ZOA September 11, 2003

Palestinian Arab Killers of American Doctor & Daughter Will Go Free, and State Dept Will Look the Other Way

NEW YORK- Millions of Americans are now aware –thanks to front-page stories in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere– that two American citizens, Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, were among the people massacred in Palestinian Arab terrorist bombings in Israel this week.

But what the American public does not know is that the terrorists who organized and financed the attacks can fully expect to remain free, sheltered by the Palestinian Authority and ignored by the State Department–because that is what has happened in all the cases of the 48 Americans murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in Israel since 1993.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) points out that, based on past experience concerning the behavior of the State Department with regard to such cases, here is what is likely to happen to the Applebaums’ killers:

* No FBI Man-Hunt for the Terror Organizers
Although the FBI routinely sends agents abroad to apprehend foreign killers of Americans, they do not sent agents to Palestinian Arab areas. The ZOA has learned from reliable sources that the State Department has in the past blocked plans by the FBI to send agents to pursue such killers.

* The State Dept Won’t Name the Group That Did It
The State Department maintains a web site that offers rewards for information leading to the capture of terrorists who murder Americans abroad. In other cases, the name of the group that carried out the bombing is identified on the web site. But in cases involving Palestinian Arab terrorist groups, the State Department refuses to identify Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Fatah by name–even when they claimed responsibility for the attack. The web site calls them only “groups opposed to Middle East negotiations.” Thus if the Applebaum bombing is included on the web site, Hamas will not be named as the group that did it–thus making it harder for potential informants to acquire information about the killers.

* The State Dept Won’t Name the Suspects
The same web site lists the names of suspects in cases of terrorism against Americans abroad–except in cases involving Palestinian Arab terrorists, where no names are listed. Thus even if the State Department knows the names of the suspected organizers of the Applebaum bombing, they will not be included on the web site–thus making it harder for potential informants to acquire information about the killers.

* If the Killers Hide in a Famous Church,
the State Dept Will Pressure Israel to Let Them Go
In April 2002, a group of Palestinian Arab terrorists –including several killers of Americans– took over the Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem. The Bush administration pressured Israel to let them leave and refrain from arresting them. Some went to Gaza, others went to Europe. At least one of the killers of an American is now living openly in Spain, another in Ireland–yet the Bush administration has made no effort to capture them.

* If the Killers Hide in Arafat’s Headquarters
the State Dept Will Pressure Israel to Ignore Them
At least three known Palestinian Arab killers of Americans are living in the official PA headquarters in Ramallah: Tawfik Tirawi (former head of PA Intelligence), Mahmoud Damra (Ramallah regional commander of Yasir Arafat’s Force 17), and Damra’s deputy Khaled Shawish. (Ha’aretz, March 12, 2003; Jerusalem Post, Aug. 5, 2003) They organized the October 30, 2000 murder of U.S. citizen Esh-Kodesh Gilmore (whose parents are from Ohio and New Jersey) and the December 31, 2000 attack in which U.S. citizens Binyamin and Talia Kahane (from New York) were murdered, and five of their children were wounded. Some of the terrorists involved in the attacks were captured, and confessed that they operated under Damra’s direct command. Shawish himself was directly involved in the shooting of the Kahane family. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 28, 2001, March 16, 2001 & April 24, 2001) Yet the Bush administration has repeatedly pressured Israel from sending its forces into the PA headquarters compound.

* If the Killers Are Rewarded With Jobs in the
PA Security Forces, the State Dept Will Ignore Them
At least four of the suspects in murders of Americans have been rewarded with jobs in the PA Security Forces: Bassam Issa, Kamal Khalifa, Yasser Yusef Mustafa Khasin, and Mahmad Sanwar, who were involved in the February 1996 bus bombing in which Sara Duker, Matthew Eisenfeld, and Ira Weinstein were murdered. (Jerusalem Post, July 3, 1998) Yet the Bush administration has never demanded that they be handed over to the U.S. for prosecution; it has not even demanded that they be fired from their jobs.

* Even if the U.S Indicts the Killers,
It Won’t Demand that the PA Hand Them Over
Even in the unlikely case that the U.S. will indict the Applebaums’ killers, it can be expected that the U.S. will make no effort to actually bring them to the U.S. for prosecution. The only indictment in such a case came in February 2003, when the U.S. government indicted eight Palestinian Arab terrorists involved in an Islamic Jihad cell whose victims included Alisa Flatow of West Orange, NJ, a 20 year-old Brandeis University junior, who was murdered in a bombing near Kfar Darom on April 9, 1995; and Shoshana Ben-Yishai, 16, of Queens, NY, who was murdered in a shooting attack on a bus in Jerusalem on November 9, 2001–although they were indicted on general terrorism charges, not for their role in these murders of Americans. One of those indicted was Abd Al-Aziz Awda, 52, who is described in the indictment as the founder and “spiritual leader” of the terror ring. He is head of the Al Qassam Mosque in the PA-controlled Gaza Strip. Although the indictment was issued more than seven months ago, the U.S. has never demanded that the PA hand him over, nor have FBI agents been sent to the mosque to arrest him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 and is filed under news.