The Attacks on Israelis and Jews : But from the ravages of international terrorism, no one is immune

No credible claim of responsibility has yet been made in the wake of recent terrorist attacks on Israelis and Jews in Argentina, Panama and Britain. But the inference to be drawn from these atrocities is clear.

Certainly by no coincidence, the attacks came as the leaders of Jordan and Israel met in Washington to proclaim an end to their long state of war. But peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors has its sworn enemies, and it’s no secret that plotting against peace goes on in Tehran as well as in the capitals of a number of radical Arab regimes. Terrorism is the method of these plotters, and the entire world is their arena.

The two car-bomb attacks in London this week, one directed against the Israeli Embassy, a second against a building housing Israeli and Jewish organizations, have prompted Britain’s police--long on the alert because of bombings by the radical Irish Republican Army--to greatly tighten security around Israeli and Jewish facilities vulnerable to terrorists’ attacks. In the United States, including Los Angeles, a similar intensification of protective measures has taken place.

But Israel has diplomatic, trade and transport missions in more than 100 countries, not all of them with the kind of security resources that Britain or this country can commit in response to the new threat. Bombs are easily made and transported. In greater or lesser degree such overseas Israeli facilities have always been exposed to terrorist attack. The campaign that now appears to have been launched raises the level of risk. Moreover, as the attacks in Buenos Aires, Panama and London again showed, it is not only Israelis but Jews as a group who are being targeted, once more giving lie to the claim that the fight being waged by Muslim extremists is only against Israel.

Terrorist groups are difficult to penetrate. But intelligence agencies of a number of countries have learned much in recent years about what organizations and individuals to watch, and international cooperation has improved. Obviously, room for further improvement exists. As the murdered and maimed citizens of Argentina, Panama and Britain attest, terrorism is truly an international menace.