Why Begin Should Invite Arafat to Jerusalem

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Now that it has completed the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, the government of Israel should consider extending unconditional recognition to the Palestine Liberation Organization as a major representative of the Palestinian people. PLO leader Yassir Arafat should be invited to follow in the footsteps of Egypt's late President Anwar el-Sadat and visit Jerusalem. And the PLO should be summoned to take its seat at the Palestine autonomy negotiations.

The act of invitation and recognition should involve no conditions or qualifications-but neither should it imply concessions on Israel's part. Indeed, the point of departure for this proposal is, from the Israeli outlook, more hawkish than dovish on the Palestine issue: it acknowledges that the PLO and its leadership are extremist terrorists bent on Israel's total destruction; it assumes that Israel must maintain at least a strong security presence throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future; and it recognizes that evacuation of Israeli settlements from these territories is fast becoming a political impossibility.

Why, then, should Israel unilaterally recognize the PLO? For a number of sound tactical reasons which, taken together, only enhance Israel's strategy of ensuring its own security within safe borders. Categorizing these reasons somewhat arbitrarily for the sake of simplicity, the first may be termed image-building-enhancing Israel's image in its own eyes, and in the eyes of the world. The second may be defined under the catch-all heading of Realpolitik. And the third may be understood as a broader political effort to improve Israel's tactical position vis-à-vis the Arab world and the West.

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