The British Consul General in New York, James Mellon, called Wednesday on American Jews to support his government’s fight against Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorism.
The British official made his comment after he had accepted the first Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Award of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith on behalf of his government. The award was given in recognition of the British government’s actions against international terrorism. The presentation came during ADL’s National Commission meeting at the Hyatt Hotel here June 10-14.
Mellon vowed that his government will continue its fight against international terrorism wherever and whenever it takes place, as it did when a terrorist tried to use his pregnant Irish girlfriend to smuggle explosives last August on an El Al plane in London.
Abraham Foxman, ADL’s associate national director, said that the award honors Britain for breaking diplomatic relations with Syria, because of its involvement in the terrorist plot to blow up in midair the Israeli airliner.
“Britain set a standard for other nations to follow,” Foxman said. “The message to the terrorists and the governments that sponsor terrorism was plain as day.”
The award, a sculpture, was presented to Mellon by Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, daughters of the Klinghoffers. Leon Klinghoffer was murdered by Palestinian terrorists who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship he was on with his wife.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, said that the “first rule” in the fight against international terrorism is “never to surrender to terrorist demands.”
The Israeli envoy claimed that countries who support or sponsor international terrorism “should pay for their actions.” This should be made through diplomatic and economic sanctions, and as a last resort, through military means, as demonstrated by the American attack on Libya in April 1986, Netanyahu said.
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