This from the International Socialism Journal 2*33, Autumn 1986; below his meeting from last year.
"The presence of Israel and the expansionary policy that has led to five major wars has allowed the Arab rulers an alibi - they have been able to direct domestic discontent into nationalism, with the Zionists the main enemy. Their ability to produce Palestinian leaders to verify their anti-Zionist credentials has helped to give a whole generation of shaikhs and presidents legitimacy and has weakened the basis for unity between the Palestinian masses and Arab workers. This has been true whether Arafat has been appearing alongside the Gulf shaikhs and emirs, or George Habash of the Popular Front and Nayef Hawatmeh have shared platforms with the 'progressives' - Syria's Assad, Libya's Qaddafi, Algeria's Boumedienne or Chadli. There has been no part of the Palestinian movement not identified with a section of Arab capitalism."
and
"Elsewhere the communist parties were pursuing the same popular front strategies that had proved so ineffective in the 1940s. In Syria, for example, the party lobbied the Baathists who had seized power in 1963, viewing them in the same light as the Nasser regime. In 1966 they were admitted to the government, being allocated two ministers, and for several years had representation in a ruling 'progressive front'. This did not stop the regime developing a police state in which all dissent was suppressed."
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