Rael Jean Isaac

On December 10, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League jointly sponsored a luncheon whose guest speaker was Sari Nusseibeh, the Arafat-appointed head of Al Quds University and a prominent defamer of Israel.

They did this despite the pleas of Yitzhak and Rivka Markus, who had sent a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council describing how Nusseibah on June 29, 2002 had appeared on Al Jazeera with the mother of the suicide bomber who had murdered their son Asher and four of his friends, students at Atzmonah Yeshivah. On the program Nusseibeh had said: "What comes to mind when I hear my sister Uhm Nidal speak is the verse in the Koran which proclaims that 'The Garden of Eden has been designed for these mothers.' All the more honor goes to every Palestinian mother, to every fighter and to all those women who fight for the Palestinian Jihad in our land." They conclude their letter: "I don't understand how our Jewish brothers and our Jewish sisters in Boston can honor a person who endorses and praises those who murder our children."

Disgracefully, the Jewish organizations went right ahead, with one of the organizers dismissing what the Marcuses wrote concerning Nusseibeh’s statements on Al Jazeera as "disinformation." Apparently she was content with Nusseibeh's assurances and did not want to be bothered with the awkward reality that the Al Jazeera broadcast had been documented in transcripts and translated from the Arabic.

Here are some additional facts about Nusseibeh which mainstream Jewish organizations would prefer not to hear. The following comes from an article in the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot on August 20, 2002 by Yoram Ettinger (formerly Israeli consul in Texas).

"In a January 21, 2001 letter to Saddam Hussein, Nusseibeh wrote: 'In the name of Al-Quds University...allow me to express the admiration of the Palestinians for your honorable position...You represent the vanguard of steadfastness...We, in Jerusalem, are inspired by you...We are proud to belong to a nation which considers you a symbol of resistance and a symbol of its greatness....

"Ten years earlier, during the 1991 Gulf War, Nusseibeh was arrested by Israel's police for collaborating with Saddam in an attempt to improve the accuracy of Saddam's Scud missiles fired at Israel. Acccording to the February 8, 1991 issue of the Ha'aretz (dovish) daily, Yossi Sarid, a leader of Israel's Left, told supporters that he would not attend any rally on behalf of Nusseibeh, 'since the arrest was not politically motivated.'

"Roni Milo, another dovish politican, then the Minister of Police, stated on February 7, 1991 (Ha'aretz) that 'Nusseibeh performed severe acts of treachery and collaboration with the enemy.' Judge Vardi Zeiler, President of the Jerusalem County Court, confirmed (Ha'aretz, February 4, 1991) that 'Nusseibeh's arrest was on national and personal security grounds.' On January 31, 1991 Ha'aretz reported that Nusseibeh transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to Palestinian terrorist cells during the Gulf War.

"It was Arafat who appointed Nusseibeh to the post of Presidency of Al Quds University in Jerusalem....An August 2001 document submitted to Arafat by Nusseibeh confirms that Al-Quds University has become -- under the leadership of Sari Nusseibeh--the Jerusalem headquarters for the PLO/Palestinian Authority, preoccupying itself with the organization of anti-Israel rallies, anti-Israel propaganda, illegal construction in order to 'stop the Judaization of Jerusalem,' support of families of Palestinian terrorists, the repartitioning of Jerusalem and other illegal activities."

Also writing in Yediot Achronot in 2002, then cabinet secretary Gideon Saar noted that Nusseibeh, again on Al Jazeera, this time appearing with Majd A-Zir from the Palestinian Return Organization said of the "right to return" (code name for Israel's destruction): "There is no argument or disagreement between brother Majd and myself, and the PLO leadership holds fast by all decisions on this issue."

Saar observes that Nusseibeh, who had been appointed by Arafat to "the Jerusalem portfolio" after the death of Faisal Husseini filled the shoes of his predecessor in more ways than one. "In one of his last interviews, to the Egyptian weekly Al Arabi, Husseini likened the Oslo agreement to a 'Trojan Horse' that the PLO infiltrated into the Land of Israel and the current intifada to the 'pouring out from the belly of the horse’....Nusseibeh, exactly like Husseini is among the most prominent standard-bearers of the PLO's 'stages doctrine.' He is now the Trojan Horse that the PLO is cleverly attempting to infiltrate into the heart of Israel's capital. Are there still Israelis who want to open the walls of Jerusalem to him?"

Alas, the answer is yes. And there are Jewish organizations eager to place this Trojan Horse into the center of the American Jewish community, willing dupes who arrogantly and blindly pander to Israel's enemies.