George Habash. leader of the guerrilla group responsible for the four airline hijackings on Aug. 30. said in an interview with Der Stern that he was ready to risk touching off World War III if that would “crush Zionism and Arab reactionaries.” The interview, which will appear next week, was made before the Aug. 30 hijackings and detention by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine of more than 300 airline passengers. Asked if he was aware that activities of the Popular Front could lead to a new world war, he replied “oh. yes. but that does not unnerve me. The whole world has something to lose” in such a war “but we haven’t. If this is the only possibility to destroy Israel and Zionism and Arab reactionaries, we even wish a world war to come.”
He bitterly attacked all Arab regimes, except that of Iraq, for opposing the Popular Front and praised the support of Communist China because that regime has declared that “Israel must be eliminated.” He explained Popular Front attacks on airliners by saying that the airlines did not have the “financial status and strength that Israel boasts” and that the Popular Front had to give a “sign” of its goals. He said the Popular Front could achieve that objective without paying too great a cost only by getting “100 percent results in their operations.” which was feasible by attacks on airlines. He said that since West Germany and the United States were supporting Israel, “they were involved in the battle.” (Dr. Nahum Goldmann. the world Zionist leader, told the Cologne Stadtanzeiger that if Habash’s Popular Front seized power in Jordan, this would be a reason for Israel to intervene but he added he did not believe the terrorists would win in Jordan.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
