As Israeli occupation of the West Bank…

As Israeli occupation of the West Bank solidified, many local Palestinian leaders had turned to building social organizations, labor unions, and religious, educational, and political institutions.

The PLO has responded by making its presence increasingly felt in the occupied territories, building its own youth groups, providing families with economic assistance, and putting in place a rival political infrastructure that makes it possible for PLO-supported candidates to win in the municipal elections of 1976.

Peres had wrongly calculated that the PLO would boycott the elections.

Instead, ...