JERUSALEM (JPS) — An activist of the outlawed extreme right-wing Kach group, Victor Vansir, was deported to the United States from Israel on Tuesday.

The American-born Vansir was denied an entry visa at Ben-Gurion Airport Monday after arriving from New York.

In the wake of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir, Israel's Interior Ministry barred several Kach activists including Vansir from the country.

The ban on Vansir was signed by Labor's former Interior Minister Ehud Barak. The order remains in effect until the ministry rescinds it.

Vansir tried to enter Israel without asking the present minister, Eli Suissa, under the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, to rescind the ban.

The late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane founded Kach after having formed the militant Jewish Defense League in the United States.

Official admits killing two hijackers

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A top Israeli security official admitted to killing two Palestinian terrorists after their capture in 1984.

Ehud Yatom, who is retiring from the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, told the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot the details of the incident.

In April 1984, four Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Egged bus, threatening to kill the passengers. During a rescue raid, two of the terrorists were killed, along with one passenger. Two other hijackers survived.

Yatom said the two were taken from the bus and beaten. "Everyone who was there — the army, civilians, the [Shin Bet] — beat them," he said. "It was a spontaneous act following a long night of uncertainty about what was happening on the bus."

Yatom added: "We put them in the van and drove off. On the way we received instructions from [Shin Bet Chief] Avraham Shalom to kill them, so we killed them."

Shin Bet officials said at the time of the attack that those two hijackers were killed as the bus was stormed. But newspapers had published photos of the hijackers being taken away, unhurt.

Netanyahu aide heads to Gulf states

JERUSALEM (JPS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser, Dore Gold, flew to Oman and Qatar Sunday in a bid to shore up new ties with those Gulf states.

Gold's trip was meant to persuade the Gulf states that Israel is sincere about Middle East peace and to assure them that existing links with these countries should not deteriorate, sources said.

A meeting between Israeli leaders and leading officials in Qatar had been arranged last May before Netanyahu's election but was postponed due to Operation Grapes of Wrath.

Before the visit, Egypt had joined all six Gulf states and Syria in voicing grave concern about the future of the peace process.

Qatar announced last week it is delaying the scheduled opening of its economic mission in Israel, although Israel retains its economic mission there, which it opened last month. Sources also said Israeli diplomats in Tunisia have not been received by Tunisian officials since Netanyahu's election.

Federal agents check Ben-Gurion security

TEL AVIV (JPS) — U.S. Federal Aviation Authority agents swept through TWA's operations at Ben-Gurion Airport Tuesday in what industry sources said was a spot inspection to determine the airline's level of security following last week's air disaster off Long Island.

The sources said FAA agents checked the airline's ground operations at Ben-Gurion as well as on a Boeing 747 laden with passengers bound for New York.

The FAA agents arrived in Israel from Athens, where a similar inspection of TWA operations was conducted. Industry sources said Ben-Gurion is regarded as highly security conscious, while FAA agents found security lapses at Athens.

Industry sources said 150 TWA passengers canceled their reservations on this week's flight to Israel.