This is Harold Cubert's groundbreaking history of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a violent Marxist faction within the Palestinian national movement. Taking an academically rigorous but politically neutral approach, Cubert explores the group's background and provides a thorough analysis of its aims, methods, structures, and the factors responsible for its recent decline.

The PFLP rejects any settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict that falls short of the total elimination of Israel and the establishment of an independent state on what it claims to be Palestinian land. It is implacably hostile towards the United States and its allies in Europe and the Middle East, and is committed to a strategy of armed conflict.

Cubert views the organisation's inflexibility as the key factor behind its lack of success. He illustrates this by contrasting the PFLP with Fatah, the dominant faction in the PLO. Fatah did not share the PFLP's rigid, ideological approach; it was primarily concerned to establish Palestinian self-rule on 'liberated land' and it was prepared to compromise with the West, particularly in the years following the collapse of the soviet bloc.

This enabled Fatah to transform itself from an underground movement to a quasi-government with strong international ties. The PFLP, by contrast, became increasingly isolated. Today, from its headquarters in Damascus, it can do nothing without the Syrian government's approval and Syria is on the verge of a peace agreement with Israel...