Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah yesterday accused Lebanon of “distortions and lies” in its reaction to Tuesday night’s Israeli attack on terrorist bases. Tekoah was referring to a letter written by Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United Nations Edouard Ghorra charging that “17 persons were killed and 10 injured in the refugee camp of Nahr Al Bared and 13 killed and 10 injured in the camp of Al Badawi.”
In a letter to Security Council President Joseph Odero-Jowi, Tekoah charged that Ghorra’s letter, also to the Security Council President, “is the usual concoction of distortions and falsehoods by means of which the Lebanese government has repeatedly tried to shirk its grave responsibility for allowing Lebanon to become the center of the campaign of Arab terrorist atrocities that have plagued the Middle East and spread to other regions. These tactics cannot deceive anyone, nor, can they relieve the Lebanese government of its culpability.”
Tekoah stated that at Nahr Al Bared, approximately 11 kilometers north of Tripoli, one of the targets was a base of El Fatah used for the training of foreign terrorists for terror operations in their own countries or against Israel,” Another base at Nahr Al Bared is operated by an organization known as the “Popular Front,” where “suicide squads” are being trained for “spectacular” terror atrocities.
In his letter, Tekoah listed a series of atrocities from Aug. 1972 through Jan. 1973 which he said were committed from Lebanese territory against Israel and against Israelis abroad, including the Lod Airport and Munich massacres,
Tekoah noted also that following action by Israel against the terrorist bases, “the radio station, Voice of Palestine, operated by the terrorist organizations in Syria announced that their camps in the north of Lebanon had been attacked by Isaeli forces. The same broadcast added; Our enemies know that we have opened a front called Munich and that we have turned Lod airport into a sea of blood. The WAFA news agency, organ of the terrorist organizations, reported today that units of these organizations had intercepted the attacking enemy forces and clashed with them.” Tekoah added “These incontrovertible facts completely dispose of the hypocritical protestations and hollow charges contained in the Lebanese letter.”
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