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Jonathan S. Tobin
THE DISCOVERY last December of a cache of documents in a Hamas hideout in
Israel may have grave implications for American law enforcement.
The documents link an American fundraising group for Islamic causes - The Holy Land Foundation - to a group operating under the same name in Israel. This proves that the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation is directly
contributing to the activities of Hamas
This and other evidence which has been accumulating in recent years ought to
do more than light a fire under the F.B.I. to hit these groups hard.
It ought to give pause to many in the media who have been lending an ear to
apologists for supporters of Islamic terrorists groups. These apologists and
fellow travelers of Hamas such as the Council on American Islamic Relations
(CAIR) and the American Muslim Council (AMC) have been working full time to
discredit those courageous Americans who have uncovered the unsavory
connections between some American Muslim groups and the mass murderers and
extremists of Hamas and Hezbollah.
They have, with some success, created a mindset that identifies all
investigations of Islamic group with prejudice against Arabs.
Unfortunately,
outside of the Anti-Defamation League and a precious few others, not many
monitoring groups and even fewer journalists have dared to cross this new
boundary of political incorrectness to call American supporters of terrorism
by their right names.
Specifically, CAIR and AMC have made independent journalist Steven Emerson a
special target of their smears and slanders. They, and their more mainstream
accomplices such as James Zogby (a leading Washington political insider and
Democratic party fundraiser), have tried to intimidate Emerson and falsely
accused him of branding all Muslims with the brush of terrorism.
Contrary to the scurrilous rhetoric which has been let loose at him,
Emerson's
fact-finding investigations into the seedy world of American support for
Islamic fundamentalist terrorism have been vindicated both by the solid
nature
of his research and subsequent events.
I still have concerns about the implementation of anti-terrorist legislation
which might - if used wrongly - serve to restrain free speech or criminalize
legal activity. I would also deplore any effort which would (as Emerson and
the ADL clearly have not) brand all Arabs as fundraisers for terrorists.
That said, it is still high time that CAIR and AMC were held accountable by
the national media for their rhetorical support for terrorism (which has
victimized Jews, Arabs and American citizens alike) and their false charges
against Emerson. In the meantime, Federal authorities need to use the newly
uncovered evidence to bring groups like the "Holy Land Foundation" to
account
for their
Follow the money to Hamas
in Israel. Though this foundation has represented itself as merely a charity for the victims of Israeli brutality, in fact, it is a conduit for the "martyrs" of Hamas. This places them in direct violation of the 1996 Federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which prohibits fundraising for groups which have been specifically designated as foreign terrorist groups. Hamas and Hezbollah are two such groups.
JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger.
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