ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to provide the profile of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--General Command (PFLP-GC), concentrating on its international dimension. The PFLP-GC's dependence on radical state sponsors increases the likelihood that it will react violently to any successful political process associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Syrian-sponsored PFLP-GC has been headed by Ahmed Jibril, a former officer in the Syrian Army, since its establishment in 1968. The fundamental themes guiding the activity and intra-Palestinian political path of the PFLP-GC are pan-Arabism, a total rejection of Israel's right to exist, and advocation of armed struggle as the only way to advance the Palestinian cause. Relations between the PFLP-GC and Libya have intensified as Syria has bowed, however symbolically, to sanctions imposed by western states. The role of the PFLP-GC as a proxy for Iran was apparently manifested in the most demonstrative way in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103.
