Yasser Arafat Was a Liar - How Did He Grab Power Over Palestine and End Up Worth Billions?

"Who gave Yasser Arafat the authority to speak for Palestine?"

Yasser Arafat became one of the most recognizable political figures of the twentieth century, but how did he become the internationally accepted voice of the Palestinian people? Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1929, Arafat rose through Palestinian student politics, helped build Fatah, and in 1969 became chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Arafat did not create the PLO. The organization had been established in Cairo in 1964 with Arab League sponsorship, and Fatah later gained control of it. By 1974, Arab governments recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, dramatically increasing Arafat's political power and international standing.

This episode follows the rise of Yasser Arafat from Cairo and Fatah to the PLO, the United Nations, the Oslo Accords, and the White House lawn. It examines the Six-Day War, the Battle of Karameh, Black September in Jordan, the PLO in Lebanon, the First Intifada, the Palestinian Authority, and the gradual transformation of Arafat from guerrilla leader into the man governments around the world treated as the representative of the Palestinians. In 1974, the Arab states recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, creating the institutional authority that eventually allowed Arafat to negotiate on their behalf.

The story leads directly to the secret Oslo negotiations of 1992 and 1993. While the public Madrid peace process and Washington negotiations were struggling, a second negotiating channel developed secretly in Norway. That channel connected Israeli representatives directly with Arafat's PLO. The resulting Oslo Accords brought mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and created temporary Palestinian self-government, while leaving the largest questions—Palestinian statehood, permanent borders, Jerusalem, refugees, Israeli settlements and security—for later negotiations.

The familiar photographs of Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton on the White House lawn tell only the end of a much longer story. Arafat's rise ran from Palestinian student politics in Egypt to Fatah, from Fatah's takeover of the PLO to Arab League and United Nations recognition, and finally to Oslo and the creation of the Palestinian Authority. In 1994, Arafat, Rabin and Shimon Peres received the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet the supposedly temporary Oslo framework never produced the permanent Palesti