Middle East: Heading for a Showdown

Syria expels Arafat as the fight within the P.L.O. grows bloodier

The two-month-old rebellion within the Palestine Liberation Organization reached the crisis stage last week, with the future of Chairman Yasser Arafat in serious jeopardy. All week long, P.L.O. rebels, who consider Arafat's policies too moderate, attacked P.L.O. military positions in and around the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. In a spectacular ambush, aimed at killing or capturing Arafat himself, the rebels stormed a convoy of twelve P.L.O. vehicles in the western Syrian town of Homs. Arafat, who was safely in Damascus, declared...

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