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Arthur M. Horwitz
Publisher / Executive Editor
ahorwitz@renmedia.us
A New Type Of Palestinian Terrorist
E Kevin Browett
Chief Operating Officer
kbrowett@renmedia.us
Editorial
Managing Editor: Jackie Headapohl
T
errorists who get caught before
promise of international aid to the
they strike don't usually attract
Palestinians is the notion that poverty
much attention. But the arrest of
breeds terrorism. That's been the main
rationale for the more than $11 billion
Mrs. Ayman Kanjou deserves extra atten-
tion because she defies every stereotype we the United States alone has given the
have ever been taught about Palestinian
Palestinian Authority since 1994. Mrs.
terrorists.
Kanjou, who is married to a local imam
Men are presumed the most
(Muslim religious leader), had
$11,000 in cash with her on her
likely to become terrorists since
in Muslim society they are the
way to join Islamic State. It doesn't
ones who enjoy various free-
sound to me like a case of poverty
doms, while women are sheltered
causing terrorism.
and carefully watched by their
At the very least, one expects a
husbands or fathers. They didn't
terrorist to be alienated from his
stop Mrs. Kanjou.
family, a rootless malcontent in
Young unmarried men are
search of belonging. Not in Mrs.
Stephen M.
the ones whom we expect to get
Kanjou's case. She has no criminal
Flatow
caught up in radicalism, since
record. In fact, her father, age 74,
JNS.org
they have the least to lose. A
actually accompanied her on the
trip.
middle-aged woman with small
children has a lot to lose. Yet there was
Mrs. Kanjou's relatives are telling the
Mrs. Kanjou, age 44, mother of five small
news media that she was "framed:' Not
likely. Israeli intelligence intercepted her
children, crossing through Turkey last
month on her way to join Islamic State ter- many communications via Facebook
rorists in Syria.
with Islamic State recruiter AbAli
According to the stereotype, Palestinian
Asami. According to the indictment, she
terrorists are uneducated drifters. Not
"expressed to him her desire to live in
so Mrs. Kanjou; she comes from a
Syria within the organization, and asked
for his help:'
respected" family, said Israeli prosecutor
Shunit Nimtzan. She is a college graduate
She says she could "teach religion and
(Al-Azhar University in Cairo), which can- teach activists and fighters the Sharia
not be said about many Muslim women.
to raise the spirits and increase their
And not just a B.A. — she has a Ph.D.!
motivation to fight on behalf of the orga-
Certainly, a Palestinian terrorist is
nization:' She even stated that it she was
expected to be impoverished. The whole
prepared to do anything the organization
"
asked of her.
At the very least, according to the stan-
dard profile, a Palestinian terrorist can be
expected to have been raised in of those
"extreme" Palestinian cities, where radi-
calism is common. Not in this case. Mrs.
Kanjou is an Israeli Arab. She comes from
Shfaram, near Haifa. She was presumed
to be loyal to Israel.
Mrs. Kanjou is not alone. Officials of
the Shin Bet (Israel's security agency)
were this week quoted as saying that
more than 40 Israel Arabs have joined
Islamic State since 2013. Just last month,
two Arabs from Jerusalem were caught
on their way to reach Islamic State.
If a woman with small children and
the highest level of education, who grew
up in an Israel environment with all the
benefits and privileges of Israeli citizen-
ship — if such a woman can turn around
and try to join Islamic State, what does
that tell us?
It tells us that our previous assump-
tions have to be discarded. That edu-
cation and a livelihood and material
progress are not enough. That territories
and settlements are not the real issues.
Radical jihadist Islam is alive and well
and growing — even among those whom
we always suspected least. *
jheadapohl@renmedia.us
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Greenwald, Ronelle Grier: ronelleg@aol.com ,
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Barbara Lewis, Rabbi Jaso Miller, Alan Muskovitz,
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Opponents Of Iran Deal Faced A Futile Battle
Dr. Conrad Giles' hope that the debate
over the merits of the Iran nuclear agree-
ment will not continue to divide the
American Jewish community ("Two Jews
And Three Opinions:' Sept. 24, page
53), is shared by all of us. However, we
must not forget that the opponents of the
agreement led many into believing that it
was possible to get Congress to reject it.
That was simply not the case. The reasons
follow.
The agreement was approved in
Vienna on July 14. This was the day Iran,
on the one hand, and China, France,
Germany, the Russian Federation, the
United Kingdom and the United States,
on the other hand, came to an under-
standing regarding restrictions on Iran's
future nuclear initiatives. The president
approved the United States entering into
the agreement.
On July 19, the State Department
transmitted the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (the formal name of the
Agreement) to Congress. Under the
Nuclear Review Act of 2015, which the
president signed in April, a 60-day review
period began the next day. The act gave
Congress 60 days in which to accept
or reject the agreement. A rejection by
Congress was subject to the president's
veto. The veto could be overridden
by a two-thirds vote of the House of
Representatives and a two-thirds vote of
the Senate.
Two points are important to the above:
First, the Nuclear Review Act was
clearly a political compromise. The
president agreed to give Congress a role
mainly to placate political opposition to
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the pending negotiations with Iran.
Second, it was crystal clear that if
Congress disapproved the agreement,
the president would exercise his veto
power, and there was almost no chance a
two-thirds vote could be obtained in the
Senate to override a veto.
In sum, once the United States signed
onto the agreement, further opposition to
the agreement really stood no chance of
succeeding.
We learned in high school civics that
the president, not Congress, determines
our foreign policy. Opposition to the
agreement before July 14 was legitimate
lobbying; after July 14, continued opposi-
tion to the agreement in its best light was
politically naive.
Avern Cohn
Detroit
continued on page 8
6 October 8 • 2015
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