Fatah is the largest and wealthiest of…

Fatah is the largest and wealthiest of all the Palestinian organizations by the end of the 1960s and has taken over effective control of the PLO, of which Yasser Arafat is named chair of the PLO's executive committee and thus the chief of the Palestinian national movement.

Abu Jihad, as 'Arafat's deputy and a moderate within the PLO, often negotiates with PLO extremists, maintains diplomatic relations with other countries, and reportedly plans military strategies and arranges arms purchases for Fatah and the PLO.

The Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP; Arabic Al-Jabhah al-Dimuqra tiyyah li-Tahrir Filast in), originated in the leftist swing of the 1960s.

Founded by a Jordanian Orthodox Christian, Na'if Hawatmeh, in 1969, the DFLP is envisioned as a political movement distinct from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which had been founded to provide an umbrella group for militant Palestinian groups.

The PDFLP stands ideologically to the left of the PFLP and claims that its enemies are Zionist upper-class colonists.

The PDFLP initially maintains a Marxist-Leninist orientation, believing the peasants and the working classes should be educated in socialism in order to bring about a democratic state of Jews and Arabs free of Zionism and imperialism.

Other guerrilla organizations that have emerged in the late 1960s in addition to Fatah, the PFLP, the PFLP-General Command, and the PDFLP, include as-Sa'iqah, backed by Syria, and the Popular Struggle Front (PSF).

All these groups join forces inside the PLO despite their differences in ideology and tactics (some are dedicated to openly terrorist tactics).

Despite their differences in tactics and ideology, the guerrilla organizations are united in rejecting any political settlement that does not include what they characterize as the total liberation of Palestine and the return of the refugees to their homeland, goals that are to be achieved through armed struggle.

Palestinian representatives claim, however, that, while they aim at dismantling Israel and purging Palestine of Zionism, they seek to establish a nonsectarian state in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims can live in equality.

Most Israelis doubt the sincerity or practicality of this goal and view the PLO as a terrorist organization committed to destroying not only the Zionist state but also Israeli Jews.