Behind the Myth: Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution

By two Financial Times (London) staffers, this first-rate biography of the Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman highlights Arafat's hyperactive but elusive leadership and deals bluntly with the fact that after decades of furious activism he has made little progress toward a Palestinian homeland. Analyzing his futile attempts to mediate the Gulf crisis, Gower and Walker show how Arafat's alignment with Saddam Hussein led to the cancellation of the PLO's financial support and his present persona non grata status throughout most of the Arab world. The authors report that Arafat's advisers ``deeply suspect'' that the recent assassination of his number-two man Salah Khalaf was ordered by Hussein as a warning to the PLO to stay the course against the Americans. In discussing Arafat's formal recognition of Israel and renunciation of terrorism before the United Nations General Assembly, Gower and Walker point out that most Israelis remain convinced that he is irrevocably committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. They conclude that Arafat, despite his U.N. declaration, wants to have it both ways, is ``still trying, by winks and nods, to create the impression among his own constituency that the gun has not given way to the olive branch.'' Photos. (Apr.)