Israel today flatly rejected Lebanon’s contention that it did not harbor the terrorists who massacred 18 persons in Kiryat Shemona last Thursday. “We have come before the Security Council to point again an accusing finger at the government of Lebanon and all others which harbor, assist and cooperate with Arab terrorist organizations and to emphasize that they will not be absolved of their obligation to prevent armed attacks against Israel, whether by regular forces or by irregular forces,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Yosef Tekoah told the Security Council this afternoon.
The Council convened to hear Lebanon’s complaint over Israel’s commando raid Friday against six villages in southern Lebanon which Israel claimed were used as terrorist shelters. Lebanon has denied that the three gunmen who murdered civilians in Kiryat Shemona came from their territory.
Tekoah, calling the outrage “murder for murder’s sake,” enumerated a long list of terrorist assaults against Israel from Lebanese territory during and since the Yom Kippur War in which Lebanon was not a belligerent. He also described In detail the infiltration of Israel by the Kiryat Shemona terrorists from Lebanon April 11, how their tracks were spotted by an Israeli border patrol which followed them to Kiryat Shemona where “the terrorists were already on their sanguinary rampage.”
The Israeli envoy recited the names of the 18 victims, eight of them children. He quoted international wire service dispatches on the following day’s commando raids by Israel to confirm that the action was not revenge-motivated retaliation but intended to warn the Lebanese authorities to shoulder their responsibilities against terrorists.
It is to be noted that the Israeli action was directed not against terrorist bases on Lebanese soil but against the houses of known terrorist collaborators including homes of villagers in which the murderers had stopped over on their way to Kiryat Shemona,” Tekoah said. “Our objective at the time was political, not military,” he declared.
ISRAEL RESOLVED TO ACHIEVE PEACE
The Israeli envoy also warned that Israel’s present attitude and mood must not be misjudged “The introspection which characterizes Israel’s political life today, springs from a search for the most effective way to cope with these dangers and with the challenges of the times.” Tekoah asserted.
“Behind this introspection there is a fundamental unity of purpose and a profound national resolve. The people of Israel are one in their desire and hope for peace. Israel has sought peace with its neighbors since independence. It is happy that now negotiations with the Arab states and the conclusion of agreements with them are no longer distant aspirations. It looks forward to a joint constructive process of peace-making with the Arab states,” Tekoah said. But, he continued, “The government and people of Israel remain united as ever in their determination to thwart the use of force and violence against them, to defend Israel’s rights and protect its citizens.”
Tekoah observed. “We may be on the eve of a new era but not the kind the terrorist leaders are longing for and speaking of in Beirut.” He added: “This will be an era in which the prospects of replacing hostility in the Middle East by understanding, mistrust by mutual confidence, war by peace, will be greater than in the past. However, whether this occurs in the near future or at a later stage, the forthcoming era will find the people of Israel hardened even further by recent developments, edified by the lessons of the new tests through which we have passed and reinforced by the vigor and vitality that comes when youth of body and spirit and thought combines with the discernment of maturity and experience.”
LEBANON CALLS FOR ECONOMIC SANCTIONS
Speaking before Tekoah, Foreign Minister Found Naffah of Lebanon accused Israel of aggression and urged the Security Council to implement previous resolutions calling for economic sanctions against Israel. “In attacking six Lebanese villages, Israel has committed an armed and obvious act of aggression,” Fouad said. He denied Israel’s charge that the Kiryat Shemona terrorists came from Lebanon. He said that if Israel felt it had a legitimate case it should have complained to the Security Council.
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.
