The General Assembly condemned Thursday the United States for its aerial raid on Libya last April. Israel joined the U.S. and other Western countries in voting against the anti-American resolution. The vote was 79-28 with 32 abstentions.
Ambassador Yohanan Bein of the Israel UN Mission, justified the American attack on Libya as a war against international terrorism. “The free world will not surrender to intimidation and terrorism,” Bein told the General Assembly. He vowed that Israel will continue to fight international terrorism and will respond mainly against the “planners and organizers” of world terror, such as Libya.
The Israeli diplomat disclosed that in February 1986, about a dozen terrorist groups from around the world met in Tripoli, Libya, for a special “congress” on international terrorism. The “congress,” Bein asserted, nominated a nine-member committee to improve the international network of terrorist organization with Libya, Iran and Syria serving as a “war cabinet” for that purpose.
“They declared war against the West, against democracy, against all those who would not bend to intimidations and threats,” the Israeli envoy said. He compared international terrorism to organized crime, calling the Libyan leader, Muammar Qaddafi, “the godfather of international terrorism.”
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.
