Arafat.. Before and After.. Part One: "Rising to the Summit and Keeping It".

Written by: Nabil Amr

My granddaughter Sarah, who regularly reads my books, asked me why Yasser Arafat occupies the center of all your writings??
I answered it because it occupies a central place in our lives...
And now, on the anniversary of his absence, we find ourselves in dire need to remember him.. That is because the man had the longest life he spent on the summit. Obstacle until he reached the top and settled on it for more than four decades
The longevity of his leadership was not the most important reason for his occupation of the central place in our lives, but rather because he was a complex of attractive considerations, which attracted behind the reach of his leadership the broadest Palestinian popular sectors and their allied and sympathetic extension on the whole world level, so he became, along with his actual leadership of the revolution, a symbol And a title for it.. so that its phenomenon spreads across the world, spreading like wildfire, and for millions to wear its famous keffiyeh as a spontaneous and automatic expression of what the keffiyeh represents and its owner.
Reaching the top is much easier than keeping it
The Palestinians needed a leadership style different from all those who preceded it in occupying the summit position, and they found in the one wearing khakis and carrying the rifle their long-awaited goal, and the circumstance in which he appeared was completely favorable to filling Palestinian and Arab voids.
The first bullet filled the void of Palestinian action, and the June defeat prepared the way for the adoption of the alternative on the Arab level, and this strengthened the battle of dignity, which recorded the first victory after the major defeat. It was not just a propaganda reaction, that historic slogan launched by the nation's leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. “The Palestinian revolution is here to stay.”
Officially, legally and practically, Yasser Arafat occupied the highest position without any difference, i.e. the presidency of the PLO, which was like a frontal framework on which there was consensus. We can consider his new position as the beginning of the most important stage in his leadership.
And if the path to ascension was smooth, but the work of the presidency and leadership was not like that. It cost his revolution and his people, but he and those with him accumulated, despite the human and geographical losses, a political capital that brought the revolution and its leader to the heart of regional and international equations.
This would not have happened if Arafat had not enjoyed distinguished leadership characteristics, especially in terms of managing the inner house of the revolution.
The first is the Fatah house, which was filled with intelligent and qualified senior leaders who are called the historical founders, and around them was a second class no less qualified and efficient. For them, the "cubs" provide it with all the necessities of life, strength, and overcoming challenges
In the vicinity of the Fatah House, there were active and effective houses that were steadily reproducing, which were what were termed factions and forces, and from his position as the leader of all, he had to nurture a formula that provided harmony between all these houses.
The factions at that stage were neither easy nor easy to lead, and despite all the inevitable difficulties of dealing with senior leaders, the man and those with him succeeded in formulating a correct and effective equation in maintaining a level of harmony, understanding and alliance, as described by Yasser Arafat with the democracy of guns, and George Habash described it as eloquently as Yasser Arafat described it, "We disagree with you and we do not disagree with you."
And through a coherent internal situation within the broader framework of the PLO
And through the careful alignment between the difficult military effort and the most difficult political effort, the ship, under the leadership of its captain, proceeded on its correct course, bypassing the straits and adversities, and the strength and capabilities of the opponent, so the integration of the Palestinian presence with the integration of its three circles, the self, the Arab and the international, resulted in addressing the world from above Minbar where Arafat summed up the philosophy of the revolution with his eloquent sentence that is still alive: "I came to you with the rebel's rifle in one hand and the olive branch in the other, so do not let the green branch fall from my hand."

To be continued...