Vindication for the Israelis

Though the action was scarcely as spectacular as the daring rescue of 101 skyjack hostages from Uganda's Entebbe Airport, Israel last week won another round on hostile territory against air terrorism. After four days of emotional debate in the United Nations Security Council, the Israelis beat off the attempt by African states to have the Entebbe operation condemned as a "flagrant violation" of Uganda's sovereignty. Beamed a delighted Chaim Herzog. Jerusalem's U.N. ambassador: "Israel has not been condemned and has thereby been vindicated."

The African argument was simply that Israel's assault at Entebbe posed a threat to every nation's sovereignty. Herzog's rebuttal was slightly more complicated: that Israel had a right, long recognized in international law, to protect the safety of its citizens, and that Uganda's Idi Amin Dada had compromised his own country's rights by aiding the skyjackers.

Herzog's argument had forceful support from U.S. Ambassador William Scranton. While acknowledging that the rescue "necessarily involved a temporary breach" of Uganda's territorial integrity, Scranton maintained that Israel had "good reason" to act with limited force to protect its citizens from an "imminent threat of injury or death in a situation where the state in whose territory they are located is either unwilling or unable to protect them." The rescue, Scranton added, "electrified millions everywhere, and--I confess--I was one of them." The British were nearly as emphatic in their backing of Israel, although the French--apparently concerned about the fate of the $19 million Air France jet that was still sitting at Entebbe--were characteristically ambivalent and careful not to insult Amin.

But the Africans' case was so flaccid that it could not be sustained, even given the strong bias against Israel and the industrial countries that prevails in almost all U.N. bodies. When Panama said it would abstain from the balloting (probably because it did not want to anger Washington, with which it is negotiating the future status of the Panama Canal), it became apparent that the resolution would fall one short of the nine votes required for passage in the 15-member Council. The U.S. and Britain and possibly Italy, Japan and Sweden would have opposed it; France would also have abstained; China, the U.S.S.R., Pakistan, Libya, Tanzania, Benin (formerly Dahomey), Rumania and Guyana would have voted for it. Rather than suffer certain defeat, the Africans did not demand a vote on their resolution. The U.S. and Britain, however, insisted on a vote on their broad counterproposal condemning all terrorism. It was defeated handily, receiving backing from only Italy, Sweden, Japan and France in addition to its two sponsors. Panama again abstained and this time was joined by Rumania, while the rest of the Council refused to participate. The session thus adjourned without adopting anything.

Throughout the debate, African diplomats privately admitted their discomfort about proposing a resolution that implicitly endorsed Idi Amin's behavior during the skyjacking episode. Almost all of them carefully avoided mentioning the embarrassing Ugandan "President for Life" in their speeches. Yet Amin kept himself in the spotlight by his verbal tussles with Kenya. His posture as injured party in the Entebbe drama was also weakened by the fate of Dora Bloch, 75, the sole hostage the Israelis left behind in Uganda (she was in a Kampala hospital at the time of the rescue). London asserts that Mrs. Bloch, who held dual Israeli and British citizenship, has been killed. According to reports from Uganda, she suffocated when security police gagged her to stifle screams as they dragged her from the hospital after the airport raid.

Fleeing Britons. Amin has insisted that Mrs. Bloch was at Entebbe when the Israelis landed, but a British diplomat in Uganda reported visiting her in the hospital nearly a day after the raid. Furious at being contradicted, Amin expelled two British diplomats from his country, raising fears about the future of the 300 Britons--mostly missionaries and teachers--remaining in their former colony. With Amin warning that "big mouths talking on behalf of the Israelis, such as the British, will pay very heavily," some 200 Britons have already fled Uganda, most of them heading for Nairobi.

The most disturbing outcome of the Security Council debate was the drubbing taken by the U.S.-British resolution against terrorism. For more than four years Washington has been trying to get the U.N. to debate measures that would discourage international terrorism. But that debate has always been stalled on definitions: the General Assembly's numerically dominant Third World bloc, for example, opposes any resolution that might proscribe the anti-Israeli activities of Palestinian groups.

Israeli Steps. Impatient with the U.N.'s delay, the nine Common Market countries last week pledged to prosecute terrorists or extradite them for trial. Bonn is seeking an international convention to combat terrorist acts that involve the taking of hostages. Israel has begun taking steps too. Israeli Minister of Transport Gad Yaacobi told the Knesset that he is going to propose a law to bar from Israel's airports all airlines lacking sufficient anti-terrorist security measures. Jerusalem also plans to propose the creation of an international agency to exchange information on skyjacking and to agree on guidelines for the handling of terrorists if a skyjacking takes place. Warned Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon last week: "The terror is not directed only against Israel. Each country can find itself in a position where a minority group starts terror operations. If we do not unite against this kind of violence, we could lose our chance to survive as human beings."

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