Albright urged to act on Jewish terror groups in America

20-12-2000

(WASHINGTON, DC) Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is being urged to
act against Jewish terrorist groups operating openly and raising funds in the
United States.
At a State Department dinner marking the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) gave Albright a letter highlighting an article in Tuesday's New York Times headlined "Terror Label No Hindrance to Anti-Arab Jewish Group." That article described the activities on American soil of Jewish groups designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). According to the article, the activities of these groups have gone unchallenged by State Department or Department of Justice officials.

Washington Post:

Terrorism and Fundraising

Friday, December 22, 2000; Page A32


SOMETIMES IT'S HARD not to sympathize with complaints by Arab Americans that
they bear the brunt of anti-terrorism enforcement in this country --
especially after one examines the Web site of the Kahane movement. The site,
www.kahane.org, is devoted to the teachings of the late Meir Kahane, the radical Jewish nationalist who advocated expelling Arabs from Israel. His tiny movement is now led by his son, Binyamin Kahane, and Kahane-linked
groups such as Kach and Kanahe Chai have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations for which domestic fundraising is prohibited. That puts the movement in the company of such groups as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Its adherents have been
responsible for serious acts of violence in the Israeli-occupied territories. Yet the Web site, run by Kahane followers in Brooklyn, openly invites viewers to "make a donation" and attend a dinner for the Kahane
Memorial Fund, at a cost of $100 per person.

Lest anyone doubt that the group is simply a front for Kahane Chai, Michael Guzofsky, one of the group's leaders, helpfully told the New York Times that "if we can't be Kach or Kahane Chai we will be simply Kahane." Unlike Arabs accused of raising money for foreign terrorist groups, who have been locked up for long periods based on secret evidence and faced deportation proceedings, Mr. Guzofsky seems entirely unafraid of the law: "We operate openly and have nothing to hide." The Times reports further that Israeli
leaders of Kach and Kahane Chai have come and gone from this country freely in recent years.
We have long had concerns about the constitutionality of the fundraising
ban, which was passed as part of the 1996 antiterrorism law and which courts
have upheld so far. Some groups that engage in terrorism also engage in other activities, many of which are protected by the First Amendment. The Kahane movement, for example, publishes a magazine and an e-mail newsletter, with which the government shouldn't interfere. But as long as the ban is law, there can't be different standards for Arab and non-Arab terrorist groups. It's hard to imagine that a self-described front group for Hezbollah could set up a fundraising Web site in this country, boast about it in a major newspaper and invite prominent leaders of its movement to this
country. The Justice Department owes an explanation.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company