OTHER VIEWS
I Belonged In Israel
called Tel Mond,
am sitting at my com-
which is maybe 12
puter trying to reflect
miles from the hotel
on my experiences of
in Netanya. I did not
the last two weeks and
hear the blast, but I
the words just don't want to
heard the sirens and
come. But I feel compelled to
ambulances rushing
try, even if I can't express on
to the scene and I
paper what is in my heart.
saw helicopters over-
My daughter Marni, 12,
ANDY
head. I did not wit-
and I just returned from
ROI S MAN
ness firsthand any of
Israel. This was my seventh
Community
the devastation that
trip and my second in six
Views
night, but was told
months — I was in Israel on
about the victims
Sept. 11 with the Jewish
from my brother's next-door
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit-
neighbor, who is a nurse at
sponsored solidarity mission and
the hospital in Netanya. She
thought that to be a monumental
described how the power of
event in my life.
the blast did such damage to
Being in Israel on Passover night
the victims' lungs and how
was something I will never forget. My
she had never witnessed such carnage.
friends keep asking me what it was
Names and faces of the people who
like to be there during the Netanya
died that night were constantly shown
bombing and how far away my family
on television so that they shouldn't be
was when the bombing took place.
forgotten. This is something that the
I don't know how to answer the first
Israeli TV has been doing every time
question, but two words keep popping
there is a homicide bombing. We need
into my head: horrific and amazing.
to know who these people were and
This is my answer to every question I
not forget about them.
am asked about what is going on there.
It is horrific for me to see what has
The answer to the second question
happened just in the last six months.
is not very far. We were in a place
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Herzliya are
Andy Roisman of West Bloomfield is
ghost towns at night. Restaurants and
program coordinator at the Jewish
stores are closed, people are terrified
Community Center in Oak P.ark.
to be on the streets, and roadblocks
Make Saudis Pay For Terror
Philadelphia
he Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia's massive implica-
tion in the death of 3,000
Americans on Sept. 11, I
argued in February, is reason for the
victims and their families to consider
suing it for compensation.
Three important developments have
occurred since then, all of them pro-
pelling this idea forward:
No loss of U.S. benefits. A U.S.
law passed on Sept. 22, 2001, seemed
to stipulate that to share in the open-
ended fund allocated by the U.S. gov-
ernment to compensate the victims of
Sept. 11 and their families, they had
to give up their right to sue the Saudis
or anyone else. Recipients, states the
"Air Transportation Safety and System
Stabilization Act," have to waive "the
right to file a civil action (or to be a
T
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle
East Forum. His e-mail address is
Pipes@MEForum.org
4/19
2002
32
party to an action) in any federal or
state court for damages sustained as a
result of the terrorist-related aircraft
crashes of Sept. 11, 2001."
But Kenneth R. Feinberg, the spe-
cial master in charge of dispensing the
open-ended fund (which he estimates
will total about $4 billion), informs
me that another piece of legislation
effectively reversed my interpretation
of the law. On Nov. 19, Public Law
107-71 amended the above quote in
the following manner: "The preceding
sentence does not apply to a civil
action to recover collateral source
obligations, or to a civil action against
any person who is a knowing partici-
pant in any conspiracy to hijack any
aircraft or commit any terrorist act."
The effect of this amendment is
drastically to narrow the Sept. 22 legis-
lation by distinguishing between Sept.
11's unknowing participants (such as
the airlines or the airports) and know-
ing ones (such as the terrorists them-
selves or those who sponsored or
7 ?"
and police are everywhere. My broth-
er's family lives in Nordiya, located
next to Netanya, and they are nervous
about leaving the house. I see the toll
it has taken on my brother and sister-
in-law. They don't sleep much and the
radio is always on.
When I was in Israel, I woke up to
CNN (Cable News Network) every
morning and fell asleep watching Sky
News every night. We debated for days
about a Pesach trip to the Galilee and
finally decided to go. It was a good
Around the seder
table in Israel:
Marni Roisman,
from left, Etai
Coles, Sichma,
Ron reciting the
Four Questions,
Col. Alon and
Karen Friedman.
ROIS1V1AN on page 33
"Qassam." U.S. intelligence
financed them). It keeps the
sources have concluded that
former off-bounds, but permits
Saudi princes are spending
,suing the latter. In Feinberg's
millions of dollars to help
words, any person "in Saudi
large numbers of Al Qaida
Arabia (or anywhere else) who
and Taliban members escape
provided assistance to the ter-
the American dragnet.
rorists on Sept. 11 can be sued
One source told Middle
by claimants participating in
East Newsline, "The money
the Fund." Or, in his plain-
DANIEL
flow to Al Qaida continues
English explanation, claimants
PIPES
from members of the royal
can "have their cake and eat it,
Special
too." This amendment is won-
Commentary family." To staunch this flow
of funds, U.S. authorities are
derful news, permitting the
taking the initiative, some-
families to accept an on-aver-
times close to home. In March, they
age $1.2 million from the U.S. taxpay-
raided 16 locations, mostly in the
er, then sue Saudi Arabia.
Washington, D.C., area, primarily to
More indications of official Saudi
learn more about two high-ranking
sponsorship of terrorism. Recent
Saudis, Khalid bin Mahfouz and
weeks have turned up some extraor-
Cherif Sedky, and their role in fund-
dinarily incriminating documents,
ing Al Qaida.
such as a hard drive seized by U.S.
Progress against Libya. A Scottish
troops in Sarajevo from a computer
appeals court in March upheld the
at the office of the Saudi High
Commission for Relief of Bosnia and conviction of a Libyan intelligence
agent for the 1988 bombing of Pan
Herzegovina. An operative was
Am flight 103, killing 270, a develop-
arrested carrying documents that
ment that Allan Gerson, a lawyer for
proved Saudi funding of the Hamas
many P'n Am families, calls "a giant
terrorist group to enable it to pro-
step" toward making sponsors of ter-
duce a short-range missile called the
.