Two decades after the founding of Israel and a year after Israel's overwhelming victory in the Six-Day War, YASSER ARAFAT was emerging as the new leader of the Palestinian fedayeen, or "men of sacrifice." TIME profiled him and his movement in a 1968 cover story:
The fedayeen are most secretive of all about their high command, though the largest organization, Arafat's El Fatah, is said to be ruled by a committee of wealthy civilians in Damascus. Nor does anyone really know very much about Yasser Arafat, though everyone in the Arab world knows who he is. As El Fatah grew and felt the need for a visible spokesman, he became its ambassador extraordinary to the Arab world, its chief fund raiser and its field commander in Jordan. Arafat (his code name is Abu Ammar) sits at a wooden desk in his headquarters in Amman, dealing with a procession of couriers like a general on a field of battle, which in a sense he is. When a guerrilla comes in to report a successful raid, Arafat's eyes, bulging almost to the panes of the dark glasses he wears day and night, dance with delight. He speaks softly and turns aside all questions about himself. "Please, no personality cult. I am only a soldier. Our leader is Palestine. Our road is the road of death and sacrifice to win back our homeland. If we cannot do it, our children will, and if they cannot do it, their children will." --TIME, Dec. 13, 1968