he became an activist.
15:40I was a small, young officer in 1947, resistance against the Israeli and the British.
15:53And during that period, I was living, I was participating in the whole details of the tragedy of my people.
16:12Thousands of miles away, the UN voted to partition Palestine and create the State of Israel.
16:21South Africa, yes. Soviet Union, yes. United Kingdom, abstain. United States, yes.
16:34Tension in Palestine had held world attention.
16:42Partition had brought a new flare up in the strife between Arab and Jew.
16:46Politically, the conflict appeared to be settled.
16:49In actual fact, it had only just begun.
16:52The Jewish state will include the ports of Haifa and Tel Aviv and the whole of the Negev Valley.
16:58The Arab will occupy the fertile eastern part.
17:00Jerusalem will come under United Nations trusteeship.
17:04Arafat, still a teenager, watched vain attempts by Arab armies to prevent partition.
17:15The invasion failed.
17:21In 1948, the Arabs were defeated by the new state of Israel.
17:26Thousands of Palestinians were driven or fled from their homes and their country.
17:36Three quarters of a million became refugees.
17:41The Palestinian diaspora.
17:42I saw the tragedy of our refugees leaving everything behind them.
17:55So many painful events.
17:58Tent cities and shanty towns sprung up as displaced Palestinians settled into refugee camps in neighboring Arab states.
18:05As his people nursed their bitterness, a demoralized Arafat returned to Cairo.
18:11In the beginning, for your information, I was a little bit despaired.
18:20And I was planning to leave to the States to continue my study.
18:29But he decided to continue his studies at Cairo University, then the center of resistance to the British occupation of the Suez Canal.
18:39In these courtyards, the young engineering student interrupted his reading for study of a different kind.
18:47Under one of the Egyptian resistance leaders, Hassan Daw.
18:50He introduced himself to me.
18:51I am a Palestinian.
18:52I would like to have my training here to share you, to share you, Egyptian, to face English army.
19:07And after that, to have my training to face Israeli in my home.
19:11And I remember this use between 8,000 students.
19:21I remember a shiny face, shiny eyes, a smiley face.
19:28Look like now.
19:30He took every training on all weapons here.
19:36Guns, bombs, and all weapons here.
19:39In Egypt, a series of riots touched off by nationalists protested the occupation by the British of the Suez Canal area and the Sudan.
19:49Many died during the violence.
19:51During these disturbances, Arafat joined the Egyptian resistance.
19:55This was my first involvement in the Egyptian political affairs.
20:00And during that period, I had the opportunity to make contacts with Nasser, with all his colleagues in the army.
20:13And I had a very good relationship with them before their revolution.
20:20Arafat was also learning his first political lessons.
20:24Uniting fellow students of different beliefs with a simple message in which they could all believe.
20:30Liberate Palestine.
20:31Yes, Arafat was always a very charismatic person.
20:36As a student leader, he was the student leader.
20:40To us younger students, he looked like a political leader much more than a student leader.
20:48The early 1950s saw the Egyptian revolution and the rise of Nasser.
20:58Arafat was convinced the Egyptian leader would support the Palestinian cause.
21:03He was quick to seize the moment to get publicity and organized a petition.
21:06While page one of Al-Ahram was devoted to pictures celebrating the Egyptian revolution, there on page three was Arafat's petition.
21:19Signed in the blood of his fellow students.
21:22And the message, don't forget Palestine.
21:25I think the major influence on Arafat during the Cairo years, and indeed I think the major influence until the present,
21:31was the influence of the Egyptian revolution as embodied in Kemal Abdel Nasser.
21:38That is to say, a kind of maximum leader.
21:43A person who embodied principles of a political philosophy and a way of life.
21:50A certain kind of selflessness, a certain kind of tremendous commitment which he was able to communicate to other people.
21:55Above all, a personal style, which made it impossible to get to the revolution without going through him in some way.
22:06I think also, along with that, he learnt from Abdel Nasser the techniques of, well, to put it, kindly manipulating people.
22:19But Nasser was to disappoint him. He had become less hospitable to their cause.
22:25So by the late fifties, Arafat found himself in Kuwait, working as an engineer building roads.
22:31He was also indulging his only other passion, fast cars.
22:35His favorite was a Ford Thunderbird convertible.
22:38By day, he was an aspiring businessman. A good cover for his more clandestine activities at night.
22:45I was a very rich contractor, engineer.
22:50I was working not only as an engineer, but as a big contractor.
22:57I have three companies.
22:59Three companies and one consultant engineering office.
23:05Did you ever think of giving up the dream then?
23:09No, no, no. This is very important. During that period, we have the ability, because we have enough money to move, to travel, contact, to buy weapons, you see.
23:23From Kuwait you were doing that.
23:24And to publish our first magazine, Our Palestine.
23:29Our Palestine, a crude broadsheet, was dedicated to the destruction of Israel through armed struggle.
23:40There was a box number for volunteers.
23:43The nucleus of resistance began to form, as those who replied were visited and checked out.
23:48The movement was called Fatah, meaning conquest.
23:53At 36, he gave up his business career and all his cars, and moved to Damascus and then Jordan to work full-time in the movement.
24:04In 1965, Fatah's new recruits mounted their first guerrilla operations against Israel.
24:11The first raids did little damage. Some water pumps were blown up. Israeli patrols were fired on.
24:22They were propaganda operations, just to tell the whole world that we do exist.
24:28The first operation was financed by one of the members, by a loan from one of the banks.
24:37500 Lebanese liras. At that time, we never had that sum of money.
24:46Umm Jihad was the first woman they recruited into active service.
24:53I remember that in one patrol, the military group consisted of only three men.
24:58They were to carry out an operation in the occupied territory with only simple weapons.
25:02One had a grenade, and the other a light machine gun.
25:06They asked Arafat, are we going to liberate Palestine with just these weapons?
25:11He answered, this is only the beginning.
25:13When people see us doing something, they will rally behind us and send us more weapons.
25:201967. The Middle East exploded into conflict. The Six Day War.
25:25The result, once again, a humiliating defeat for the Arabs.
25:37As the Arab armies retreated and surrendered, they left the remainder of old Palestine in Israel's hands.
25:42But Arafat refused to accept defeat.
25:48As refugees fled across the Jordan, he slipped back into the newly occupied West Bank, operating alone and in disguise to organize resistance.
25:58Ill-planned and unprepared, his bid failed, and he escaped just ahead of Israeli troops.
26:04Many times they were near to, very near to, to capture me.
26:12Did they?
26:13I have, I have a secret sense.
26:17Not, not, not easy to be touched.
26:21I call it my own radar.
26:24Your own sort of personal radar.
26:26Yes, my, my own personal radar.
26:28Undeterred, Fatah and Arafat set up a new military base in Jordan, at Karameh, well-placed for raids into Israel.
26:41They were only a few hundred, but they tried to project the image of a formidable strike force.
26:47In fact, the young fighters Arafat was sending across the border were badly armed and poorly trained.
26:53Still, they were a threat to Israel's security.
27:02So in 1968, a column of Israeli armor attacked Arafat's base.
27:08Though outnumbered and outgunned, Arafat called on his fighters to join him in a desperate stand.
27:13This is our situation.
27:17And anyone who wants to participate with me, welcome.
27:22And also anyone who was looking to leave, welcome too.
27:27And none of them left me.
27:31The battle of Karameh was a turning point for Arafat.
27:37For although his small force suffered heavy losses, it fought bravely.
27:44The Israelis had fewer casualties.
27:46But the Arab world welcomed these pictures of Israeli dead and wounded after the bitter years of humiliation.
27:52As word spread, Palestinians saw Fatah as the only force with the courage to stand up to Israel.
28:06Arafat had turned a defeat into a sort of victory of mythical proportions.
28:12The face of Arafat became a symbol of Arab pride and Arab resistance.
28:17In the refugee camps, Palestinians began to sense that all might not be lost.
28:37New recruits flocked to join Fatah.
28:41As the Karameh story reached the West, Arafat was portrayed as a freedom fighter
28:45on the cover of Time magazine, and gave his first TV interview in the West.
28:57Al-Fatah does not acknowledge a single leader.
29:00But one man has become an almost legendary figure.
29:02Yasser Arafat, known in the Arab world as Abu Ammar.
29:05Eiffel!
29:06Eiffel!
29:08Eiffel!
29:09Eiffel!
29:10Eiffel!
29:11Eiffel!
29:12Eiffel!
29:13Eiffel!
29:14We wait and wait for a long time.
29:15From 48 until now.
29:17Waiting for the United Nations.
29:22But nothing had been done.
29:25Except more refugees.
29:26In 1969, Arafat emerged as chairman of the PLO.
29:33But the Palestine Liberation Organization contained many factions, each with its own ideas and its own leaders.
29:43Though they shared a common goal, the liberation of Palestine and the destruction of Israel, they differed on tactics.
29:56A year later, the wreckage of three hijacked airliners lay scattered across a desert airstrip in Jordan.
30:01It was the work of the Marxist wing of the PLO, which wanted to publicize its cause by international terrorism.
30:08Arafat was uncomfortable with these tactics, but he did not control all the factions within the PLO.
30:16George Habash, a strong rival, was head of the group that carried out the hijackings.
30:20At that time, regarding this particular action, I remember that he was against and he was not relaxed regarding such actions.
30:35Some PLO factions also wanted to topple King Hussein of Jordan.
30:41The young king's throne was threatened by Arafat's failure to control PLO extremists.
30:46Arafat was not in a position to control matters, and he failed during that period of time.
30:54So really, when the final disaster struck, it was really a choice for Palestinians and Jordanians,
31:02together who were on either side of the equation of law and order or total chaos and anarchy.
31:10And the majority of Palestinians and Jordanians then opted for law and order,
31:15and that is how we passed through one of the most difficult and heartbreaking periods of our lives.
31:21In 1970, King Hussein unleashed his army on the PLO.
31:293,000 died as Arab fought Arab.
31:35The PLO was driven from Jordan, and Arafat fled to the hills.
31:39It was September.
31:41Palestinians would remember it as Black September.
31:45But you have lost a lot of control of the ground you had.
31:49You have lost freedom of maneuver.
31:51Now, that surely is a disaster, at least a setback.
31:55Perhaps in some times and in some places.
31:58But our revolution is continuing on.
32:08At the Munich Olympics in 1972,
32:11the world was about to see just how far Arafat's revolution would go.
32:16Terrorism on primetime television.
32:19On September 5th, as millions watched,
32:24a new and secretive PLO faction calling itself Black September
32:27invaded the Olympic village,
32:30taking Israeli athletes hostage.
32:33Twenty hours later,
32:35eleven Israelis were dead after a bloody shootout.
32:39Black September shocked the world
32:41with a series of terror attacks on civilians.
32:44In the Western media,
32:47Arafat the Freedom Fighter
32:49became Arafat the Terrorist.
32:51But what was Arafat's role?
32:54I believe that Arafat was responsible
32:56for terrorist activities.
32:59It doesn't mean that he knew every detail,
33:02but I do believe that they could not be carried out
33:05without his authorization,
33:07especially the big, important operations.
33:11These attacks were planned by a man
33:14who has been close to Arafat for over 40 years
33:16and who still serves as his head of intelligence.
33:19Until now, Abu Iyad has never admitted
33:22that Arafat knew anything about Black September.
33:24Black September was a sort of product
33:29of Palestinian despair at that time.
33:32It wasn't really a unified organization.
33:36Arafat did have knowledge of Black September,
33:38but was not aware of logistics or operational details.
33:43But Arafat may have been more closely implicated
33:45in events in Khartoum.
33:48In 1973, Black September seized the American ambassador,
33:52his deputy, and a Belgian diplomat
33:54and held them hostage.
33:58Intelligence intercepts showed that the terrorists
34:00used a radio telephone
34:01to maintain constant contact with the PLO.
34:06And according to this censored State Department cable,
34:09the code word giving the order to murder the diplomats
34:12came from Arafat's PLO headquarters in Beirut.
34:16If you look at events like the Munich attack,
34:20the Khartoum assassinations of our ambassador,
34:24it is clear that the Black September organization
34:26was established by one of Arafat's
34:28most closest trusted allies, Abu Iyad,
34:32and was carried out by the Black September.
34:35It seems to me very difficult to argue
34:37that Arafat can avoid the responsibility for those attacks.
34:41We returned to Tunis.
34:46Arafat has never responded to questions about his role in acts of terrorism,
34:51but we had been assured that Marie Colvin's interview
34:54would have no limitations.
34:56You were the leader of the PLO.
34:58Were you unable to control these extremist groups?
35:01The superpower
35:03the United States of America
35:07having the ability to stop
35:08the attempts to kill Reagan
35:11and the assassination of John Kennedy.
35:14Did you know about their activities?
35:23Did you know about any of these?
35:26Because some of the people were...
35:27It is an investigation.
35:28No, it is not an investigation.
35:30But some of the people who engaged in these things...
35:32Please, please, it is not an investigation.
35:34I refuse this investigation.
35:37So, it is clear what I am saying.
35:39You are speaking to the chairman of the PLO,
35:44to the president of the state of Palestine.
35:47Be careful with your investigation.
35:53Did you give orders to stop these acts?
35:57What I have mentioned is clear and obvious.
36:05Maybe what we are talking about now
36:09you have clearly renounced terrorism
36:12at your speech in Geneva.
36:14Please.
36:15Do you...
36:16Please.
36:17Is enough?
36:18I am going after another.
36:20Please.
36:21Is enough?
36:22Can we just...
36:31Unbelievable.
36:34It is only a meeting for terrorism.
36:37You must just ask...
36:39No, unbelievable.
36:40No, it is enough.
36:42Please.
36:43My...
36:44It's too much.
36:48From here on, the subject was off limits
36:50and it took some time
36:52before we could speak to Arafat again.
36:57There is no doubt that Arafat has been involved
37:00in international terrorism,
37:02but he will not talk about it,
37:04even though the question keeps coming up.
37:08Other members of the Arafat leadership
37:10have been a lot more frank
37:13in saying,
37:13yes, we were engaged in those kind of terror operations,
37:18but then we took a decision
37:19to stop them.
37:21And in a sense,
37:23this has given them a lot of credibility
37:25and gravitas,
37:27especially as they go into the kind of thinking
37:31that led them to call off the terror operations.
37:35Now, Arafat has never gone along that path.
37:37I think he, in a sense,
37:41sees himself very much
37:43as the embodiment of Palestinian dignity.
37:471974, Arafat was in New York
37:52on his way to the United Nations.
37:54He was here to deliver a message of peace,
37:57and yet four members of his personal entourage
37:59had been involved in the massacres
38:01at Munich and Khartoum.
38:05But the Yom Kippur War
38:07and the oil embargo
38:08had made the Arabs a force to be reckoned with.
38:11And despite protests by American Jews,
38:14the Arab world insisted that Arafat be heard.
38:19He was at first quite adamant
38:21about going in with this tubal.
38:23And eventually,
38:25we actually persuaded him to shave it.
38:27Another thing we focused on
38:30was his gun.
38:32And we suggested that
38:35perhaps it was appropriate
38:36that he should go in without his gun.
38:40And he felt that if he did that,
38:45it might have symbolic significance
38:47in the sense that it would entail
38:49he had given up the armed struggle completely.
38:52And so he compromised by going in
38:55with the holster,
38:56an empty holster,
38:57without the gun.
38:58The man who did not want to give up his gun
39:03used language from Martin Luther King's
39:06I Have a Dream speech.
39:11For many in the assembly,
39:13this was his moment on the world stage.
39:17But his vague rhetoric
39:18about a shared Arab-Jewish state
39:21sent conflicting signals to the West.
39:23It's hard to judge
39:26whether Arafat's appearance at the UN
39:28really affected public opinion
39:31on balance or not.
39:33It tended to confirm
39:34the ambiguous image of the man
39:36as perhaps a statesman,
39:38the one hand with the olive branch,
39:40and perhaps a terrorist,
39:42the empty holster.
39:45Arafat believed it was a breakthrough.
39:48But in reality,
39:49he did little to advance
39:50the Palestinian cause,
39:51particularly in the United States.
39:56I said,
39:58I am raising the olive branch
39:59in one hand
40:00and the gun
40:02to protect this olive branch.
40:05This was the first time
40:07that, again,
40:11the whole international public opinion,
40:15the whole international communities
40:17began to understand
40:20the Palestinian tragedy.
40:23If one were to point
40:24to his greatest failing,
40:26his greatest weakness,
40:28it is his radical,
40:30radical misunderstanding
40:31and ignorance of the United States.
40:34He has never known,
40:36in my opinion,
40:37having talked to him many times,
40:38having seen him in action,
40:40et cetera.
40:41He has never understood
40:42what this country is all about.
40:44By the mid-70s,
40:46the PLO,
40:47ousted from Jordan,
40:48had regrouped in Lebanon.
40:55These fireworks
40:56and celebrations
40:57would soon be overshadowed
40:59by real trouble.
41:02Lebanon,
41:03already on the brink
41:04of civil war,
41:05had a new complication,
41:07the PLO.
41:08The nature of the situation
41:19he was in
41:20definitely required him
41:22to constantly be diverting
41:24his energies elsewhere,
41:26to putting out
41:26this brush fire
41:27with the Christians,
41:29this brush fire
41:30with the Syrians,
41:31this confrontation in Sidon,
41:34that I think it really
41:36forced him
41:39to really lose his focus.
41:41More importantly,
41:42Lebanon became comfortable.
41:53Inside Lebanon,
41:54he was treated
41:54as a leader of a state
41:56within a state.
41:59But elsewhere,
42:00he was dealing with extremists
42:01in his own movement
42:02and their backers
42:03in Libya and Syria.
42:12And all the time,
42:13he was trying to reconcile
42:14PLO rhetoric
42:15with what the world
42:17wanted to hear.
42:19Within the limits
42:20of running
42:23what is in fact
42:23a very mercurial
42:25and extremely emotional movement,
42:29he was trustworthy.
42:30What I find difficult
42:32about Arafat
42:32was that it were
42:34these changes
42:35in the rhetoric.
42:37I mean,
42:38he could be extremely
42:38reasonable in private.
42:41Or perhaps
42:42when he was traveling
42:42in Europe,
42:43he would make
42:43statements like Syrians
42:45and then he would go
42:46to somewhere else,
42:47usually in the Arab world,
42:49and usually in answers
42:50to press questions,
42:51would make
42:52extremely
42:53surprising
42:56and sometimes
42:56alarming statement.
43:03By now,
43:04Arafat's guerrilla fighters
43:05were trying to look
43:06like a conventional army,
43:07and Arafat was bogged down
43:09in the quagmire
43:10of Arab politics.
43:12He missed chances
43:13to get involved
43:13in American peace initiatives,
43:15and he denounced
43:16Egypt's recognition
43:17of Israel.
43:18But to Israel,
43:22PLO raids
43:23and shellings
43:23in the late 70s
43:24and continuing
43:25military presence
43:26were a provocation.
43:28In 1982,
43:30the Israelis
43:30decided to move
43:32against Arafat
43:32and his army.
43:41The Israeli invasion
43:42trapped Arafat
43:43and his forces
43:44in Beirut,
43:45where they were
43:45outnumbered
43:46and outgunned.
43:52But as at Karameh
43:53in 1968,
43:55he appeared
43:55to smile
43:56in the face
43:57of adversity.
43:58This is not
43:59the first time
43:59to be trapped.
44:01I have many
44:02experience of that.
44:06You have to remember
44:07that they are now
44:08blockaging
44:09Beirut
44:10more than
44:1112 days.
44:13What happened?
44:15We are ready
44:15to continue
44:16our fight,
44:17to continue
44:18our resistance.
44:19The siege
44:20lasted for three months.
44:22Arafat's Arab allies
44:23failed to come
44:24to his rescue.
44:25But once again,
44:26the military defeat
44:27was seen as a
44:28spiritual victory
44:29of sorts.
44:30For his people
44:30and his close associates,
44:32Arafat was reaffirmed
44:33as a father figure.
44:34Well, I had come
44:36down to the
44:37Fahani neighborhood
44:38of West Beirut
44:38where the PLO's
44:39headquarters were
44:40located right after
44:41an Israeli bombing
44:42and an apartment,
44:44a multi-story apartment
44:44building had been
44:45hit by a bomb
44:46and smashed
44:46sort of like
44:47a wedge of cake
44:48that had been
44:48smashed by a fist.
44:50And there was
44:51a woman
44:51milling around,
44:54you know,
44:54trying to peel away
44:55some of the rubble
44:56by herself,
44:57weeping.
44:58And suddenly,
45:01Arafat showed up
45:02and with walking
45:04stick in hand,
45:05trailing kids
45:06down the street
45:07like the Pied Piper
45:08he certainly was.
45:09And this woman
45:10climbed down
45:11off the rubble,
45:12ran up to him,
45:13lifted his cap
45:14off his head
45:15and he's bald,
45:17as you know,
45:18and kissed him
45:19on his forehead
45:20and said,
45:21I lost three
45:23of my children
45:23in that building
45:24but I have nine more
45:26and they're all for you.
45:28He was actually
45:34being targeted
45:35by airplane
45:36and they were trying
45:37to assassinate him
45:38by plane.
45:40So the idea
45:41of being with him
45:42should have been
45:42a very scary one
45:43because you can think
45:44this is it,
45:45they're going to get us.
45:46But in fact,
45:46when you're in his presence,
45:47you feel very, very safe.
45:49I mean,
45:49I feel like he's family.
45:51So although,
45:53in spite of the fact
45:53that several buildings
45:54in West Beirut
45:55were bombed
45:55because of the off chance
45:57that Arafat
45:57was in that building,
45:59in his,
46:00you know,
46:00when he came,
46:01he would say,
46:01how are you?
46:02You know,
46:02what's going on?
46:03And his concern
46:04for other people,
46:06not only is that
46:08very much his character,
46:09but it makes you,
46:11it doesn't make you,
46:12it's automatic
46:12that you care for him
46:13and that you love him
46:14and that's what he had,
46:15especially with the soldiers
46:17and with people
46:17that work with him.
46:18At the start of the siege,
46:22I was given 150
46:23of our elite fighters
46:24with the best weapons
46:25to be Arafat's bodyguard.
46:30We felt that
46:31even if everyone
46:32was martyred,
46:32but Arafat survived,
46:34our movement
46:35would still prevail.
46:38The trouble was
46:39that Arafat
46:40was always moving around,
46:41building barricades,
46:43inspecting ambushes.
46:44He was always
46:45in the front line.
46:47Only fate
46:48protected him.
46:54Fate
46:54and the United States Marines.
47:01The U.S.
47:02had arranged a ceasefire.
47:05After 88 days of battle,
47:07the PLO survivors
47:08pulled out of Beirut.
47:14Arafat tried to turn
47:18the defeat
47:18into a media victory.
47:23But he had now lost
47:24his sole remaining
47:25military base
47:26on the front line
47:27with Israel.
47:32I think a lot of Americans
47:34in and out of government
47:35thought that when
47:36Arafat and the PLO
47:37left Lebanon,
47:38that was pretty much
47:39the end of the game
47:40for them.
47:41They were destined
47:42for the dustbin of history.
47:44Arafat's new base
47:49was Tunis,
47:501,500 miles away
47:51from the land
47:52he was trying to reclaim.
47:54His fighters
47:55were scattered
47:56throughout the Middle East
47:57in desert bases
47:58in seven countries.
48:01In this sleepy backwater,
48:03Arafat set about
48:04rebuilding the PLO
48:05from the Salwa Beach Hotel.
48:10He watched helplessly
48:11the fate of refugees
48:12left behind in Lebanon
48:13without PLO protection.
48:24After Israeli troops
48:25had surrounded
48:26the Beirut refugee camps
48:27of Sabra and Shatila,
48:29they stood by
48:30as hundreds of
48:31Palestinian men,
48:32women, and children
48:33were murdered
48:34by Lebanese Christian militia.
48:351985, another blow.
48:42Israeli jets destroyed
48:43Arafat's headquarters
48:44in Tunis.
48:46As he surveyed
48:46the crater
48:47that was once
48:47his office,
48:48Arafat was aware
48:49that the PLO
48:50was also in disarray,
48:52and all the years
48:53of struggle
48:53were in danger
48:54of coming to little.
48:55Arafat for six years
48:58from 82 to December 87
49:00basically orbited
49:02the globe,
49:03and almost literally
49:05orbited the globe.
49:06He was like an actor
49:07in search of a role
49:08in many ways.
49:09He wanted to play
49:10the part of Moses
49:11leading his people
49:13back to the promised land,
49:14but the only part
49:15he was offered
49:16was Noah.
49:17He said,
49:17my friend,
49:18you can play Noah
49:19here,
49:20the great survivor,
49:21but nothing more.
49:21But then something
49:24totally unexpected
49:25came to Arafat's aid,
49:27the uprising
49:28of stone-throwing
49:29Palestinian youths
49:30in the Israeli-occupied
49:31territories
49:32of the West Bank
49:33and Gaza.
49:38It was December 1987.
49:41The Intifada
49:41had begun.
49:43The world was shocked
49:45by the spectacle
49:46of Palestinian youths
49:47being beaten
49:48and shot
49:48by Israeli soldiers.
49:51Arafat saw an opportunity
49:54and persuaded the PLO
49:55to come up
49:56with a political
49:57olive branch.
49:58For the first time,
50:00he offered
50:00to coexist with Israel.
50:03In return,
50:04the Palestinians
50:04would regain
50:05the West Bank
50:06and Gaza,
50:08one-fifth
50:08of the old Palestine.
50:12At the United Nations
50:13in Geneva
50:14in December 1988,
50:16Arafat delivered
50:17a statement
50:17that many thought
50:18he would never make.
50:20We totally
50:20and absolutely
50:22renounce
50:24all forms
50:26of terrorism.
50:29Arafat also
50:30recognized Israel's
50:31right to exist.
50:33He was back
50:33on the front pages
50:34and his words
50:35were enough
50:35to persuade
50:36the United States
50:37to open talks.
50:38an older,
50:41wiser face
50:42peered out again
50:43from the front
50:43covers of time
50:44and the Vatican
50:45judged it appropriate
50:46to grant
50:47the new dove
50:47an audience.
50:49Arafat had seized
50:50the moment
50:51and exploited it
50:52for all it was worth.
50:53I think he is still
50:57seen as someone
50:58who wants to have
50:59it both ways.
51:00The Kalashnikov
51:01in one hand,
51:01the terrorist image
51:02so to speak,
51:03and the olive branch
51:05in the other,
51:06the statesman image.
51:07Now,
51:07certainly
51:08the statements
51:09that he made
51:11and that he got
51:12the PLO to endorse
51:13in the latter part
51:15of 1988
51:15reinforced the statesman
51:17like posture.
51:19And I think
51:20that still represents
51:21the mainstream
51:23of the PLO.
51:24But Arafat
51:25has always
51:26wanted
51:27to at least
51:28reach out
51:29to those
51:30more militant
51:31elements
51:31in the PLO
51:32and say,
51:33stay with us.
51:36We haven't
51:36totally given up
51:37on armed struggle.
51:40But having it
51:40both ways
51:41has left Arafat
51:42open to Israeli
51:43accusations
51:44of bad faith.
51:46Just four days
51:47after Arafat
51:48had renounced
51:48terrorism
51:49in Geneva,
51:50his close associate
51:51Abu Iyad
51:52seemed to suggest
51:53that if the Palestinians
51:54did gain a state
51:56on the West Bank,
51:57they'd use it
51:58as a base
51:58for attacks on Israel.
52:00At first,
52:01a small state,
52:02and with Allah's help
52:03it will be made large
52:04and expanded
52:04to the east,
52:05west,
52:06north,
52:06and south.
52:07I am interested
52:08in the liberation
52:09of Palestine
52:09step by step.
52:12While Arafat
52:13has disowned
52:13and rejected
52:14such statements,
52:16Israeli leaders
52:16like Yitzhak Shamir
52:17are not persuaded.
52:19It's not important
52:20what Arafat
52:22says
52:23in his
52:25efforts
52:27for public
52:28relations
52:29in Europe
52:30and elsewhere.
52:32The philosophy
52:33and ideology
52:34of the PLO
52:35is the destruction
52:36of Israel.
52:37I think as far
52:38as Israeli
52:38public opinion
52:40towards Arafat,
52:41there is,
52:41for the most part,
52:42obviously you have
52:43extremes on the right
52:43and the left,
52:44there is,
52:45for the most part,
52:46I think,
52:46a deep skepticism
52:47about him.
52:49I think that,
52:50to put it,
52:52as I think
52:53my grocer
52:54in Jerusalem
52:55would put it,
52:57Yasser,
52:58you can tell
52:59the Swedes
53:00whatever you want.
53:01you can tell
53:03American Jews
53:04whatever you want,
53:06but you and I,
53:07we know each other.
53:09So don't tell me
53:09you've had therapy
53:10and you're a new man,
53:12because in this part
53:13of the world,
53:14men don't have therapy.
53:16This is an old,
53:17cynical part
53:17of the world,
53:18and men don't just
53:19reinvent themselves
53:20overnight.
53:21Madame Tussauds,
53:24the famous
53:24London Wax Museum,
53:25is taking his measure
53:26for its Hall of Fame.
53:32Get an angle on that,
53:33David,
53:33so you get a complete profile.
53:35Perhaps,
53:36it's as close as anyone
53:37will get
53:37to the real
53:38Yasser Arafat.
53:39Yasser Arafat
54:04has forfeited
54:05security,
54:06home,
54:06family,
54:07and career
54:07for his obsession.
54:09A Palestinian homeland.
54:11And yet,
54:11despite 40 years
54:12of struggle,
54:13he is still
54:14the world-famous leader
54:15of a state
54:16that does not exist.
54:27I mean,
54:27this was a cause
54:28that in many ways
54:29after 1948,
54:30we forget,
54:30it was a cause
54:31that was lost,
54:32and the world
54:33wanted to forget it.
54:35And in many ways,
54:36it's to his achievement
54:38and to his credit,
54:38that he brought
54:39the Palestinians back
54:40from that desert
54:42of obscurity
54:42to the land
54:43of prime time.
54:44But he hasn't gotten them yet
54:46from prime time
54:46to Palestine.
54:48And ultimately,
54:49that will be
54:50where history
54:51will make its verdict.
54:52there is a secret
54:56appeal
54:57inside my heart
55:00pushing me.
55:05And till now,
55:07it's still pushing me.
55:11I return back
55:12to my homeland.
55:13Arafat is said
55:23to be working
55:24behind the scenes
55:25of a U.S.-Egyptian
55:26initiative
55:27to design
55:28a Palestinian
55:29delegation
55:29that the Israelis
55:31would be willing
55:31to meet.
55:33And last week,
55:33he appeared
55:34to remove
55:35one obstacle
55:36to those talks,
55:37his insistence
55:38that the PLO
55:39be present,
55:40by saying
55:40that he would
55:41approve instead
55:42the participation
55:43of Palestinians
55:44living in the
55:45occupied territories.
55:47The Israeli government,
55:49now under increased
55:50U.S. pressure
55:51to negotiate,
55:52remains split
55:53on which Palestinians
55:54it will talk to.
55:57Thank you for joining us.
55:59I'm Judy Woodruff.
56:00Good night.
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