That was from the mid-1960s and into the 70s. But sadly for the Palestinians, their fighters devoted too much time and energy attacking each other and their hosts, first the Jordanians and ultimately the Lebanese. The result was two civil wars: the first against the Jordanians in 1970, and the second in Lebanon in 1975.

Those events, and a number of other major missteps - such as supporting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 - has contributed much in the change of attitude in the Arab world toward the Palestinian cause.

So today, while the Palestinians may still find popular support on the Arab street, they are unlikely to get it in such measure from Arab governments as they previously enjoyed.

However, the rest of the world should not be fooled into thinking that the question of Palestine can be brushed under the rug where it will eventually be forgotten.

Because although the Palestinian "problem" is now largely contained within the confines of Palestinian "reservations" inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip – with very few exceptions, when Palestinian militants manage to slip through the heavily fortified demarcation lines and get into Israel - the Palestinian cause continues to offer fundamentalists and extremists the perfect recruiting poster.

Indeed, what has transpired over the years, despite the loss of popularity suffered by the Palestinian resistance, is that the Palestinian question has become far more complex. Failure by the international community to impose a resolution for both sides has led to the creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

And if the Arab world has taken a back seat as far as Palestine is concerned, the Islamic Republic of Iran has wasted no time in jumping into the driver's seat.

The Iranians today are active in Lebanon and in the Palestinian areas through their proxy militias, changing what was initially an Arab-Israeli conflict into an Arab-Persian-Israeli conflict.

Additionally, the Palestinian refugee camps scattered around Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, with large numbers of unemployed youth, offers the Islamists a vast pool of potential recruits.

King Abdullah of Jordan whose own country has come very close to the brink of disaster, realizes the urgency of solving the longstanding question of Palestine, as he pointed out to the Democratic Party's presumptive candidate Barack Obama during his stopover earlier this week in the Jordanian capital.

With less than 180 days left before President George W. Bush leaves the White House his promise to see the creation of a Palestinian state before the end of his mandate is highly unlikely to happen.

Perhaps the closing chapter to the Palestinian question will be written by President Obama.