Editing Jewish Defense League (section)

===1980–1989===
During the 1980s, past-JDL member [[Victor Vancier]] (who later founded the Jewish Task Force), and two other former JDL members were arrested in connection with six incidents: 1984 [[firebombing]] of an automobile at a Soviet diplomatic residence, the 1985 and 1986 [[pipe bomb]]ings of rival JDL members' cars, the 1986 firebombing at a hall where the [[State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation|Soviet State Symphony Orchestra]] was performing, and two 1986 detonations of [[tear gas]] grenades to protest performances by Soviet dance troupes.<ref name="backgrounder" /> In a 1984 interview, the JDL leader [[Meir Kahane]] admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here [Washington] in 1971, the Soviet trade offices."<ref name="kushner" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/159817982.html?dids=159817982&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS&date=Sep+11%2C+1984&author=By+Carla+Hall&pub=The+Washington+Post++(1974-Current+file)&edition=&startpage=C1&desc=The+Message+of+Meir+Kahane|title=The Message of Meir Kahane: In Silver Spring, Boos and Applause for the Knesset Member Knesset Member Meir Kahane|last=Hall|first=Carla|date=1984-09-11|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2017-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019085124/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/159817982.html?dids=159817982&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS&date=Sep+11,+1984&author=By+Carla+Hall&pub=The+Washington+Post++(1974-Current+file)&edition=&startpage=C1&desc=The+Message+of+Meir+Kahane|archive-date=2012-10-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> The attacks, which caused minor diplomatic crisis in relations between the U.S. and the USSR, prompted the [[New York City Police Department]] (NYPD) to infiltrate the group and one undercover officer discovered a chain of weapon caches across [[Brooklyn]], containing "enough shotguns and rifles to arm a small militia."<ref name="forward" />

On October 26, 1981, after two firebombs damaged the Egyptian tourist office at [[Rockefeller Center]], JDL Chairman Meir Kahane said at a press conference: "I'm not going to say that the JDL bombed that office. There are laws against that in this country. But I'm not going to say I mourn for it either." The next day, after an anonymous caller claimed responsibility on behalf of the JDL, the group's spokesman later denied his group's involvement, but said, "we support the act."<ref name="backgrounder" /> JDL members had often been suspected of involvement in attacks against neo-Nazis, [[Holocaust deniers]] and antisemites.

On October 11, 1985, [[Alex Odeh]], regional director of the [[American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee]] (ADC), was killed in a [[mail bomb]]ing at his office in [[Santa Ana, California]]. Shortly before his killing, Odeh had appeared on the television show ''[[Nightline (U.S. news program)|Nightline]]'', where he engaged in a tense dialogue with a representative from the JDL.<ref name=jur>Juergensmeyer, Mark. ''Terror in the mind of God''. 2003, page 56</ref> Irv Rubin immediately made several controversial public statements in reaction to the incident: "I have no tears for Mr. Odeh. He got exactly what he deserved. ... My tears were used up crying for [[Leon Klinghoffer]]."<ref name=bohn/> The [[Anti-Defamation League]] and the [[American Jewish Committee]] both condemned the murder. Four weeks after Odeh's death, FBI spokesperson Lane Bonner stated the FBI attributed the bombing and two others to the JDL. In February 1986, the FBI classified the bombing that killed Alex Odeh as a terrorist act. Rubin denied JDL involvement: "What the FBI is doing is simple. ... Some character calls up a news agency or whatever and uses the phrase ''Never Again'' ... and on that assumption they can go and slander a whole group. That's tragic." In 1987, [[Floyd Clarke]], then assistant director of the FBI, wrote in an internal memo that key suspects had fled to Israel and were living in the [[West Bank]] urban settlement of [[Kiryat Arba]]. In 1988, the FBI arrested [[Rochelle Manning]] as a suspect in the bombing, and also charged her husband, Robert Steven Manning, whom they considered a prime suspect in the attack; both were members of the JDL. Rochelle's jury deadlocked, and after the [[mistrial]], she left for Israel to join her husband. Robert Manning was extradited from Israel to the U.S. in 1993.<ref name=bohn/> He was subsequently found guilty of involvement in the killing of the secretary of computer firm ProWest, Patricia Wilkerson, in another, unrelated mail bomb blast.<ref name=jweek>{{cite news |url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/1186/jdl-member-gets-life-term-in-bombing/ |title=JDL member gets life term in bombing &#124; j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California |newspaper=J |publisher=Jweekly.com |date=1995-06-16 |access-date=2011-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926145750/http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/1186/jdl-member-gets-life-term-in-bombing/ |archive-date=2012-09-26 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-15-me-46008-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|title=Ex-JDL Activist Found Guilty in Bombing Death|first=Eric|last=Malnic|date=October 15, 1993|access-date=May 2, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020014649/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-15/local/me-46008_1_bombing-death|archive-date=October 20, 2012|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> In addition, he and other JDL members were also suspected in a string of other violent attacks through 1985, including the bombing of [[Boston]] ADC office that seriously injured two police officers, the bomb killing of suspected Nazi war criminal [[Tscherim Soobzokov]] in [[Paterson, New Jersey]], and a bombing in [[Long Island]], which was targeted at suspected Nazi war criminal Elmars Sprogis and maimed a bystander.<ref name=kushner/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Police Suspect Link In Blasts At Homes Of Men Tied to War Crimes |url=https://apnews.com/article/a7272be9f9b890093fad6d02187e6d35 |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=AP NEWS |language=en |archive-date=2023-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227184741/https://apnews.com/article/a7272be9f9b890093fad6d02187e6d35 |url-status=live }}</ref> William Ross, another JDL member, was also found guilty for his participation in the bombing that killed Wilkerson.<ref name=jweek /> Rochelle Manning was re-indicted for her alleged involvement, and was detained in Israel, pending extradition, when she died of a heart attack in 1994.<ref name=jweek />