can you go back to 1982, uri avnery, to talk about that moment when you met with yasser arafat? ?ow significant was that to my mind it was very significant. the situation was in a way similar to the present one. the plo, palestine liberation organization, was considered the main enemy of israel. ,t was located in south lebanon and the israeli army started an invasion of lebanon in order to .estroy the plo cold war, likery the present one. civilian towns and villages were sheldon bombarded. beirut was surrounded by israeli troops, like gaza is now. there was a debate in our and military leadership whether to invade and .onquer west beirut i was very much afraid of this. i thought that this would lead to a widespread slaughter and lots of casualties on all sides, and many, many civilians being killed. i thought, as i think today, that in order to put an end to a war, you must talk with your , try, look him in the eye to understand him, and come up with a solution. beirut,g the battle of i crossed the lines into the palestinian territory. i met with yasser arafat, the leader of the p