Talk:Rejectionist Front

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[edit] Nice one

Good article, Arre. Thanks for creating it. SlimVirgin (talk) 07:51, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks :-) But there's some things left to do. I'm looking for info on when (or rather if) the RF officially ceased to exist, on additional members, and, related to your edit, if Fatah-RC were allowed to remain part of the RF after they started attacking the PLO. I can't imagine they were. If you find anything on that, feel free... Arre 08:00, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
The only thing I have to hand right now that mentions it is Yossi Melman's The Master Terrorist (1986), which says (pp 90-3) that at a conference in December 1977 sponsored by Gadaffi, the PLO leadership decided to join the Rejectionist Front, which included Libya, Syria, South Yemen, and Algeria. This was the conference that established the Steadfastness and Confrontation Front, opposing "submission to Zionism, imperalism, and the Arabs serving them." It was at this conference, according to Melman, that Arafat was reconciled with Habash, Jibril, and Hawatmah, but not with Abu Nidal. Melman writes that Iraqi diplomats tried to arrange a meeting between Arafat and Abu Nidal, who was already under a PLO death sentence, but it didn't happen. Melman also writes that Abu Nidal would have killed Arafat himself had the Rejectionist Front not been so opposed to it, which implies that Abu Nidal still regarded himself as involved in some way; but lesser PLO representatives continued to be targeted, which suggests the RF didn't have a problem with that. SlimVirgin (talk) 09:21, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
This, I think, is another Rejectionist Front. Not the one formed among Palestinian organizations (which is treated by this article), but rather the one that was formed by hardline Arab states (plus the PLO) after Egypt started making peace with Israel. That's important too, so maybe we should have a disambiguation piece on this. (Also, incidentally, it's perfect proof that every minute of work on a WP article generates the need for two more minutes of work on another article.) Arre 09:28, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Melman discusses it as though it's the same one e.g. "In practice, all the Palestinian organizations, including those which did not belong to the Rejectionist Front, repudiated Sadat's trip to Jerusalem ..." (p 90), and then he goes on to discuss the conference, as above. SlimVirgin (talk) 09:32, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
I just found some references to that front as The Steadfastness Front or The Arab Steadfastness Front, so maybe that's the real name. All the PLO organizations would have been in on it, as Melman says, but the Rejectionist Front of our WP article was, at least in the beginning, ONLY a split among PLO organizations. Whereas this other (Steadfastness?) Front incorporated governments, and formed only three years later.
So, maybe...
  • 1. The Arab governments joined the first front? (And there was only one.)
  • 2. Melman is himself mixing them up?
  • 3. Melman is referring to organizations that did not join the 1977 initiative, but still (of course) rejected Sadat's visit, without belonging to any front at all? (And there was two organizations, of 1975 and 1977 respectively.) Arre 09:39, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Hmmm, no idea is the short answer. Melman doesn't write about this with a great deal of precision, so that he's mixing things up is a distinct possibility. SlimVirgin (talk) 09:45, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Okay. I'm pretty sure there were two fronts, though. I'll have a look at it later, and probably start a Steadfastness-article, if you don't beat me to it. Arre 09:48, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Authenticity check: A search reveals that the phrase "regarded by many" appears in the text. Is the phrase a symptom of a dubious statement? Could a source be quoted instead? Perhaps the "many" could be identified? Might text be edited to more genuinely reflect specific facts?
Wetman