Behind the myth : Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian revolution / Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker.

Maps on lining papers.

By two Financial Times (London) staffers, this first-rate biography of the Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman highlights Arafat's hyperactive but elusive leadership and deals bluntly with the fact that after decades of furious activism he has made little progress toward a Palestinian homeland. Analyzing his futile attempts to mediate the Gulf crisis, Gower and Walker show how Arafat's alignment with Saddam Hussein led to the cancellation of the PLO's financial support and his present persona non grata status throughout most of the Arab world. The authors report that Arafat's advisers "deeply suspect" that the recent assassination of his number-two man Salah Khalaf was ordered by Hussein as a warning to the PLO to stay the course against the Americans. In discussing Arafat's formal recognition of Israel and renunciation of terrorism before the United Nations General Assembly, Gower and Walker point out that most Israelis remain convinced that he is irrevocably committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. They conclude that Arafat, despite his U.N. declaration, wants to have it both ways, is "still trying, by winks and nods, to createTwo British journalists attempt to place the personality and role of Arafat, the leader of the PLO, in the context of an organization that is fighting for the political self-determination of the Palestinians. Referred to as "Mr. Palestine," Arafat is characterized as the prime director of the Palestinian "liberation" movement but certainly not without considerable opposition not only from the Israelis but also and more importantly from within the Palestinian ranks. The authors describe with great detail the internal dynamics of the PLO as an umbrella organization with various factions vying for direction and control of the movement. The book is up to date, taking the story up through the Madrid peace talks held in late 1991. It is complementary to Thomas Kiernan's Arafat: The Man and the Myth ( LJ 8/76, o.p.) and Alan Hart's Arafat: A Political Biography (Indiana Univ. Pr., 1988). Recommended for specialists of Middle Eastern affairs as well as for an informed general audience. the impression among his own constituency that the gun has not given way to the olive branch.