Israel demanded today, in a letter to the United Nations Security Council, that the Arab governments “and especially Lebanon,” put “an immediate and effective end” to such attacks as the massacre yesterday at Lydda Airport. The letter from Yosef Tekoah, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, was addressed to George Bush, the United States Ambassador, who is this month’s president of the Security Council.
Tekoah asserted that the “act of premeditated mass murder of innocent civilians is part of the campaign of wanton and indiscriminate slaughter waged by Arab terrorist organizations.” Charging that the attack at the airport was carried out “by hired henchmen,” the envoy added that it was not the first time that Arab terror organizations had employed “foreign mercenaries to strike at helpless men, women and children.”
Tekoah said that “it is a matter of common knowledge that Beirut is the seat of the Arab terror organizations’ headquarters and that those organizations also maintain offices in other Lebanese towns and in refugee camps located in Lebanon.”
He added that “despite repeated calls by Israel to terminate these criminal activities, Lebanon and the other Arab states have continued to harbor the terror organizations on their soil and to give support to their operations. Israel must insist that the Arab governments and especially Lebanon, from whose territory and under whose patronage terror organizations continue to operate in complete freedom, put an immediate and effective end to these nefarious activities.”
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