ABSTRACT
The 1982 Lebanon War was a cataclysmic event for the PLO. In 1985, 105 persons were killed and 433 wounded by international Palestinian terrorism, compared to 10 killed and 8 wounded in 1984. Of the casualties, 30 were Israelis, 177 citizens of Arab countries, and 331 other nationalities, mostly from the West. After 1984, too, Western Europe continued to be the primary theater of operations for international Palestinian terrorism: two-thirds of all incidents took place there. Of the remainder, most events took place in the Middle East. Most of the incidents were carried out by organizations supported by Syria and Libya, and particularly by Fatah-Revolutionary Council, headed by Abu Nidal. The dramatic increase in Palestinian international terrorism derived from a number of factors, of which the most important was the effort made by those organizations supported by Syria and Libya to thwart any possible peace initiatives involving Jordan and the PLO.
