[BLANK_AUDIO] In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon in order to put an end to the PLO's military presence in that country. For the PLO there was an essential need to preserve it's Lebanese haven at all costs. After all, it had no substitute from where it could wage its, its confrontation with Israel. And the PLO, as it established itself in Lebanon, began to build a much more significant military force. And it was against that background that Israel decided. To go to war in Lebanon. The objective was to expel the PLO from Lebanon and to install Bashir al-Jumayyil, the leader of the Phalange political party as the President of Lebanon to re-establish Maronite Christian supremacy in Lebanon. The domestic Lebanese part of the Israeli plan ended in failure as we have already seen in the discussion on Lebanon. But Israel did succeed in the war in Lebanon in evicting the PLO forces from the country. This had great historical significance. Losing the Lebanese haven meant, that the PLO had lost its political independence to a very large degree. It could not wage the armed struggle effectively against Israel, from some distant Arab States that had not border with Israel. Moreover,the center of gravity of Palestinian politics after the PLO's defeat in Lebanon began to shift from the Palestinian diaspora. That is, outside of Palestine. Into the West Bank and Gaza. It is the West Bank and Gaza that became the center of gravity of Palestinian politics, after the PLO was defeated in Lebanon. And immediately after the PLO defeat in Lebanon, the United States, now under President Reagan. Offered an initiative of their own in September 1982, which was a plan for Palestinian autonomy linked to Jordan. The American plan opposed a Palestinian State and opposed Israeli control or annexation. But Israel was not interested. In a Palestinian control of any kind, of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel's idea of pushing the PLO out of Lebanon in 1982, was in order to give Israel a free hand in the West Bank and Gaza, and not to enter in to a negotiation. In which Israel would have to concede these territories. The PLO in Jordan. In the aftermath of the Reagan Initiative of 1982, engaged in a negotiation of their own to see if they could come to a common stand in reference to the Reagan initiative and to perhaps involve themselves jointly. In a negotiation with Israel. But the PLO in Jordan failed to come to any kind of agreement on the Reagan plan. These years of the mid 1980s were the Twilight Zone for the PLO. These were years in which the PLO declined regionally and internationally. It had become a much weaker player, having lost its autonomous base of operations in Lebanon. And political developments of the Palestinians. Now shifted inwards, into the West Bank and Gaza.