Jewish Reaction Contrasted to Arabs

Leon Dulzin, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives, expressed today “regret and horror” regarding the explosions yesterday in four West Bank towns and said he hoped that those responsible “will be found and punished severely.”

Speaking of a news conference at the Jewish Agency headquarters here, Dulzin noted, however, that the regret expressed by Israelis and Jews all over the world is in sharp contrast to the boasting and “jubilation” that followed terrorist attacks against Jews.

Jewish organizations in the United States continued to express regret today at the incident. Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said that Premier Menachem Begin “spoke not only for Israelis but for Jews the world over when he used the word terrorism” for the “cowardly attack” in the West Bank. He said the attack represented neither the “Jewish tradition which celebrates life and forbids murder nor the meaning of Zionism which calls for peaceful existence between Jews and Arabs.”

The national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, Harris B. Stone, said: “The attacks on the Arabs on the West Bank are outrageous….Regardless of who the perpetrators are we hope they will quickly be brought to justice and that all necessary measures be taken to prevent similar occurrences.”

Bertram Gold, executive vice president of the American Jewish Committee, said his organization “condemns the premeditated terrorist attacks” and is “gratified” that Begin and other Israeli officials have expressed their outrage and have reaffirmed their intention to take measures, to combat extremist violence.

Gold said “the tragic cycle of violence will truly be broken only when the PLO and its supporters in the Arab world renounce terrorism, and the neighboring Arab states come forward to negotiate genuine peace with Israel, as President (Anwar) Sadat of Egypt has done. This prospect for moderation and peace has become even more remote by the adoption last Saturday by Yasir Arafat’s El Fatah congress of a ‘clear-cut program for escalating the struggle against Israel and the liberation of all of Palestine’.”