DURING THE 1960s several militant Palestinian groups emerged whose aim was to unite the Palestinians scattered across the Middle East. Disappointed in the failure of the Arab governments to destroy Israel and win a Palestinian homeland, these groups were determined to rely on their own efforts to achieve their goal. Some factions, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), were heavily influenced by the writings of Karl Marx, whose theories influenced the communist revolution in Russia. To them, liberation meant not just destroying Israel, but bringing about revolution in the moderate Arab states as well.

The largest and most influential of these groups was called Fatah, an Arabic word meaning "conquest" or "victory," and one of its founders was Yasir Arafat. Unlike other groups, Fatah's sole...