How successful were the PLO in promoting its cause between 1960-1980?

Their aim however of abolishing Jews started to take place with guerrilla attacks organised by the PLO. The PLO continued to launch attacks on Israeli military targets that bordered Israel as a threat. The PLO was also responsible for terrorist like attacks on Israeli civilians; this portrays how they were willing to do anything in order to show their hate towards the Israelis and to attract more ‘attention’ as said by PFLP member George Habash. These guerrilla attacks did indeed attract publicity especially after three planes were hijacked and destroyed in 1970.

The PLO were still keen to convey their overall point by using military intervention on civilians to send a threat. At the Olympic Games in 1972 the PLO was responsible for the death of eleven Israeli athletes. Furthermore, twenty six civilians were killed by supporters of the PFLP at Lod airport, and the Arabs continued to hijack planes with civilians in to depict their hate and to attract attention. Such as in 1976 when a PFLP splinter group hijacked a plane with one hundred civilian hostages, who in the end were safe but it didn’t fail to send the Israelis a threatening message. Many Arab groups and communities began to build up respect for the PLO for showing their resistance against Israeli power. In 1974 the Arab League declared the PLO the ‘sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.’ Further power was put in Arafat’s hands when he was invited to speak to the United Nations.

However, all of this power turned out to be not so positive in Arafat’s case. Senior members of the Jordanian army were solicitous over the power of the PLO and this caused tension, something that did not portray a positive image for promoting its cause. In September 1970, vicious fighting between the PLO and the Jordanians took place, this period was known as ‘Black September’ due to the heavy casualties they grieved.

After the expulsion from Jordan the PLO mostly moved to Lebanon whereby various attacks were made on northern Israel. However, not only this they managed to become a heavy influence in the Lebanese government, which was a good aspect towards improving their reputation. However in doing this they took part in a civil war, whereby they took the sides of the Muslims. This did not look good on the PLO neither was it good for themselves as they found themselves getting distracted whilst gaining a negative reputation from surrounding countries.

To conclude I believe that the PLO did well in promoting some of their ideas but failed at others. They managed to make it clear that they were to hold no resistance against the Israelis using military intervention, yet they failed to establish Palestine as their own homeland.