Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE • 337percent; and arson attacks, vandalism, kidnapping, threats, and verbalharassment accounted for the rest.From 1969 to 1985 the JDL targeted mainly the representatives ofgovernments perceived to be anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, in particularSoviet targets. Thus the JDL bombed the San Francisco branch ofthe Iranian Bank Melli on 26 January 1981 and bombed the IraqiUN Mission on 28 April 1982 to protest the mistreatment of Jewsin those two countries. On 26 January 1972 the JDL bombed the officeof impresario Sol Hurok, who helped arrange performances ofSoviet ballet troupes in the United States, injuring Hurok and killinghis receptionist. For the most part, these attacks seemed intended tointimidate but not to kill their victims.Beginning late in 1985, however, the targeting shifted to individualssuspected of being anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, and the attack mode becamemuch more lethal. On 11 October 1985 the Los Angeles officesof the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) werebombed, killing ADC director Alex Odeh, who had sought to rationalizethe actions of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) in hijackingthe Achille Lauro, on which several Jewish American passengers hadbeen taken hostage. On 15 August 1985 a 61-year-old Waffen-SS veteran,Tsherim Soobzokov, was bombed at his Paterson, New Jersey,home and later died of his injuries. In such attacks an anonymous callerwould claim the action in the name of the JDL, and afterward an officialJDL spokesperson would disavow the group’s responsibility. On30 June 1987 the JDL attempted a pipe bombing of the Lincoln Centerin New York City, which was hosting the Bolshoi Ballet. The pipebomb was discovered and disposed of without injury. The last knownJDL action was the attempted pipe bombing of the Syrian mission atthe United Nations in New York on 26 February 1992.As the JDL was very much the personal creation of Rabbi Kahane,following his emigration to Israel in 1971 the group began to experiencefactionalism. The day immediately following the bombing murderof Alex Odeh, Kahane announced his resignation as JDL leader.Despite the national prominence of the JDL, this group had poor toacrimonious relations with more conventional Jewish political andsocial organizations, such as the B’nai B’rith’s Anti-DefamationLeague, which regarded the JDL as a marginal group and an embarrassmentto the American Jewish community. Without the leadershipof Rabbi Kahane, who was shot dead by an Egyptian Islamic