45. In the early 1960s, Gamal Abd-el-Nasser set up the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), mainly in order to forestall independent Palestinian actions that might involve him in an undesired war with Israel. The organization was intended to impose Egyptian control on the Palestinians. However, after the Arab debacle in the June 1967 war, Fatah, under Yassir Arafat, took control over the PLO, which has been the sole representative of the Palestinian people ever since.
46. Like everything else that has happened in the last 120 years, the June 1967 war is seen in a very different light by the two sides. According to the Israeli myth, it was a desperate war of defense, which miraculously left a lot of land in Israel's hands. According to the Palestinian myth, Israel drew the leaders of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan into a war Israel was interested in, which was aimed right from the beginning at capturing what was left of Palestine.
47. Many Israelis believe that the "Six-Day War" is the root of all evil and that it was only then that the peace-loving and progressive Israel turned into a conqueror and an occupier. This conviction allows them to maintain the absolute purity of Zionism and the State of Israel up to that point in history, and preserve their old myths. There is no truth to this legend.
48. The war of 1967 was yet another phase of the old struggle between the two national movements. It did not change the
essence; it only changed the circumstances. The essential
objectives of the Zionist Movement-a Jewish state, expansion, and settlement-were furthered by the addition of yet more
territory. The particular circumstances of this war made complete ethnic cleansing impossible, but several hundred thousand
Palestinians were nevertheless expelled.
49. The 1947 partition plan allotted to Israel 55 percent of Palestine; an additional 23 percent was captured in the 1948 war and now the remaining 22 percent, across the "Green Line" (the pre-1967 armistice line), was also captured. In 1967 Israel inadvertently united under its rule all the parts of the Palestinian people that remained in the country (including some of the refugees).
50. As soon as the war ended, the movement to settle the occupied territories began. Almost all the Israeli political factions participated in this movement, from the messianic-nationalistic "Gush Emunim" to the "leftist" United Kibbutz Movement. The