ABSTRACT
Since the intifada began in December 1987 scores of Palestinian Arabs have been murdered as "collaborators" with Israel; in the spring of 1989 year the murder rate began to increase sharply. The alleged offenses of the victims include working or shopping in Israel, selling land to Jews, giving information to Israel security forces, and expressing interest in the latest Israeli proposal for elections. People who complain that good causes attract bad advocates should be comforted by the evidence so abundantly provided by Professor Edward Said's acolytes that bad causes attract even worse ones. For many months, hardly a single issue of the New York Times has been without an item about the gruesome torture and murder of Palestinian Arab "collaborators" by PLO agents. Said's essay not only answers the question of whether the PLO and Palestine National Council (PNC) have renounced terror in dealing with their internal opponents; it also sheds light on a secondary mystery, about Said himself.
