Palestinian resistance faces new challenge

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The coming meeting of the Palestine National Council (PNC) is expected to declare the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza and the formation of a provisional government-in-exile to administer the new state.

In exchange for the recognition of this Palestinian state, the upcoming PNC-the Palestinian parliament-in-exile-is expected to formally announce the P.L.O.'s recognition of the Israeli state's right to exist within secure borders.

These views have been issued publicly by top P.L.O. officials over the past several weeks.

If this occurs, it will mark the first time in 40 years that the highest leadership body of the Palestinian movement formally recognizes the legitimacy of the Israeli state-a state which is based on the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their lands and the destruction of their national existence.

Numerous Palestinian publications, and many supporters of the Palestinian resistance, are already hailing the expected announcement of a Palestinian state. Some-like Naseer Aruri, who writes in the Oct. 26 issue of The Guardian newspaper—call it a first step, a transition, toward the establishment of a democratic and secular state in all of Palestine.

But are these cries of "victory" justified? Will a Palestinian state—assuming it is declared at the 19th PNC meeting-be independent? Will it be a state in any meaningful sense of the term? And will it be a transition to "a democratic and secular state in all of Palestine?"

There is more than ample believe than none of these be met.

Will it be independent?

Bassam Abu Sharif, a close adviser to Yasir Arafat, submitted a written document to the Algiers Summit of the Arab nations last June in which he stated that the P.L.O. is willing to endorse United Nations (continued on page 9, in “British gov't covers up murder of IRA activists”) last year.

In mid-October, RJR Nabisco announced it would borrow close to $17 billion with the help of the Shearson Lehman Hutton investment firm to finance the largest corporate takeover in U.S. history. "The speculative fever has become so pronounced that almost every big company in America is a possible target," states The New York Times (Oct. 25).

The Times warns that such multibilliondollar speculative financing could severely affect the nation's economy, perhaps even setting off a major depression, in the event of an economic downturn. With the issuing of huge sums of debt to finance the corporate takeovers—usually in the form of junk bonds-even the slightest recession could bankrupt the corporations, making it impossible for them to pay back all the debt they owe.

This is the same scenario that led to the collapse of the stock market on Oct. 17, 1987.

S&L failures

The hot summer of 1988 witnessed a number of billion-dollar savings-and-loan failures. How did these failures occur?

An editorial in The New York Times (Oct. 20) provides the answer: "It's no mystery how one-third of the nation's savings and loans dug themselves a deep financial hole. In 1982, Congress gave thrifts [S&Ls] broad discretion to invest outside their traditional home mortgage market. But it left intact their unlimited right to raise money through Governmentinsured deposits.

"Hundreds of fast-buck artists entered the (continued on page 6, in “Mass. construction firms attack prevailing wage law”)

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work an honest day....

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