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Tal’s Death Will Intensify Turmoil in Arab World Jewish Leaders Say

November 29, 1971
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The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said today that the assassination of Jordanian Premier Wafsi el Tal in Cairo this morning contributed to the wave of turmoil in the Arab world and was a cause of deep concern for the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East. Rabbi Israel Miller and Jacob Stein, acting co-chairmen of the Conference coupled their statement on the assassination with a renewed call to the Nixon administration to deliver more military equipment including Phantom jets to Israel.

“The renewed activities of the Palestinians and Egypt’s open threat to begin a war of annihilation against Israel is reminiscent of the ominous atmosphere of 1967,” the statement said. “It is essential that under the circumstances the Nixon administration not yield to blackmail of any kind.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yitzhak Rabin, addressing the 48th annual convention of the National Committee for Labor Israel, said Tal’s assassination “shows what kind of brotherhood they (the Arabs) have and how careful Israel has to be when dealing with the Arabs. We are dealing with a society in convulsion that has not achieved the values of the US or Israel.”

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