Newswires were all aflutter with the news that the US head of Islamic Jihad, Sami al—Arian, just accepted a plea deal from the US government to be deported. Some commentators were crowing that this proved al—Arian's guilt, because in order to get the deal al—Arian had to admit to funding and working with a terrorist organization.

The simple fact is the FBI was wiretapping and following up on al—Arian since 1991. If anyone wants to see how slow the FBI is in dealing with terrorist supporters and enablers within our shores during the War on Terror, the al—Arian case is the best example. It took nearly fifteen years to bring him to justice and he literally almost 'got away with it.' Point of fact, al—Arian did actually do just that.

Few Americans know that al—Arian was responsible for direct funding of terrorist attacks in Israel that not only killed Israelis but American citizens as well. Even fewer know that al—Arian really won so far in this battle with the US government; once he is safely deported to Syria, the same as another Islamic Jihad colleague of his Ramadan Shallah, who formerly ran WISE, the World Islamic Studies Institute, al—Arian too can be a hero to the Palestinian revolution of destroying Israel. Safely ensconced in Syria, he can continue to raise funding and lead more 'operations' to murder men, women and children in Israel.

So how should the US government make the punishment fit the crime? Simple. Deport al—Arian to Israel and let him stand trial over there.

Think about it: Israel has no death penalty so nobody can claim he is being sent as a marked man. And the Israelis will no doubt release him one day with thousands of other terrorists as a 'good will gesture' to get some Israeli captive's dead body back from the terrorists anyway. Meanwhile, maybe for once a cold—blooded murderer will be off the streets and a couple of democratic states can for once show the fascists that the reward for terrorism is not a hero's welcome back in the Arab homeland.

But in the meantime, for once, the rule of law will actually prevail in the War On Terror.

Al—Arian could be prosecuted for the more than one hundred lives he helped snuff out for Islamic Jihad with his fundraising and logistical aid to terrorists. Finally, this murderer would be off the streets and in a jail cell for life where he belongs.  He'll no doubt have the free counsel of some Israeli lawyer from Israel's communist party to even represent him, so we needn't worry to much about him..

Of course, our State Department might object to offending 'Arab sensibilities.' After all, our concern for those sensibilities has certainly paid off: The Arab street hates us anyway because in a Middle East culture where only might make right, America has no self—respect and America will even release a murderer to a community that will praise his activities as heroic attacks against the 'Zionist enemy.'

Al—Arian once said, 'Damn America to hell.' There's no reason why we have to do it for him. Ship the felon to Israel.

Lee Kaplan    4 19 06