Arafat's struggle, from its inception, is the struggle against Jewish presence in the Land of Israel and was at no time intended to be a specifically Palestinian struggle, nor was it ever meant to revolve around a mere Palestinian/Israeli confrontation. From the beginning, the fight was conceived as an Arab/Islamic affair with a Palestinian people serving as both diplomatic and cannon fodder. To further emphasize the meaning of his struggle, Abu Amar stressed the Islamic aspect of jihad by adopting the name Arafat.

Arafat is the name of a hill next to Mecca. Mentioned in the Koran, Arafat is climbed after a pilgrim's visit to the Kaaba and there marks the climax and fulfillment of a Muslim's journey on earth. In other words, the adoption of this name drives home the message to the Islamic world that something important is at stake here: Islam, or rather the present version thereof, stands or falls with Arafat as the symbol figure for the struggle against Israel. As the hill, Arafat would be meaningless without Mecca, likewise the PLO's Arafat becomes significant only through his upholding the destiny of the Arab/Muslim nations.

Arafat's mentor, Amin el-Husseini succeeded, in 1921-2, to organize riots against the Balfour Declaration. In their wake, Jews were killed and Jewish property was destroyed. The British imprisoned el-Husseini, released him and in turn appointed him Mufti of Jerusalem. The British did not object that he styled himself Grand Mufti, nor did they chastise him for the riots he instigated in 1929. These riots resulted not only in the extinguishing of the Jewish community of Hebron, but led also to a severe restriction of permits granted by the British Mandate authorities to Jewish immigrants. El-Husseini went on to organize the violence of 1936-38, preventing the incoming of Jews fleeing the Nazi regime. During these years, over 700 Jews were killed in the Land of Israel and nearly four times as many Arabs of whom el-Husseini suspected of collaboration with the British administration.

The British government attempted to bring Jewish and Arab leaders together in negotiations over their disputes at the proposed "Round Table Conference" in London, however, the Arabs refused to sit down with the Jews. As a result, the Mufti fell out of favor with the British mandate government and was forced to flee Mandate Palestine, escaping to Nazi Germany. The Germans welcomed el-Husseini, and authorized him to broadcast from Radio Berlin. In his messages, el-Husseini demanded a jihad against the Jews, and asserted that it would be "pleasing to Allah to kill the Jews wherever they could be found."

Released by the French, in whose hands he fell in 1945, el-Husseini made his way to Cairo where he forged the Arab League into a battle-sword against Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine. The intention of the Arab League, under the direction of el-Husseini, was to violently stem the flow of Jewish survivors from Europe into the Land of Israel. Although the Arab League could not prevent the UNO decision of November 29, 1947, which intended to divide Mandate Palestine into Jewish and Arab sectors, it did join seven Arab nations in declaring war on May 16, 1948, against the Jewish State. The ensuing war of 1948 saw Transjordan occupy Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. More important however, the League managed to manipulate the evolving refugee problem into a weapon of destruction against the "Zionist entity."

From the vast reservoir of these newly created refugee camps, large numbers of dispossessed Arabs were drafted into terrorist units, fedayeen. Abu Amar, styling himself Arafat, emerged as the leading figure and as the symbolic apex of the Arab aspirations to purge the land of the infidels.

After years of terrorism, intifada and diplomatic maneuvering the forces of Arafat had virtually been defeated. Had it not been for the all-consuming Israeli need to please the nations of the world, through their attendance at the Madrid Conference, at the behest of George Bush and Saddam Hussein, the Palestinian struggle would have collapsed The conference saw Israel acquiesce to the "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people" with the promise of future negotiations with "authentic representatives of the Palestinian people." With Madrid in hand, elements within Israel were able to pump life-blood back into the PLO cause.

Utilizing an Israeli populous weary from the blows sustained by the intifada and continued unfavorable world opinion, the Israeli opposition leaders engineered a victory at the polls, promising peace and an end to the Arab uprising. Once in office, the new leadership, through secret negotiations formulated the Oslo agreements. The Rabin-Peres regime transformed the image of Arafat from terrorist to peace-maker ensuring his victory. Suddenly, Arafat was no longer the ringleader of a terrorist gang, but recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize. Indeed, it seems that successive governments of Israel have come to accept the explanation that the aim of jihad is not to make war, it is rather, the Islamic way to peace. A peace that brings the Palestinian struggle to the apex of Arafat.
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