Terrorists’ Accomplices Members of Arab Diplomatic Missions. Says Ben Natan

Asher Ben Natan, Israel’s Ambassador to France, charged today that mem- bers of Arab diplomatic missions in Western Europe were “serving as the terrorists’ accomplices.” In an address before the Anglo-American Press Association, Ben Natan said his accusation was not directed at the Arab Embassies as such but at “certain of their members.”

The Israeli envoy said that the “weapons the terrorists needed, especially such bulky arms as Kal-achnikof submachine guns, reached them through the diplomatic pouches of a certain Arab Embassy in West Germany.” Ben Natan refused to say which Embassy was involved. He said that Israel’s recent attacks on terrorist bases in southern Lebanon “was not an act of reprisal for Munich but a consequence of terrorist attacks directed against Israeli citizens which preceded the Munich attack.”

FRANCO-ISRAELI RELATIONS ‘NORMAL’

Ben Natan described Franco-Israeli relations as “normal” despite many political differences. “Our cultural and economic ties are normal and our two peoples sympathize with each other. The political differences are normal as we have completely contradictory views on the Middle East,” he said.

The envoy said that French police “have granted our requests and seem to be ensuring adequate protection for Israeli installations in France” against terrorist acts. But, according to Ben Natan, more could be done on the European scene generally, “as there is need for closer cooperation between the various countries to prevent a renewal of terrorist acts such as those at Munich and Lod Airport.”