Jewish Leaders Say Terrorists’ Release Paves Way to Spread of Terrorism

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations expressed “shock and dismay” to the West German government today for surrendering to the demands of hijackers to release the three terrorist survivors of the Sept. 5 Munich massacre. In a cable to the West German Ambassador in Washington, Jacob Stein, Conference chairman, said the release would “contribute to the spread of terrorism” and warned that the German government “has assumed a great responsibility that may prove to be a very serious precedent.”

Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation, said today that the release of the three Arab terrorists “constitutes a retrogression and has nullified” the steps the West German government took last Sept. when it refused to allow the same terrorists to leave Germany with 9 Israeli hostages. Rabbi Miller observed that “regrettably the world has not yet learned not to surrender to blackmail and terror.” The release of the terrorists, he added, means that “terrorism has now been given a new lease on life just when it seemed that Western powers were beginning to recognize that air piracy was a disease that had to be fought with full vigor by all nations in their own interests.”