A spokesman for Mapam demanded to know today on whose behalf Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Meir Rosenne, implicitly praised the U.S. invasion of Grenada at a reception given him by Republican Party leaders in Washington last night. The Israeli government has made no official comment on the American incursion into the 133-square mile Caribbean island.
Mapam MK Yair Tzaban said the envoy’s statement should be checked to see if it was authorized, and by whom. Rosenne did not refer specifically to the invasion of Grenada, but his praise of the U.S. war against international Communism in the immediate aftermath of the event was understood as support for the invasion.
According to Mapam, a component of the Labor Alignment, Rosenne’s remarks damaged Israel’s international position in the free world and harmed diaspora Jewry. “As somebody who denounced Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, I cannot possibly be silent in the face of this adventurous step by President Reagan which renews the dangerous days of the cold war,” Tzaban said.
He also stressed the “Jewish aspect” of the issue. He observed that “some 80 percent of the Jewish people live in three centers of international tension” — Israel, the U.S. and the USSR. “Therefore, there is a supreme Jewish interest in global detente. Israel must understand that a deterioration in international relation: would first of all affect the Jewish people. Therefore, we, together with other countries, must condemn any attempt by any of the superpowers to violate international law or to suppress boldly the right of small peoples for independence,” Tzaban said.
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