Premier Golda Meir indicated yesterday that she thought Israel should outlaw radical extremist organizations such as the Red Front. Democracy has the right to defend itself, she said at a meeting of a Labor Party “think tank” at Beth Berl, but “one should not permit the destruction of democracy by being overly democratic,” she said.
The Red Front was identified recently as a tiny, extremist left-wing organization whose members include Dan Vered and Ehud Adiv, native-born Israeli Jews arrested last month on suspicion of membership in a Syrian-directed espionage and sabotage ring.
Mrs. Meir questioned whether “democracy must assure that such organizations as the Red Front, which is very close to the Black September, continue to exist;” She asked, “Is not democracy obliged to prohibit such organizations? Is not democracy obliged to declare such a group unlawful? From the horrible experience of Hitler’s rise to power we must learn that democracy must learn to protect itself,” Mrs. Meir said.
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