Percy; Arafat Must Restrain Terror

Sen. Charles H.Percy (R.III.) said today that PLO chieftain Yasir Arafat “must restrain the terrorists if he wishes to have credibility or respect.” The Senator, who described Arafat as “relatively moderate” after a visit to the Middle East last month, said, in reply to a reporter today who asked what he thought of Arafat after last night’s terrorist raid, that “regardless of any characterization of him, I condemn this senseless act of terrorism.”

Reporters noted that while Percy described the terrorist raid as “a calculated effort by extremists” to destroy the peace efforts of Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger, he did not identify the “extremists”–notwithstanding the fact that Arafat’s PLO has claimed credit for the Tel Aviv attack.

Percy was not immediately available for an interpretation of the term “extremists” in the prepared statement he issued today. One of his aides told reporters, “We do not know if Arafat himself was responsible for the raid and gave the order.”

Percy’s statement, moreover, seemed to put the onus on Israel, at least in part, should Kissinger’s peace efforts fall. The statement said: “The raid on Tel Aviv, coming just in advance of Secretary Kissinger’s trip to the Middle East, seems to be a calculated effort by extremists to wreck the chances for peace by hardening Israeli resistance to agreement on the next step of withdrawal.”

“I would hope that responsible Arab leadership would make it known to the instigators of this raid that such vicious attacks are an embarrassment to the Arab world and ill serves the cause of the Palestinians. I urge Prime Minister Rabin of Israel, President Sadat of Egypt, and President Assad of Syria to show their utter rejection of such tactics by redoubling their efforts for a new agreement. To do less, would be to allow the extremists to dictate policy for both sides.”