Plans had been devised between Israel and…

However, just at the time when Arafat is scheduled to make a conciliatory statement, as part of the plan, the Israeli navy begins capturing boats belonging to Lebanese Muslims, turning them over to Israel's Lebanese Christian allies, who kill them. (In a March 6, 1981 interview with the Jerusalem post, Rabin, who was Prime Minister at the time, will concede the facts but says that the boats were captured before the proposed gesture, and that this was simply an excuse for the PLO to back out of the agreement. Shimon Peres, who was Defense Minister at the time, will decline to comment.)