Jdl Takes over Ribicoff’s Office

Five members of the Jewish Defense League staged a five-hour sit-in at the office of Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn.) yesterday. A JDL official warned today that Ribicoff would be met by British JDL demonstrators when he visits London this weekend en route to Washington from his trip to the Middle East.

The JDL is protesting a suggestion made by Ribicoff while he was in Israel last week that the Carter Administration appoint Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger as a special peace envoy to the Middle East. The JDL also objected to the request by Ribicoff and the 12 other Senators who accompanied him, to visit Israel’s nuclear installations at Dimona. The request was rejected by the Israeli government. The JDLers complained further that Ribicoff had praised Egyptian President Anwar Sadat with whom the Senators met in Cairo.

The demonstrators were apparently taking their line from JDL founder Meir Kahane who said in New York yesterday that Ribicoff posed a “far greater danger to Israel than any Arab army. It is precisely statements such as the Jewish Senator from Connecticut makes that places Israel in a position of being the ‘stubborn and intransigent party’ in the Middle East,” Kahane claimed. Kahane also attacked Sen. Jacob Javits (R.NY) for recent statements on the Middle East and called for a Jewish drive to unseat both Senators when they next run for office.

Mrs. Charlotte Levin, secretary of the JDL’s Washington chapter, called Ribicoff a “self appointed spokesman for Jews” and a “court Jew like Kissinger.” She said, however, that Ribicoff’s staff was “very nice” to the demonstrators and offered them drinks. The police were not summoned.