Arafat’s Dilemma

Muhammad Muslih is an associate professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies at C. W. Post College, Long Island University. His works on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Arab politics include The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), and, with Augustus Richard Norton, Political Tides in the Arab World (New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1992). He is currently completing a book on Israeli-Syrian relations since 1948. This article is based on field research last summer in the West Bank and Gaza.