From the Publisher: Nov 7 1988

"Look, planes!" Fortunately for the TIME staffer accompanying Yasser Arafat on his flight across the Middle East last week, they were not Israeli aircraft, which Arafat charges have recently been trying to ambush him. They were Turkish jet fighters, 16 of them, and they rose in waves to provide a protective escort as Arafat's plane flew over the Iraqi border and into Turkey. The U.S.-made F-16s hugged Arafat's wing tips, and their pilots saluted the Palestinian leader. "They were so close, I could see their eyes," recalls Murray Gart, the TIME senior correspondent on board Arafat's plane.

The encounter came midway...

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