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Reactions to Ssraeli air raid
U.S.: ‘Act of self-defense’ U.N.: ‘Cannot be accepted’
WASHINGTON (JT A)—The Reagan adminis
tration indicated that it considers Israel’s bombings
of the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters
in Tunisia a “legitimate” act of self-defense against
terrorism.
Asked about the Israeli raid, State Department
deputy spokesman Charles Rudman said that
“without all the facts,” he could not comment
specifically about the Israeli action. He then added:
“But as a matter of principle, it is our view it is
legitimate self-defense against terrorism.”
Rudman noted that United States understands
that “this action was not intended as an offensivje
act against Tunisia.” The spokesman said tha't
Israel used U.S.-acquired equipment on the raid,
but he could not say what kind. But he stressed that
“we were not informed in advance and we were not
involved in any way.”
Earlier, Rudman repeated a statement that the
State Department has often used after acts of
terrorism or other violence in the Middle East.
“We deeply deplore the rising pattern of violence in
which this latest incident is part. It underscores the
need to work on the peace process.”
Rudman refused to say whether the U.S.
considers the Israeli raid a violation of Tunisian
sovereignty. Nor would he comment on what
would be the U.S. response if Israel launched a
similar attack on PLO bases in Jordan.
UNITED NATIONS (JTA)—United Nations
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said
Tuesday that Israel's air raid on Palestine
Liberation Organization targets in Tunisia “cannot
be accepted.” The air attack was also condemned
by the president of the General Assembly, Jaime de
Pinies of Spain.
In a statement issued through his spokesman,
de Cuellar said he is “gravely concerned” over the
attack because “such acts of reprisal in the current
situation with the resulting casualties and the
violation of the territorial integrity of a member-state
cannot be accepted. They serve to perpetuate the
cycle of violence and further hamper the search for
peaceful solutions."
De Cuellar’s spokesman observed, after reading
the statement, that the secretary general had also
condemned the murder of three Israelis by PLO
terrorists aboard a yacht in Larnaca, Cyprus. De
Pinies said “there is no excuse” for one country
attacking another.
The foreign minister of Tunisia, Beji Gaid
Essebsi, met with the secretary general Tuesday for
a discussion of the Israeli attack. Tunis did not
immediately request a meeting of the Security
Council on the issue. But diplomats here said this
cannot be ruled out.
Alore reactions on page 7.
Farmers falling prey
to extremist groups
by Kevin Freeman
Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Vol. LXI Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, October 4, 1985
No. 40
Israeli warplanes bomb
PLO offices in Tunisia
NEW YORK. (JTA)—The dire
economic crisis affecting American
farmers where an “atmosphere of
despair and hopelessness” has set
in, is providing fertile ground for
rightwing extremist groups to gain
recruits, according to the head of
an Iowa-based farmer’s organization.
“Farmers across the country
and particularly in the Midwest are
now facing a greater economic
upheaval than any we have seen in
more than a half a century,” Dixon
Terry, chairman of the Iowa Farm
Unity Coalition, told reporters at
American Jewish Committee head
quarters here.
“Because of economic dislocation,
the loss of farms, and the financial
pressures that farmers and their
families are under, there is an
atmosphere of despair and hope
lessness, and in this atmosphere
many farmers are blindly grabbing
at anything that seems to provide
an answer for them.”
Terry added: “They are thus
ripe for the manipulations of
rightwing groups which provide
simplistic answers, conspiracy
theories, and bogus legal practices
that will supposedly solve the farmers’
very serious difficulties. The problem
is that these farmers have little or
no contact with other segments or
with mainstream media, and so
they are prey to these manipulations.”
Terry appeared with Christian
and Jewish religious leaders, and
representatives of civil rights and
James Kudin
farm groups at a news conference
recently. They denounced recent
attempts by extremist groups to
stir up anti-Semitism among
despairing farmers, warning that
these actions pose a danger to the
farmers and to democracy, as well
as to Christian-Jewish relations.
The extremist groups “have not
been received with open arms by
our communities, and we believe
these beliefs and actions are repug
nant to the vast majority of our
farm and rural population,” said
Thomas Kelly, director of the Kansas
Bureau of Investigation.
The extremist groups operating
in the Midwest include the Posse
Comitatus, the Populist Party, the
Aryan Nations, the Order, the
Covenant, Sword and Arm of the
See Farmers, Page 24.
Ironically, the same tw'o men —
Prime Minister Shimon Peres and
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin —
held the top two positions of power
in Israel at the time of Entebbe
Then, Peres was defense minister
and Rabin was prime minister.
The site of the attack was the
southern suburb of Borg Cedria,
21 miles (35 kilometers) south of
Tunis. The Israeli planes, reporting
“good hits” against their targets,
refueled in air during the journey.
The Israelis believe Force 17
was responsible for the Larnaca
attack though the terrorist organi
zation has denied carrying out the
assault.
This was the first reported Israeli
air raid outside Lebanon since
June 7, 1981, when Israeli jets
destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor
near Baghdad. It was the 13th
Israeli air raid of 1985. Israeli planes
already struck against a PLO target
in eastern Lebanon a day after the
Larnaca raid.
The PLO set up its headquarters
in Tunis after the Israelis drove
them out of Beirut at the end of the
summer of 1982 as part of the War
in Lebanon.
by Yaacov Ben Yosef
Special to The Southern Israelite
JERUSALEM—In one of the
most dramatic attacks in Israeli
military history, Israel’s warplanes
carried out one of the farthest air
raids in the country’s history Tuesday,
bombing the headquarters of the
PLO’s secret service in Tunisia.
The attack was in retaliation for
last week’s terrorist raid against an
Israeli yacht docked in Larnaca,
Cyprus; in that attack, three Israelis
were killed.
The offices hit in the raid were
normally used by PLO chief Yasir
Arafat and other PLO officials.
Arafat, was reported safe after the
attack; he was not near the site of
the raid when it occured at 11 a.m.
Israeli time. The PLO chieftain
phoned a colleague in Egypt to say
that he and all other senior PLO
officials were safe after the air
attack.
The planes flew 1,500 miles
(2,400 kilometers) from Israeli soil,
hitting the headquarters of Force
17, the PLO’s secret service.
Radio reports from the Arab
world said there were at least 20
dead in the Israeli attack. Eye-
Yasir Arafat
witnesses reported seeing the Star
of David on the planes.
The last time Israeli planes carried
out an attack this far from home
was July 4, 1976. when commandos
flew to Entebbe, Uganda, 2,200
miles (3,500 kilometers) away from
Israel to rescue hostages taken during
the hijacking of an Air France plane.
Trees that bind
Japan’s "New Zionists” honor bar mitzva age children by
planting trees in the Jewish National Fund's Mayuka forest located
in Jerusalem’s Ramot Active Recreation Park.
Founded by a Japanese scholar in 1948, the Mayuka Move
ment today has thousands of followers. They regard themselves as
descendants of the lost tribe of Dan, and see Israel as a divine
instrument for human salvation. Mayukas study Hebrew, and
some study archaeology and biblical history at Israeli universities.
Planting trees in the holy land of Israel, they believe, binds their
younger generation to Israel and promotes world peace. The
Mayukas established their first forest in Galilee 10 years ago.
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