Like I said, it was a grim joke. Remember that at that time there was a strong faction in America -- even among American Jews -- that really, really wanted to make peace, any sort of peace, with the P.L.O. They were willing to bargain away Israel's security for peace at any price. That thinking eventually led to Oslo. At the time, many of the peace advocates were not angry -- they were "disappointed" . . . that the radicals couldn't "restrain themselves" long enough to get a peace agreement.
Hence the bitter humor from my Jewish friend. He thought that the peace-at-any-price crowd were almost as willing to push Leon overboard as the P.L.O.