Will PLO ever turn from terrorism?

Terrorism becomes the more monstrous when infants are among the captured, wounded, or killed. With the latest raid on Israeli innocents, an extremist group in the Palestine Liberation Organization has once more undercut efforts to give the PLO a diplomatic role in Mideast peace settlement.

The raid came just as West Europeans were contemplating international initiatives involving the PLO. The PLO is widely seen as a body that must eventually be dealt with as representing the Palestinians whose future is at issue in Arab lands occupied by Israel.

Yet the PLO forfeits credibility as an organization emerging from terrorism every time one of its arms indulges in terrorism. If Yasser Arafat really wants recognition as a responsible leader of his people, he must repudiate the recent PLO raid. He owes it to those seeking justice for the Palestinians to leave no doubt as to where he and the "new" PLO stand in relation to the old terror.