Focus on Issues Soviet Support of PLO Terror Revies Basic Mideast Issue

The recent television documentary, “The Russian Connection,” that supplied clear evidence of Soviet support of Palestinian terrorism has revived a neglected issue that is basic to understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict. The question the documentary raises is whether those Europeans and others in the West, including certain American Black leaders and sections of the media, recognize the issue in which they are engaged.

In clamoring for U.S. recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization before it adheres to the UN Security Council’s own resolutions — the only standards on the Middle East conflict to which both the U.S. and the Soviet have subscribed — those pro- PLO elements are undermining both the West and political democracy while strengthening the allies of tyranny.

In the closing scene of the 30-minute documentary, the PLO’s representative at the United Nations, Zehadi Labib Terzi, sullenly acknowledges “the Russian connection” with PLO terror. Confronted with the evidence, Terzi uses the PLO euphemisms for terrorists to hide the meaning of both terror and its use by the Soviets to establish a firm ally within easy range of the Saudi Arabian oil fields. The Russians, Terzi says, “open some of their academies to our freedom fighters. There’s no secret about that. Our boys do it in the open.”

The documentary, aired by the Public Brood-casting Service (PBS) and the Canadian Brood-casting Company (CBC), is the product of the CBC and the KERA-TV/Dallas-Fort Worth of the Public Communication Foundation for North Texas The documentary’s producer is Herb Krosney, a relative of Gale Rubin, the young New York woman who, while in Israel to photograph “Birds on the Beach,” was among the 29 killed by PLO terrorists near Herzliya last year.

DOCUMENTARY EXTENDS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

KERA’s own press releases, distributed by PBS, says the presentation “documents hard evidence that the Soviet Union supports PLO terrorism by supplying money, weapons and military training for Palestinian terrorists within the Soviet Union itself” and of “Soviet involvement” in the training of “other terrorist groups in Africa and the Middle East.”

That the Soviets support the PLO has been widely known for years. The documentary extends public knowledge of the facts. Contributing to them are a PLO defector who is hooded to avoid identification from PLO gunmen. In addition, Ray Cline, former head of the State Department’s intelligence, and Gen. Shlomo Gazit, head of Israeli military intelligence, testify. Gazit estimates more than 200 PLO officers are trained in the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries each year.

“The Russians will do whatever they can to undermine Western democracy, particularly if it can be done by proxy by the PLO, the Cubans and others,” Cazit says.

SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

While the “Russian Connection” doubtlessly is useful in countering the greatly publicized love affairs between some Americans and the PLO without heeding the consequences of it, nevertheless it leaves open some other questions. Why is not the U.S. government itself involved in the film as a witness to the Soviet operations? Why does the State Department refrain from including the Soviet Union when it discusses means to halt the terror into Israel from Lebanon?

The burden of the expose is put mainly on the Israelis and to a lesser extent on Cline, now a Georgetown University professor. If the Carter Administration can become incensed about 3000 armed troops in Cuba, why cannot it be visibly disturbed by the 15,000 armed PLO men in Lebanon supplied by the Soviets?

Additionally, the documentary incorrectly refers to Ambassador Andrew Young’s departure from U.S. government service. Narrator Marilyn Berger, falling into the twisted version of why Young resigned, says he was relieved of his post for violating U.S. policy by talking to the PLO. This is grossly incorrect. Young turned in his resignation because of the ire of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, backed by Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd (D. W. Va.) and others high in both major parties for Young’s untrue reporting to his State Department colleagues about his meeting with the very same Terzi in the documentary.

To some here, this report by Young and his subsequent admission of the facts constitute the last straw for Vance and his friends in Young’s freewheeling in the United Nations. Another view is that some in the White House saw it as an opportunity to please Vance and at the same time put the blame for Young’s removal on Israel and American Jewish leaders. Both Vance and President Carter belatedly absolved the Jewish leaders but clearance of Israel has not yet been fully made although the President, by implication, has done so by saying that no one caused him to cause Young to resign.