The Survivor's Stratagem

By persuading a majority of the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.), a parliament-in-exile for the Palestinian movement, to hold its annual meeting in the Jordanian capital of Amman last week, Yasser Arafat once again demonstrated his talents as a survivor.

Syria and some of the dissident Palestinian factions it supports had tried to block the meeting, fearing that it would reaffirm Arafat's waning control after almost 16 years as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Their fears were justified. In what has become something of a yearly ritual. Arafat tendered his resignation as chairman, only to reclaim the title the following day at the insistence of loudly cheering throngs. Said he: "I'll remain because I am needed."

The P.N.C. also voted to support a call by Jordan's King Hussein at the meeting for an overall Middle East peace conference. But the group reiterated their rejection of United Nations Resolution 242, which the King had suggested as the basis for such a conference. Passed in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967, the resolution calls on Israel to return occupied Arab territories in exchange for recognition of its right to exist.