NEW YORK -- Jewish Defense League founder Rabbi Meir Kahane refused today to say whether his organization was responsible for the bombing of an Egyptian tourist office over the weekend but said he would not be 'surprised' if additional attacks occurred.
Kahane spoke a day after a firebomb gutted the Egyptian government tourist office in midtown, causing no injuries. A caller claiming to be a member of the JDL claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to protest the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
'I'm not going to say that the JDL bombed that office' Kahane said. 'There are laws against that in this country.'
'But I'm not going to mourn for it either,' he said, adding that the JDL was 'opposed bitterly' to the peace treaty and the Camp David accords, which call for Israel to complete its withdrawal of the Sinai in April.
Kahane, who now lives on the occupied West Bank, said he and the JDL 'did not mourn' the Oct. 6 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat because it was a 'heaven-sent opportunity' for Israel to reconsider its withdrawal from the Sinai.
Asked if there were might be more attacks, Kahane said: 'I would not be surprised. It might very well be.'
'I would not be particularly anxious to be an Egyptian in New York City,' he said.
The JDL has claimed responsibility in recent years for attacks on Soviet institutions and officials in the United States.
Kahane made his veiled threat at a news conference to announce publication of his book, 'They Must Go,' described as a 'manifesto' calling for the ouster of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories as a means of saving the Jewish state.
The rabbi said he wrote the book during 7 months of administrative detention in an Israeli jail.
Israeli officials never formally stated why he had been held, but unconfirmed reports said Kahane was jailed because he planned to bomb a major Moslem mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The rabbi, whose hardline Kach faction lost an election bid for a seat in Israel's parliament, said Israeli officials have warned him against distributing his book in the Jewish state.
