Andrew Young, the outgoing United States Ambassador to the United Nations, delivered a diatribe against Israel in an interview with the French weekly, Le Nouvel Observateur, his first with a European publication.
In some of his harshest statements to date Young declared that American Blacks “now believe that the Palestinians are oppressed and will act accordingly,” asserted that “I will continue to oppose the fact that Israel can take decisions concerning the national interests of the United States,” and hinted that Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan might have personally leaked the news about Young’s meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization observer at the UN, Zehadi Labib Terzi, to News week magazine which first carried the story of the meeting.
About Israel, Young declared; “The Israelis are no less terroristic than the PLO at this moment. I believe that the splinter and phosphorus bombs they drop on Lebanon are just as immoral and deadly as anything the Palestinians might have done in Israel.
“Israel was created with our help as an answer to the Holocaust. But since 1967 Israel has gradually become the oppressor — it is the evolution which is costing it its credibility and might in future compromise its military strength.
“The Israelis enjoyed American military help because the American people believe they are right to fight for their survival. But by becoming an expansionist power, by multiplying the settlements (in the territories) and shelling Lebanon, they are in the process of losing their moral advantage.”
PREDICTS U.S. WILL TALK WITH PLO
Young claimed that Israel was upset by his meeting with Terzi because “I was about to make the PLO take a great step forward towards recognizing Israel and this is what Israel does not want. They (the Israelis) do not want peace with the PLO. They want to destroy them. But they can’t achieve this aim as with each of their bombs, they create new terrorists.” Young said he believed that Washington will eventually start discussions with the PLO.
The envoy also said: “For a long time the Palestinians failed to obtain the backing of the American Blacks because the Blacks were convinced that the Lews were the oppressed people. The Blacks are not anti-Semites. The proof is that in spite of everything which has happened there has not been a single act of anti-Jewish violence. But the Blacks now believe that the Palestinians are oppressed and will act accordingly.”
(Regarding Young’s statement that Dayan might have leaked the Ambassador’s meeting with Terzi, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Shiloh said yesterday that “the allegation is totally unfounded.” He said the Ministry only heard about the meeting when Ephraim Evron, Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, spoke with a State Department official on Aug. 12 and was told that Newsweek would be carrying the story of the meeting in the issue coming out the following day Young met with Terzi July 26. On Aug. 14, a day after the Newsweek article appeared, Dayan instructed Evron to lodge an official protest to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance)
the U.S. State Department announced last week that Young will go to Africa this week with a trade delegation to develop contacts with African government officials and that he will make the trip with his rank as U.S. Ambassador.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
