Professors Criticize Israeli Bombing

Faculty members yesterday criticized Israel's Tuesday bombing of PLO headquarters in Tunisia as unjustifiable, although the United States government has condoned the act.

The bombing at Borj Cedria, twenty-one miles south of the capital city of Tunis, virtually wiped out PLO headquarters. Different reports list between 30 and 60 civilian and PLO deaths.

Israel said the bombing was a retaliation for the murder of three Israeli yachtsmen last week on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. The American government called the attack one of self-defense, supporting the Israeli action.

But Harvard Middle Eastern experts not only roundly denounced the bombing, but were also critical of official U.S. government statements in support of the act.

"It [the bombing] is a very despicable act," said David Partington, head of the Middle Eastern department of the Harvard Libraries.

Both he and Stephan Haggard, assistant professor of Government, question the morality of the act, saying that killing innocent people in reaction to the killing of other innocent people is not justifiable.

Haggard also questioned the justification that the bombing was in self-defense, saying it is still not known whether the PLO was responsible for slaying the three Israelis.

Although there may be circumstances when retaliating against terrorists can be considered an act of self defense, this bombing is not necessarily one of them, said Wallace T. MacCaffrey, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History.

The claim of self-defense may just have been a ploy used by Israel to mask other intentions, suggested Haggard. Even if Israel didn't know for sure that the PLO committed the slayings, it may have wished to send, not only to the PLO but to the whole Arab world, a threatening message "we will strike back in any situation."

The experts attacked American support for the bombing. "Reagan's decision was rash." Haggard said, but he pointed out it was in concordance with the government's policy of retaliating against terrorism.

The bombing should hurt the Middle East peace process, especially the Jordanian-Israeli peace initiative the experts agreed.

"The willingness of Jordan publicly state their resolve in the peace process," even after the bombing, "shows their seriousness," Haggard said. The Israelis' ulterior motive may have been to probe Hussein's real intentions.