And Now, Mail-a-Death

THE Israeli embassy in London's fashionable Kensington district had been warned by intelligence agents to expect some sort of terrorist attack, and particularly to be on the lookout for parcel bombs sent through the mail. But in the rush to distribute incoming mail after the three-day Yom Kippur weekend, no one paid any particular attention to four slim letters that had been airmailed from Amsterdam and hand-addressed to individual embassy staffers. Three of the letters were never opened. But Agricultural Counselor Ami Shachori, 44, nonchalantly ripped open the fourth without even interrupting the conversation he was having with a colleague, Theodor Kaddar. "This is important to me. I've been expecting it," said Shachori, who was about to return to Israel, and explained that he had ordered Dutch flower seeds to take with him. The powerful explosion that followed temporarily deafened Kaddar, tore a hole in the desk, and fatally wounded Shachori in the stomach and chest.

Thus last week, the latest round of terror that began with the murder of eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich reached a new and deadly level. Before the week ended, 64 similar letter bombs flooded Israeli diplomatic offices in New York City, Ottawa, Montreal, Paris, Vienna, Geneva, Brussels, Buenos Aires and Kinshasa as well as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; fortunately, all were discovered before they could do any damage. Security was strengthened around Israeli offices throughout the world; British police set up a special anti-kidnap patrol; in New York City, visitors to the Israeli U.N. mission communicated through locked doors by intercom and closed-circuit TV.

The letters had been mailed from Amsterdam on the weekend. Each of them had been specifically and neatly addressed and bore the exact postage for its slender weight. Unlike the old-fashioned parcel bombs, the new devices came in ordinary manila or airmail envelopes.

It was the subtlest form of murder that either side in the Middle Eastern conflict had undertaken in the generation-old war that was now being inflicted on the rest of the world. Police feared immediately that the bombers could inspire a legion of amateur imitators, as the original wave of skyjackings had done back in 1968--though one deterrent was the fact that preparing the letter bombs is a dangerous game, requiring a thorough knowledge of explosives. The bombs sent last week to Israelis were presumably mailed by Arab terrorists. The Israeli embassy in London said that one of the envelopes contained a leaflet from the Black September organization, which was responsible for the Munich murders. Black September itself remained silent.

The problem of terrorism, as one result of the letters, dominated the opening session of the 27th United Nations General Assembly last week. Security was so tight at the U.N.'s Manhattan headquarters that delegates from the 132 member nations had to flash passes with photographs to enter the assembly hall. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim introduced a resolution calling for a halt in "terrorism and other forms of violence which endanger or take innocent human lives." Considerably qualified and softened to placate Arab na tions, the resolution was shunted to the General Assembly's legal committee for further study.

This week Secretary of State William Rogers, at President Richard Nixon's request, will launch a diplomatic drive at the U.N. for some kind of international agreement providing that:

>Terrorists of any kind will be prosecuted or promptly extradited after capture.

> No government will harbor them or offer financial assistance.

>Any nation doing so will be subject to international boycott.

Washington has no illusion that such an agreement can be easily reached, and it is pressuring individual nations bilaterally. Many European countries, however, are hesitant about offending oil-producing Arab states, and African diplomats point out that one side's "terrorist" might be another's "freedom fighter."

The Arabs argued that there are varieties of terror--and as one example they cited the 36-hour Israeli invasion of Lebanon that ended last week. It was the third massive thrust so far this year into Lebanon, and the heaviest by far: the raiders killed 60 fedayeen, took 17 prisoners and blew up or bulldozed 112 houses and damaged 200 others that fedayeen were suspected of using. According to the Beirut government, they also killed 15 Lebanese soldiers and 200 civilians.

Hero's Story. The raids were in line with Israel's policy of carrying the war to the fedayeen, and were intended to clear out the guerrillas from southern Lebanon. But the raids may merely have made more enemies. TIME Correspondent Gavin Scott drove in a taxi from Beirut to the scene. Lebanese army checkpoints had been abandoned and Scott was able to keep going until he made contact with the retiring Israelis. He found villages along the Israeli route empty and burning. At Jouaya, where fedayeen resistance prompted a pitched fight and nine-hour occupation, the hills were still afire from napalm airstrikes. A tank column had literally run over at least half a dozen cars, Scott was told; one of them held a family of seven.

The Israelis lost three dead, six wounded and two tanks disabled. Back home, they made a hero of one commander, identified only as Lieutenant Shaul, 28. He and his eight men had become separated from the Israeli column and lost, without a working radio. Shaul bluffed his way through three armed roadblocks without firing a shot, "borrowed" a radio from a Lebanese officer, captured six Lebanese soldiers, whom he released at the border, and made it home with five fedayeen and one jeep. "Have you ever heard a war story like that?" marveled Defense Minister Moshe Dayan when informed of Shaul's exploits.

Lebanon declared an open-ended state of emergency in the wake of the raid. "Since 1948 we have been in a state of truce with Israel," declared former President Camille Chamoun. "Today we are in a state of war." Premier Saeb Salam, who had long avoided a showdown with the guerrillas, laid down a set of 14 demands to Fedayeen Leader Yasser Arafat. Their purpose was to hamper any guerrilla movements and prevent further Israeli revenge.

In the past the guerrillas agreed to such demands, then broke their promises and operated as they chose. If this happened again, the Israelis made plain last week, they were ready to return. But military retaliation seemed now to belong to an earlier stage of the conflict, and offered no solution to the new round of terror against Israelis abroad. In another step, a high Israeli official in Washington last week ruled out the prospect of any peace negotiations in the Middle East until Arab terrorism ends--which may be never.

Some Israelis were arguing last week for countering terrorism with terror of their own. Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, stating the government position, promised: "We are not planning illegal operations on foreign soil." But two men, one a former leader of the pre-independence Jewish extremist group Irgun Zevai Leumi, were arrested for attempting to smuggle abroad guns, grenades and ammunition intended for the militant Jewish Defense League. Irgun Zevai Leumi in the old days broke away from the fledgling Jewish army because the latter was too cautious, and proceeded to ambush and kill British soldiers and murder Arabs on its own. Should any Israelis revert to terrorism now, then as a first step, Arab diplomats abroad might well begin scrutinizing their mail.

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