George Habash: Death of a terrorist

Dear Dr. George has died, OMYOMYOMY.

 

Imagine being in a hospital and hearing on the pager "Dr. Habash, Dr. George Habash." Habash had the sure cure for everything that ails you. His prescription would put an end to all your problems.

 

Here was one of those fellows who at last exercised his principle virtue - his mortality.

 

I have no compassion for this fellow or for the sick people who mourn him.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Apologia for Habash

On the Electronic Intifada website, As'ad AbuKhalil despairs at the New York Times obituary of George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who died a few days ago.

 

It's the description of Habash as a terrorist which bothers him. Habash, says AbuKhalil, was "a kind and gentle man." When it came to armed operations, Habash apparently insisted on "high ethical and political standards." And when those standards weren't met, AbuKhalil adds, it was the fault not of Habash, but of Wadi Haddad, the "adventurist" who planned and executed the PFLP's grisly operations.

 

It's a convenient argument, but not one that really holds any water. What - apart from adherence to the Habash personality cult - leads AbuKhalil to conclude that Haddad, rather than Habash, bore the brunt of the responsibility? And if Habash really was so disapproving, why did he not condemn and oust Haddad?

 

These questions become all the more important when one recalls what the PFLP actually did. AbuKhalil mentions the PFLP's hijacking of airliners in the 1970s, something he depicts as rather romantic; the height, if you will, of revolutionary chic.

 

Continued here : Apologia for Habash