Rabin Says the Istanbul Terrorists Were Assigned to Kill, Not Hijack

Premier Yitzhak Rabin said today that the assignment of the terrorists at Istanbul yesterday was to kill passengers of the El Al plane rather than to board the plane to hijack it. Rabin made that observation during a visit to an anti-terrorist unit of the border patrol.

Rabin drew a parallel between the Athens airport attack last year and the Istanbul raid in that, in both assaults, the terrorists planned their arrival at the airports to coincide with that of the passengers who were their target. He noted that security measures for passengers in transit are less tight than otherwise.

He declared that despite the number of injured, the attack was not a success, considering what the terrorists could have done in the Istanbul airport. He also drew a distinction between two kinds of terrorist action–those meant to achieve a bargaining position and those aimed simply at murder, as at Istanbul.

Rabin said it should be kept in mind that holding hostages for bargaining purposes was simply a means to assure continued acts of murder. Terrorist acts for bargaining purposes, he said, are designed to enable other terrorists to continue with their acts of murder, knowing that if they are caught, their friends will do everything to free them.

Therefore, he said, he was certain that Arab terrorists would continue to try their murderous activities, especially since they have the support of some Arab countries, plus the “laziness and lack of action” against them by other countries. Rabin, who was escorted in the town by Police Minister Shlomo Hillel, watched new anti-terrorist techniques. The border patrol was active in coping with riots in the West Bank. Border patrol police also help keep law and order in some of the cities in Israel proper.

Meanwhile, El Al officials here reported that the Istanbul assault not only has not caused any loss in El Al bookings but that on the contrary more people are shifting to El Al flights.