Word: knesset
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Israel last week declared a new war on the Arabs. It will be fought on a "farflung, dangerous and vital front line," Premier Golda Meir grimly told the Knesset, "with all the assiduity and skill of which our people are capable." Thus last week, in the aftermath of the Munich murders, the Israeli government vowed to carry the war of terrorism back to the Arabs-guerrillas and host countries alike-and to strike at times and places of Israel's own choosing...
...Israel's longstanding aversion to the death penalty. That policy served the country well when fedayeen crossed over from Jordan or Lebanon; once cornered, they usually surrendered, knowing that the worst that could happen to them would be life imprisonment. Now several members of the Knesset suggested that fedayeen should be sentenced to death, then held indefinitely in case of another Munich. If terrorists killed Jewish hostages, the Arab prisoners would be summarily executed...
...then a hot line was humming between Munich, Bonn-where Chancellor Brandt had been awakened with the news at 6:35-and Jerusalem. In Israel, where it was one hour later, Premier Golda Meir summoned her senior advisers to the subterranean Cabinet room of the Knesset building. It did not take them long to decide: 1) not to negotiate with the terrorists or release any prisoners, 2) to tell the Germans that they had full responsibility for any rescue action and 3) to indicate that Israel would not object should the Germans give the terrorists safe-conduct...
...governments were in motion everywhere, but there was more protocol than practical effect in most of their communications. An exception was Willy Brandt; after a special Cabinet meeting in Bonn, he headed for Munich to guide the decision-making personally. Mrs. Meir, in a ten-minute address to the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, asked that the Games be suspended-and they were, at 3:45 p.m. She also seemed to hint that Israel was still debating whether or not to release its Arab prisoners, though the decision had already been made not to do so. President Nixon, awakening...
...Knesset, Deputies argued about whether the death penalty should be invoked in Israel, where it has been applied only once, against Adolf Eichmann. As long as captured terrorists remain alive and in jail, goes the argument, they will be an incentive for other terrorists to capture hostages with an eye toward making a trade...