Sheltering Killers & Making Excuses

Dear Editor:

Thirty years ago this week, Palestinian Arab terrorists bombed a bus on Jaffa Road, in downtown Jerusalem. Twenty-six passengers were murdered.

Among the victims were two students of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America who were engaged to be married, Sara Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld.

The Israeli government subsequently identified a terrorist named Bassam Issa, a resident of the Palestinian Authority territories, as having assisted in the bombing. On July 7, 1996, Israel formally asked the PA to extradite Issa.

According to the Oslo II accord—Annex IV, Article II(7)—the PA is required to honor such requests. Instead, the PA ignored it.

Eight months later, the pattern repeated itself. The Israelis identified Nafez Sabih, another resident of the PA areas, as one of the masterminds of the bombing. On March 31, 1997, Israel formally asked the PA to extradite Sabih. Again, the PA ignored the request.

For some reason, the various governments that enthusiastically promoted the Oslo accords have never been troubled by such blatant violations of the accords.

There has always been another option for bringing the killers of Sara and Matthew to justice: American law permits the prosecution, in the United States, of terrorists who have harmed American citizens abroad. Yet no U.S. administration has ever demanded that the PA hand them over.

In June 1997, U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross met with students at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and one of them asked Ross why the U.S. government was not pressing the PA to surrender the killers for prosecution.

Ross’s response was profoundly disingenuous.

He said that “one of the obstacles to doing that [bringing Palestinian killers to the U.S. for trial] is the fact that the United States does not have an extradition treaty with the Palestinian Authority.”

In reality, the U.S. frequently finds ways to bring criminals to justice, outside official extradition channels.

Sometimes it does so through economic or political pressure. Sometimes it uses other means, as in the recent case of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

With his decades of experience in the political and legal aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Ambassador Ross must have known that the absence of an extradition treaty is not a genuine obstacle to apprehending the killers.

So why did Ross mislead the JTS students? Why was he making excuses for the failure to bring the Jerusalem bus bombers to justice?

The Times of Israel reported last year that another terrorist involved in the 1996 bus bombing, Mohammad Abu Warda, lives freely in Gaza and was even seen attending one of the Hamas propaganda events involving the bodies of dead Israeli hostages.

Will the “international stabilization force” now being formed by the U.S. Board of Peace arrest Abu Warda and hand him over to the American government to face justice?

Sincerely
Prof Rafael Medoff

The Origin of the So-Called “Palestinians”

Dear Editor:

Journalists and self-appointed influencers must know who the Arabs we now call Palestinians are and where they come from?

The British Mandate for Palestine, “the reconstituted homeland of the Jewish people”, was delineated in1920 at San Remo.

In 1921, Churchill cut off 78% of the area to create Transjordan.

A 1922 census showed there were 590,000 Muslims, 91,000 Jews and 71,000 Christians in the mandate. These people held Palestinian passports, though only Jews were referred to as Palestinians. Arab attachment was to their clans. Largely by immigration, the population grew to 1,700,000 Muslims, 530,000 Jews and 130,000 Christians by 1944.

In 1948, as the British withdrew, Israel declared its independence. Local militias and 5 Arab nations attacked the new state. The Arabs failed to ‘drive the Jews into the sea’. This was their Nakba.

Egypt took Gaza. Jordan occupied the West Bank, killing or driving out 30,000 Jews. Only the UK recognized the Arab occupations. 700,000 Arabs fled to neighboring countries. 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel and became citizens. They now number 2,000,000 or 20% of the population. Egypt and Jordan felt no need to set up a ‘Palestine’.

In 1964, the Soviet KGB and Egypt formed the Palestine Liberation Army. Its goal was to diminish American influence by destroying Israel. It collected terrorists from throughout the Middle East and North Africa, most having no links to the mandate. These fighters were the first Arabs to be called “Palestinians”.

The six-day war in 1967 drove out Jordan and Egypt, restoring Israel to its legal borders, adding the Golan Heights.

The Oslo Accords were signed in 1995, allowing Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian, and 100,000 followers to enter 40% of Judea and Samaria. These towns were controlled by the Palestinian Authority or jointly managed with Israel. The other 60% is strictly Israeli territory, popular propaganda not-with-standing.

The Accords were meant to usher in 2 states, living side-by-side in peace. However, Arafat launched the 2nd Intifada, 2000-2005, ending that fiction.

In 2005, in a futile attempt to appease the Arabs, PM Sharron gave Gaza to the PA, removing every Jew. The PA was thrown out by Hamas in 2007. Oct. 7, 2023, drove the final nail into the 2-state coffin.

The fate of the Arabs in Gaza and the PA is to be determined. If their aim remains genocide of the Jews, they will be driven out. If they accept their place as a minority in Israel, one of the most advanced societies in the world, they may attain a level of self-determination. The next step in their rehabilitation is the disarming of Hamas, the dismantling of UNRWA and the resettling of all who consider themselves to be refugees or wish to leave.

Sincerely
Len Bennett, Author of ‘Unfinished Work’
Deerfield Beach, Fl.