From the Editor

Speaking Up for Israel

In this issue, we offer some encouraging voices. Daniel Gordis reminds us of the hope, faith, and pride that sustains Israelis. Both Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci and Spanish politician Pilar Rahola speak out against resurgent European anti-Semitism. They are also unusual -- especially given that they are on the political left -- in confronting head-on the dangers posed to Europe by a growing, militant Islam within its borders.

It is fitting that while the European left denounces Israel and lionizes Arab terrorists, European countries are being undermined from within by the very forces they endorse. The signs are everywhere, not just in France and England but in places like Belgium and Holland. According to a report by the Dutch intelligence service AIVD, Holland, with 850,000 Muslims in a population of 16 million, has become a major Al Qaeda recruiting ground. The report says "a violent strain of radical Islam is stealthily taking root in Dutch society," with young Moroccans especially drawn into a sub-culture of "jihad videos and internet chat rooms that discuss holy war and Islamic martyrdom." With Afghanistan's terror training grounds no longer accessible, these young people are secretly training in Europe itself.

Meanwhile, in Antwerp, two days of race riots were instigated by Lebanese-born Hizbollah "militant" Abou Jahjah, known as the Malcolm X of Belgium. When Prime Minister Verhofstadt told his parliament he was considering a ban on Jahjah's group for inciting violence and disturbing public order, Jahjah announced he was being demonized by manipulators in the Belgian government and the "Zionist lobby." Sign of the future: Jahjah demands a separatist system for Belgium's Muslims including segregated schools, Arabic as an official language, and an end to "Flemish cultural terrorism."  

Al-Jubeir Loses It

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi smoothie the Weekly Standard calls the Sultan of Spin, has spun out of control. Alternating between robes with checkered headgear and Armani suits, he pops up on one TV program after another on his mission of damage control on behalf of the Saudi regime. Althogh rated as "polished," "earnest," "dapper," and "dashing" by an admiring press, he put in a less than stellar performance on December 4 on CNN. Asked by TV journalist Bill Hemmer about a Saudi textbook calling for Muslims to demolish infidels, al-Jubeir responded: "We are trying to purge about 5% of the textbooks and change some others. I'm not familiar with that exact quote but you may be taking it out of context. If you took something that Adolf Hitler said out of context it might also sound inciteful when it fact it was not really inciteful."

Perhaps al-Jubeir was still discombobulated from his encounter with Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes." There, the Weekly Standard reports, he was confronted with the issue of Saudi refusal to permit kidnapped (by their Saudi fathers) children of American mothers to leave the country. Asked about the case of Monica Powers's daughter Amjad, Al-Jubeir said he had not even heard of the case until a month ago. At which point Wallace showed the audience a 14-year old document in which the Saudi government washed its hands of responsibility for Powers' daughter. The document was signed by none other than Adel al-Jubeir.  

The Shefa Fund

In 1990, AFSI published a pamphlet exposing the New Israel Fund as, in the words of the subtitle, A New Fund for Israel's Enemies. It has now been surpassed by a fund even more destructive to Israel's survival. The Philadelphia-based Shefa Fund, which passes itself off as dedicated to "advancing Jewish social responsibility through grantmaking," by its own account works closely with the New Israel Fund. It is worse than the New Israel Fund in that it makes no attempt to throw dust in the eyes by financing innocuous groups along with blatantly anti-Israel operations. Shefa funds Arab outfits like the Ahali Center for Community Development to strengthen "grassroots activism among Palestinian citizens" (read anti-Israel activism), Gush Shalom, a far out group of Israelis who engage in "direct confrontation" (read illegal acts) against the authorities, and B'tselem, long a favorite of the New Israel Fund, an alleged human rights organization with super-acute vision when it comes to supposed Israeli violations and legal blindness when it comes to Arafat and Co.

The Shefa Fund is now financing "The Courage to Refuse," a draft desertion group which describes Israeli soldiers as "war criminals" and meets them at bus stops, when as writer Naomi Ragen says, "they are weary and

(Continued on p.12)

Outpost               - 2 -               January 2003