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Israel's New Public Enemy #1
By Fred Taub
January
25, 2007
 Imam Fawaz Damra, who
the FBI calls a threat to US national security, was deported from the US to
Palestinian Authority controlled areas in Judea and Samaria, a.k.a. the West
Bank, via Jordan. While crossing into Israel, Damra was detained by the IDF,
questioned, and then released by Israeli courts claiming there is not enough
evidence to detain him further.
The fact is that
Damra is a very dangerous man, the FBI calls a threat to US national security.
Considering that Damra is more of a threat to Israel than he ever was to the
US, and that Damra will be in position to take a direct role in leading
terrorist attacks on Israel, the decision to allow Damra to roam free will
surely be remembered as a low point in Israeli history.
Damra was found guilty in the US of lying about his
past on his US immigration form, hiding his links to terrorist organizations
and persecuting Jews. The case centered on video taped sermons in which Damra
openly called for Jihad against the ?sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews.? These
tapes were sent across the US to incite violence and raise money for the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Other charges and
allegations against Damra include a link to Osama Bin Laden, a counterfeiting
operation at mosque he led in Brooklyn, working with Sami al-Arian to raise
money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, money laundering, funding families of
suicide bombers, and obstructing an FBI investigation,
Damra also associated with both El Sayyid Nosair,
who murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane and was involved with the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing, as well as with the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman.
While all this was going on, Damra was meeting with
local Jewish community leaders, charming them with rhetoric of peace and then
simultaneously calling for their deaths in his Arabic sermons.
Thus, Israel has granted the terrorists a new
ideological leader, one with instant credibility specifically because he was
deported from the US and held for questioning by the IDF.
Damra will easily gather an instant following in PA
controlled areas, and will be able to raise large sums of money to support
terror via his network of worldwide supporters. Damra will also be able to make
and distribute as many video tapes as he wants with impunity.
Whatever knowledge and experience Damra has in
counterfeiting from his Brooklyn mosque days is an additional threat to Israel.
The FBI showed Damra printed currency inside his own mosque, but the details
appear classified by the US. As such, we do not know exactly what Damra knows
about counterfeiting, but considering the PA?s financial situation, and their
desire to destroy Israel?s economy, such skills and knowledge are likely be
appreciated by the Abbas and PA.
On the
international stage, while the PA?s welcoming of Damra is not a violation of
the Oslo accords, it is likely Damra will become a catalyst for incitement to
violence, which is a violation of Oslo. Additionally, Damra may have
aspirations of surpassing the fame of his old friend Osama Bin Laden, if not
his deeds.
Israel, however, has done more than just
free an emerging terror leader. By allowing the PA to grant asylum to Damra
following his deportation, Israel has de-facto granted the PA the ability to
take part in international sovereignty and border treaties?rights that only
sovereign nations have.
Thus, Israel has once again
granted more authority to the PA than it has to itself with limited home-rule
authority of Jewish cities in Judea and Samaria.
Israel failed to deny a border crossing privilege to a known threat, allowing
Damra to freely roam where he poses an obvious threat to international peace
and stability. So far, the only thing Israel has not done to welcome Damra is
send him a dozen roses. The best we can hope for now is that Israel keeps a
close eye on Damra, to say the least.
Fred Taub is a
boycott consultant and is the President of
Boycott Watch which monitors and
reports about consumer boycotts, and Divestment Watch which exposed the
illegal nature of the divest-from-Israel campaign as well as why divestment is
bad for the US and is anti-peace.
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