ISRAEL HAD THE RIGHT TO STRIKE BACK AT TERRORISTS, REAGAN SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900073-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 73
• Publication Date: October 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900073-6
ARTICLE
WASHINGTON POST
2 October 1985
Israel Had the Right to Sthk~li~ek
at Terrorists; Meagan Says
By David B. Ottaway
Washington Post Staff Writer
President Reagan, in one of his strongest
endorsements of the use of military force
against terrorism, said yesterday that Israel
and other nations had the right. to strike.
back "if they can pick out the people respon-
sible."
When asked by reporters whether Israeli
pilots had selected the appropriate target in.
yesterday's raid on the headTu-arters of the
::Palestine Liberation Organization in Tunis,
Reagan said he had "great faith in [Israeli]
'intelligence capabilities."
The Israeli raid was in response to the
murder of three Israeli civilians in the port
of Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sept. 25.
Reagan's comments during a brief. White
House news conference were made a few,
hours after an administration spokesman
characterized the Israeli raid as "a legiti-
mate response" and "an expression of self-
defense" against past acts of violence
against the Jewish state by Arab terrorists.
The administration's open endorsement
of the raid was a contrast to the president's
cautious attitude toward any U.S. retali-
ation during the hostage crisis of last June,
when 39 Americans from a TWA airliner
were held captive for 17 days in Beirut.
At that time, Reagan said that in retal-
iation,. "if you just aim in the general direc-
tion and kill some people, well, then you're
a terrorist, too..'
Reagan's comments were also in contrast
to the administration's strong condemna-
tion of.the Israeli air attack on Iraq's,nucle-
ar reactor outside Baghdad in June' 1981.
More recently, the State Department de-.
plored the violation of Tunisian air space on
Sept. 23' by four Libyan jets, which a U.S.
spokesman said violated "all norms of inter-
national behavior."
A spokesman for the Tunisian Embassy
here said his government was "astonished,.
to say the least," by the administration's approval of yesterday's Israeli raid.
"It doesn't square with what, your pres-
ident said to our president about the U.S.
commitment to Tunisia's territorial integ-
rity," the spokesman said, referring to Pres-
ident Habib.Bourguiba's visit here last June.
White House spokesman Larry Speaker,.
while acknowledging that the United States
did not have "the full story" on the attack,
said that preliminary reports appeared to
show that Israel had a legitimate reason for
retaliation.
"As a matter of U.S. policy, retaliation
against terrorist attacks is a legitimate re-
sponse and an expression of self-defense,"
he said. "The president has said linking
those who commit crime to those who are
punished is essential."
Asked if this U.S. policy applied to other
areas. of the world, Speakes replied, "Yes."
Reagan refused to comment on whether
U.S.-made warplanes had been used in the
Israeli raid, saying, "I don't know. I don't
know the facts." U.S. arms export regula-
tions restrict the use of U.S.-made military
hardware in some offensive actions, but ad-
ministration officials characterized the Is-
raeli raid as "defensive."
Speakes also said, "We are distressed by
and deplore the cycle of violence in the Mid-
dle East, of which the latest incident is a
part.. It underscores the urgent need -to
work for peace in the Middle East."
The Israeli attack occurred as Jordan's
King Hussein is in Washington to discuss
ways to move the Middle East peace pro-
cess forward.
STAT
It'was not immediately clear what im-
pact, if any, the Israeli raid might have on
the king's willingness to continue the talks.
But Rep. Lawrence J. Smith (D-Fla.), who*
attended a meeting with him yesterday,
said, "he didn't make, any big deal about it."
The Israeli raid on the PLO headquarters
in Tunis . was conducted after the Israeli
government had repeatedly charged that
the organization, led by Yasser Arafat, was
behind two aborted sea raids on Israel ear-
lier this year by Palestinian guerrillas as
well as the Sept. 25. operation in Larnaca in
which three Palestinians took hostage and
then killed three Israelis aboard a yacht.
However, a Cyprus spokesman Monday
said that from its investigation and inter-
rogations so far of the three captured Pal-
estinians, "no evidence has emerged" leading
to the conclusions that some organization,
and which, is behind this affair."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900073-6