On January 17, 1991, the United States and a coalition of Arab and Western countries began bombarding Iraq to force its withdrawal from neighboring Kuwait, which it had invaded five months earlier. The war had further-reaching consequences than just Iraq's control over Gulf oil fields, however. Making good on his threats, Saddam Hussein would fire dozens of SCUD missiles at Israel, his retaliation for the war being launched against him. Additionally, the war would have serious consequences for Palestinians living in the Gulf and for the international standing of the PLO leadership.
From the beginning, the then-Iraqi president attempted to create linkage between the international effort aimed at forcing his withdrawal from Kuwait and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In one of his first attempts to prevent Western military action against his country, Hussein – who was a staunch ally of then PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat – proposed “that all cases of occupation, and those cases that have been portrayed as occupation, in the region, be resolved simultaneously.” For a number of reasons, primarily the West's refusal to give the perception that the invasion be rewarded in any way, his offer was immediately rebuffed.
