"Strongest Censure"

The verdict on the grim events of the night of Oct. 14, when Israeli armed forces killed 53 Jordanians and razed the village of Kibya, came late one afternoon last week in Manhattan. The U.N. Security Council, 9 to 0, voted "the strongest censure" of the raid and held Israel entirely responsible. Two nations abstained: Russia, which is busily wooing both Arabs and Israelis, and Lebanon, which sought a stronger resolution.

Through five weeks of debate and backroom maneuvering, the Israelis strove desperately to stave off the vote. Premier David Ben-Gurion denied outright that the raiders were Israeli soldiers, as alleged by the U.N. truce supervision chief, Denmark's Major General Vagn Bennike.

In a last impassioned appeal to the U.N. Security Council, Israeli Delegate Abba Eban cried out that the verdict against his country was "more vehement and intemperate" than any the Council had ever rendered, even against the Communist aggressors in Korea. But he went down to defeat. Arab Spokesman Charles Malik of Lebanon hailed the censure as "the first gleam of hope in years that the Arabs are not going to be wronged again."

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