British Envoy Questions Israel on Terrorism

Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv has described terrorism as justified, if defined in certain ways, drawing parallels between the Jewish fight for a state of Israel and the present day Palestinian struggle.

Sherard Cowper-Coles said that the killing of non-combatants, particularly children, could never be defended. "Terrorism defined as attacks against innocent civilians is always and absolutely wrong," he told a conference in Berlin on European-Israeli relations.

However, he went on to say: "If terrorism is defined more widely as attacks on formal military units, we can all think of times in history when it was not always wrong."

Mr Cowper-Coles pointed to Israel's own struggle for independence and the activities of the Stern Gang, labelled as terrorist by the British authorities in Palestine for bombing Jerusalem's King David hotel and for killing British soldiers but seen as national heroes by many Israelis.

Ariel Sharon's government prefers to describe the killing of all Israelis, in whatever circumstances, as terrorist. The Palestinian leadership argues that soldiers in the occupied territories and, sometimes, Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza are legitimate.

In carefully worded remarks, the ambassador suggested that the failure to pursue political options fuels terrorism.

Regarding the founding of the Jewish state, he laid the blame at the feet of Field Marshal Montgomery, who in 1946, he said, refused to negotiate with moderate Jewish insurgents in order to separate them from those the high commissioner viewed as extremists, such as the Stern Gang.

"Montgomery insisted on a military solution. We put 100,000 troops into Palestine and 20,000 paramilitary police with catastrophic results."

He likened terrorism to a cancer. "You need to ask yourself what the carcinogens are and you need to use a range of therapies"

Britain has learned from bitter experience, he said, that terrorism must be tackled by tough security combined with "political, economic and social measures to separate terrorists from the sea of popular support in which they swim".