Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Rejection Front
The Rejection Front, or Steadfastness Front (jabhat al-rafd) refers to a group of Arab states and Palestinian organizations. The Rejection Front was an informal movement that coalesced after the October 1973 war, with the objective to promote a hard line of opposition to Arab-Israeli Peacemaking, whether direct or internationally mediated.
Some elements of this group claimed that the conflict with Israel could only end by destroying Israel. The proponents of this position were motivated by Pan-Arab nationalist ideology. They expressed an intent to develop practical means to bring about the demise of Israel as a state, and a belief that the Arab World posessed the strategic capability to do so. They envisioned diplomatic, as well as military and econommic means of attack against Israel.
At the same time, some Arabs states had lost territory to Israeli occupation in June 1967. It was felt to be a matter of some urgency, particularly by Egypt, to regain the lost territory, but the only effective method available appeared to be through diplomacy with Israel. Generally, the Arab states worried that entering a diplomatic process with Israel would be nearly equivalent to recognition of Israel. For most, this was simply to be too high a price to pay.
The leading forces of the Rejection Front were Iraq, Libya, and some Palestinian groups, primarily the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They formed a rather unstructured coalition. Particularly for Iraq and Libya, their rejectionist position also derived self-interest, regional and domestic, which seemed contrary to the peace process that was evolving after 1973. In any event, the lost territory had never been under their control, but it`s loss to Israel was a useful rallying point. They rejected a transitory approach to the conflict with Israel, "a strategy of phases," which had been adopted by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Algeria, and the mainstream of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Essentially, they argued that the first phase, the acceptance of the continued existence of Israel, represented a strategic loss from which the Arab World would never recover. It would, in the light of World opinion, limit the future freedom of action of the Arabs and would make the redemption of Palestine impossible.
After President al-Sadat`s historic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977 a new radical Arab coalition emerged. It was formalized in a summit meeting convened by Libya`s President Qadhafi, in December of that year. The participants in this meeting were Libya, Syria, Algeria, South Yemen, the PLO and Iraq, although Iraq refused to join the coalition formally. Iraq demanded a total rejection of diplomacy as a means to resolve the conflict with Israel. This was the beginning of the "Steadfastness and Confrontation Front" (Jabhat al-Sumud wal-Tasaddi). The "Steadfastness Front" disassociated itself from its predecessor, the "Rejection Front," by adopting a platform of its own. The "Steadfastness Front" allowed for the possibility of diplomacy and international mediation as a legitimate tactic in the Arab-Israeli encounter. It allowed for joint Arab action in this regard, but only within the very restrictive bounds of established prohibitions against direct negotiations with Israel, or recognition of Israel.
The Steadfastness Front took the lead in denouncing Egypt for its agrements with Israel. The Front held several separate summit meetings: Damascus in September 1978; Tripoli in April 1980; and Benghazi in September 1981. They were seeking a united response to the ongoing peace process between Egypt and Israel, which eventually led to in the signing of the Camp David Accords in September 1978, and a peace treaty in March 1979. The urge to oppose Egypt resulted in a temporary rapprochement between Syria and Iraq, following a decade of deep hostility. Iraq, however, had no abiding interest in the Steadfastness Front, which it considered irrelevant.
The alignment between Iraq and Syria collapsed shortly after the erruption of the Iran-Iraq War. The conflict drew Iraq away from further involvement in the conflict with Israel. It needed Arab support, especially financial aid from the Gulf Oil countries, in its war with Iran. Syria and Libya supported Iran. Algeria loosened its support of the Steadfastness Front, and the PLO withdrew in 1983 to avoid Syrian pressure on the PLO`s mainstream Fatah. Only the extremist, anti-Arafat, factions continuing to back Syria. Nevertheless, in the 1980`s, Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen continued to unite on the issue of peacemaking with Israel. At Syria`s instigation, they boycotted the Arab Summit Conferences of Amman in 1980 and in Casablanca in 1985. They sent only low-level representatives to the twelfth summit in Fez, in November 1981, instead of the heads-of-state. In Fez, they broke up the meeting by vetoing the Fahd plan and forming a block which opposed the return of Egypt to the Arab League until 1989.
In the 1980`s, the importance of the Front to regional Arab politics diminished greatly. Iran had assumed a much more central role in Middle Eastern regional politics, and especially in deterring the Gulf oil-producing monarchies from a rapproachment with Egypt. Iran, even though it is not an Arab nation, was Syria`s ally and it participated as an observer in summit meetings of the Steadfastness Front. It joined summit meetings with Syria and Libya and it supported the Shi`i militant Hizballah in Lebanon in its armed struggle against Israel. Iran became rather influential, for a time, in the Arab-Israeli peace process.
The radical or extremist factions within the PLO are also sometimes called "Rejection Front." They collaborated as an informal coalition from the 1970`s and in 1984 they established the "National Salvation Front" within the PLO, with Syrian-sponsorship. Following the signing of the Oslo Agreement by Israel and the PLO in September 1993, a new coalition of ten Palestinian opposition groups, combining radical leftist, nationalist, and Islamic militants, was proclaimed under the name "The Ten Front." The Ten Front also had Syrian sponsorship, but it was an unorganized group of factions which did little beyond issuing joint proclamations against the Oslo Agreement. Hamas was an important participant in the Ten Front, and Hamas quickly overshadowed the rest of the Ten Front coalition. Hamas has a massive presence in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and their political and military potential exceeds that of all other similar groups combined.