[TIME] Scott MacLeod - You could call George Habash, a Palestinian leader who died in Amman on Saturday at the age of 82, the godfather of Middle East terrorism. Habash's group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), pioneered the hijacking of airplanes as a Middle East terror tactic - one eventually employed by the al-Qaeda hijackers on 9/11 - way back in 1968 when three PFLP armed operatives commandeered an Israeli El Al airliner enroute from Rome to Tel Aviv. Checking in for a flight has never been the same since. In 1970, PFLP terrorists hijacked four airliners at one time, flew three of them to Jordan, blew them up, and triggered the Black September civil war between Jordan's Hashemite monarchy and Palestinians. In 1972, Japanese Red Army terrorists working with the PFLP massacred 24 people at Israel's international airport. In 1976, the PFLP's last hijacking ended in the daring rescue by Israeli counter-terrorism commandos in Entebbe, Uganda. Habash succeeded in raising awareness of the Palestinian cause, yet his extreme, vengeful methods also helped drench it in blood, and likely brought Palestinians no closer to freedom and dignity.
2008-01-28 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive