Terror In America

Brooklyn's Experts

Israeli emigres say Americans must learn about terror as a fact of life.

"It's important not to hide these things from the
children," he says. "We don't want to scare the kids,
Jewish Renaissance Media
but they need to know the basic facts. This is life."
Dabbas says that Americans, too, need to face real-
Brooklyn
ity squarely and not flinch at hard truths. He's
n Brooklyn, some front-line witnesses to our
learned, he says, from life in the Middle East, that a
national catastrophe suffer not from disbelief
successful terrorist action encourages further
but the sting of familiarity.
attempts. America, therefore, would do well
Israelis in Brooklyn are intimately
to imitate Israel in security precautions.
familiar with the violence, grief, and politics
Moshe Dabbas
"The airport security in the U.S. has
of terrorism. From their painful history
with his son,
always
scared me," says Dabbas, who used to
come lessons of survival and perseverance for Omere, 3, in
work
at
Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. "I
their Brooklyn neighbors and the world
their home in
never once saw an El Al cockpit. Never! It's
beyond these harrowed streets.
Brooklyn.
always locked from the inside."
Moshe Dabbas, 37, who emigrated to

KATY MCLAUGHLIN

I

Brooklyn 10 years ago, discussed last week's
events in his living room in the primarily Jewish com-
munity of Sea Gate. Out the window on a peaceful
Shabbat, fur-hatted Chasidim stroll the streets beneath
elm boughs alongside kids on tricycles and skates.
Dabbas' daughter Eden, 4, leans a headful of
blond ringlets against her father's arm and listens.
Unlike many American parents who seek to shield
young ears from such conversation, Dabbas is not
inclined to close doors and speak in whispers.

Katy McLaughlin is a writer in Brooklyn.

Israeli Worry

Osama bin Laden looms as a threat to Israel, too.

GIL SEDAN

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem
srael has not been a prime target on Saudi bil-
lionaire Osama bin Laden's terrorist agenda,
but Israeli officials worry that could soon
change.
Israeli terror experts such as Maj. Gen. Amos
Malka, the chief of army intelligence, said recently
that bin Laden is gearing up for action against Israel
by sending members of his terror organization to the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, or by recruiting followers
in the Palestinian territories.
If Israel until now has not figured prominently on
bin Laden's terror map, these experts say, it is not
because he doesn't want to hurt Israel, but simply
because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not his first
priority.
But that situation could soon change, according to
Israeli security officials cited by the Israeli daily
Hdaretz. These officials say bin Laden may become
increasingly motivated to strike Israel because of

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9/21
2001

24

growing criticism from within his fundamentalist
Muslim organization regarding his failure to support
the Palestinians in their struggle against the Jewish
state.
Bin Laden's launching pad for Holy War is Al
Qaida — Arabic for "the base" — his own private,
highly effective terror organization.
Al Qaida's primary goal is "to unite all Muslims
and establish a government that follows the rule of
the caliphs," according to the group's own words.
The group's fight, therefore, is not specifically
against Israel but the entire non-Islamic world.
Like other Islamic fundamentalist leaders, bin Laden
perceives the Western powers as successors to the
Crusaders. He perceives himself as the successor to the
great Muslim warrior Saladin, who conquered
Jerusalem from the Crusaders in October 1187 and
kicked the "infidels" off holy Muslim soil.

Mideast Presence

Several months ago, the Israeli press came out with
banner headlines disclosing that bin Laden followers

Faulty Precautions

Other Israelis in New York express similar shock at
what they see as irresponsibly lax security.
Tal Druyan, a 26-year-old native of Haifa, recalls being
appalled when her luggage once preceded her on a flight
while she waited for a stand-by seat to New Orleans. "A
plane is not a bus," she says, shaking her head.
The security habits of Israelis, ingrained from child-
hood, include constant vigilance to unattended packages
or bags, awareness of peculiar behavior or dress, and

were trying to establish a foothold in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
In June 2000, according to recently released
details, Israeli security agents arrested a Palestinian,
Nabil Ukal, 27, a resident of the Jabalya refugee
camp in Gaza. Ukal, who left Gaza in October 1997
to study religion in Pakistan, returned to the region
the next year as Al Qaida's first agent in the territo-
ries.
Under orders from a senior member in the organi-
zation, he was sent to the territories to set up a para-
military infrastructure for operations that were to
include Israeli Arabs.
Upon his return to Gaza, Ukal is known to have
met with the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik
Ahmed Yassin. Yassin gave Ukal $10,000 for his
activities.
When Israel brought charges against Ukal after his
arrest, he was indicted-for planning to carry out a
large-scale attack in the center of Israel.
This was not the first time that bin Laden opera-
tives were arrested in the region.
At the end of 1999, Jordan arrested a number of
fundamentalist activists, graduates of bin Laden's
training camps in Afghanistan, who allegedly plotted
to attack Israeli and American tourists visiting Israel
and Jordan for the millennium.
Only a few, carefully selected journalists have so
far been given the opportunity to meet with bin
Laden in his hideout somewhere in the mountains

