322	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bJews. JDL Operations Officer Russell Kelner, in a hastily bcalled press conference on the eve of Arafat’s arrival in the bworld’s largest Jewish city, declared that Arafat would not bleave New York alive. On the table was a revolver and armed bJDL men lined the room. Regardless of the merits of the baction, the United States government panicked; the FBI bpicked up Kelner and he was held in a staggering $100,000 bbail. The original plans to have Arafat enter the scene in at bleast semi-dignity were junked as fearful police and security bforces sneaked the half-shaven Arab into New York by the bback door and his stay was limited to less than a day.

bOn my return to America in January, 1975 a drive was blaunched to protest American pressure, to demand that bAmerican Jewish leadership “lead or leave.” We called for a bchange in the Israeli government and the formation of a new bcabinet of national unity bringing in opposition leader bMenahem Begin and based on the policy of not one inch of bretreat. The framework for the drive was a JDL front group bknown as CAIR (Committee Against Israeli Retreat). On bJanuary 15, we placed an advertisement in The New York bTimes that broke with the tradition of the Golden Calf (or as I bwrote the Golda Calf) and sharply attacked the Israeli gov- bernment. It began with the heading (from the Talmud): b“Any love that is not accompanied by criticism is not love,” band then proceeded, in part, to state:

b1.aThe Arabs never have and never will accept a Jewish bState of any size. Any seeming differences are those of tactics band not of aims. The goal is the same. The liquidation of bIsrael.

b2.aThe Arabs killed Jews and refused to accept a Jewish bState in 1967 when Sinai, Gaza, Judea and Samaria (the bWest Bank) and the Golan Heights were in their hands. bArabs refused to accept an Israel in 1947 when the UN bvoted the Jews a grotesque joke of a state, tiny, economically bunviable and with 40% Arabs living in it. Arabs killed Jews band refused to accept the notion of a Jewish home in 1936– b9, in 1929 and in 1920. Arabs will always keep trying to beliminate Israel and Israelis.