282	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

b“Listen Arabs! If one Jew is hung in Iraq, one Iraqi bdiplomat will hang in New York. The harassment of Iraqi bdiplomats will begin next week and there are going to be a blot of policemen needed to protect you.”

bThe evening ended with a mass riot as groups of JDL bpeople charged across the street. I was arrested along with beight other people on charges of second-degree riot, dis- borderly conduct, and resisting arrest and taken to the East b67th Street Police station, where I was a familiar and cor- bdially greeted figure.

bThe Iraqis were furious, and in June a formal demand bwas made on the United States Mission to the United Na- btions to act to prevent “the new program of terror to be blaunched by the Jewish Defense League” against Syrian and bIraqi officials in New York. The Iraqis sent a copy of their bletter to Secretary-General U-Thant. The protest referred bto a Jewish Telegraphic Agency story on June 8 titled, b“Kahane Defends Alliance with Italian Groups; Vows Har- brassment of Syrian, Iraqi Officials.” The frightened Bagh- bdad delegation said that “In view of the despicable record of bcriminal acts of terrorism committed by the Jewish Defense bLeague in the past, Rabbi Kahane’s statement cannot escape bUS authorities.”

bOur “relations” with the Arabs had been first forged in bSeptember 1969 when Arab terrorism had begun to escalate band a CBS report from Rome, coming on the heels of Arab battacks on Jews in London, quoted sources that claimed that bthe terrorists would begin to attack Jews in America. We bimmediately fired off telegrams to the major Arab UN mis- bsions and embassies warning them that should Arab terror boccur, the installations and Arab personnel were “legitimate btargets for deserved punishment.” Jordanian Ambassador bMuhammad el-Farra, right before a speech he was to give to bthe UN Security Council blaming Israel for the fire set by an bAustralian Christian at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, bcomplained bitterly about the telegram. Soviet Ambassador bYakov Malik, serving as the Security Council president for bSeptember, said that the matter was “of grave concern” and b