The Closure of the PLO Offices

Abstract

A scenario that is almost too familiar to a Middle East observer, particularly on the eve of or during a presidential campaign, is the hibernation of U.S. Middle East policy or its hijacking by politicians lobbied by pressure groups and preoccupied with their electoral prospects. Indeed, politicians crowd each other, outbid each other, and even scramble over each other to curry favor with the powerful lobbies that to a large extent hold the key to their political fortunes. But the bill to close the PLO's information office in Washington and its UN observer mission in New York is an example of overkill.' For almost five decades, at four-year intervals the Palestinian Arabs have stood out as the uncontested sacrificial lamb on the altar of the U.S. electoral process. Pro-Israel lobbyists have successfully exploited this time factor over and over again by moving the Palestinian problem into the limelight at a moment when the U.S. is subject to domestic electoral considerations. This most recent development in the unfolding of U.S. policy toward the Palestinian Arabs warrants examination by scholars of the U.S. political scene. Its implications are far-reaching; therefore, its background, the motivations behind it, its constitutional dimension (with a sharp focus on free expression as embedded in the First Amendment), and its place in