ABSTRACT

The concept of armed struggle was the essence of the Palestinian strategy of struggle against Israel when it was first formulated in the 1960s. Since then, it has been the core of Palestinian national identity, having enormous symbolic value. The 1970 civil war in Jordan caused the Palestinian leaders to realize that they would not be able to develop an effective guerrilla option which would lead to the attainment of the ultimate goal. Mainly, the goal was to make the world realize the existence of a just Palestinian cause. To that end the group carried out attacks on Israeli targets abroad, as well as on non-Israeli but “Imperialist” targets, e.g., American and European. The general strategic line designed after the international ackowledgement of the Palestinian problem was established was to introduce the palestine liberation organization as a partner to a settlement.