Evron, Jewish Leaders Condemn Bombings

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Ephraim Evron, sharply condemned today the bombings in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron, declaring there was no “justification whatsoever for such heinous acts.”

Evron’s remarks were made in response to reporters questions at the Halloran House here where the Israeli envoy arrived to address the 67th annual meeting of the National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. The address itself was closed to the press at Evron’s request.

“We are shocked by what happened today (in the West Bank) and we condemn it in the strongest term,” the Ambassador said. He expressed the hope that the bombings, which resulted in 13 casualties will not do “any harm to the peace process” in the Mideast and to the efforts to reach an autonomy agreement for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

He said the government of Israel will do its utmost to apprehend the “culprits” — suspected to be Jewish extremists–and punish them. But he said it should be realized that the incident was an “isolated case which we deeply condemn.”

The ADL also condemned the incident today. Maxwell E. Greenberg, ADL’s national chairman, and Nathan Perlmutter, national director, expressed sympathy for “the victims of these heinous acts of terror” and said that “wanton terrorism from any source is abhorrent and contrary to universal principles of human decency. The perpetrators of these crimes should be brought to justice as swiftly as possible.”

Howard M. Squadron, president of the American Jewish Congress, issued a statement warning that the terrorist action “can serve only to heighten tension in the West Bank.” He added: “Just as we condemn terrorist attacks against innocent Israelis by the PLO, so do we denounce these vicious murder attempts against West Bank elected officials whether perpetrated by misguided Jewish zealots or by Arab rivals.”

Theodore Mann, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, noted that “In recent days the PLO has boasted of its success in murdering Jewish children in the kibbutz at Misgav Am and yeshiva students in Hebron. Today we learned to our distress that terrorism has taken new victims, including elected Arab officials.”

Mann said the Presidents Conference was “deeply dismayed by this latest attack, and we condemn those criminals who are guilty of it, whether they be Jews or Arabs.”

Jock J. Spitzer, president of B’nai B’rith International in Washington, declared that such “ruthless acts are…indefensible and repugnant by any standard of Jewish law and belief.”

Applauding Israeli Premier Menachem Begin’s condemnation of the bombing and his call for an intensive investigation, Spitzer said, “The world must know that the government of Israel will not tolerate PLO tactics, whether from Arabs or its own people.”

The B’nai B’rith leader said that attacks like today’s could “inflame the already tense situation in the administered territories, threaten the peace process and set off new waves of violence between Arabs and Jews.” The members of B’nai B’rith, Spitzer said, “believe that those responsible must be punished to the full measure of the law, ” adding that “a person who retaliates in kind for acts of terrorists is no less a terrorist himself.”