“Umm Hassan is dead.”
These are Dr. Khaleel Ayyoub’s first words to his only patient, the legendary hero of a dozen failed wars for Palestinian liberation, in Galilee Hospital in Shatila. But this isn’t a real hospital (scarcely any supplies or professional staff), Khaleel is not a real doctor (though he had some rudimentary medical training in China), and Yunis, or Abu Salim, is not a real hero (though famous as “lone wolf” fighter) — and is now probably brain dead.

Fidel Castro just turned 90 two days ago — no longer as we remember him, ever youthful, ever vigorous. What did he have that fascinated so many of us for so long, that let him dominate Cuba and from that small base to shake the whole world? And threatening to do more than just shake it, in October 1962. Like him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that his was a personality hard to resist, even by those among us who should have known better.