March 1995, pgs. 17, 99

In February 1994, following the Hebron massacre of 29 Palestinians by an American-born Jewish settler supported in his West Bank activities by tax-deductible private U.S. contributions, the Clinton administration set up an inter-agency committee to study ways to stop the flow of tax-exempt donations to violence-prone "charitable" institutions abroad. The idea was to cut off funds to Israeli settlers responsible for initiating the provocations and violence that had become the major obstacle to Middle East peace.     [to top of page}

After almost a year of secret deliberations, the committee has attacked on a broad front, but its efforts seem aimed more at Hamas-oriented Palestinian fund-raising than at the many Jewish groups tied to violence in the U.S. and abroad. The U.S. will use the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act not only to seize assets and shut down fund-raising by organizations identified with international criminals, but also persons and organizations charged as, but not necessarily judged to be, terrorists. In fact, some new legislation will be necessary and it is expected that committee proposals to ease the rules for domestic wiretapping will be challenged in the courts.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher surfaced the new program in a speech at the Kennedy School at Harvard University on Jan. 21. Although the original intent was to shut down the flow of American funds to Jewish organizations supporting violence by Israeli West Bank settlers (and not a little violence in the U.S., including murders and attempted murders of Arab-Americans and of foreign diplomats), there was not a word about Jewish terrorism either in the speech or in the briefings and leaks to the press about the contents of the new programs.

Hamas and the Russian Mafia in American Focus

Quite the opposite. Martin Sief, an Israeli-born State Department correspondent for The Washington Times, confirmed in the most complete description of the program that for the most part it was aimed at two sets of "criminals," Hamas and the Russian emigré mafia. It will seek to prevent money collected in mosques in the U.S. from funding violent activities against the Israelis, and prevent the laundering of money by Russian mafia organizations. Most of the latter have become deeply entrenched in the large communities of Jewish emigrés from the former Soviet Union that have burgeoned in the United States in recent years.

Palestinian Immigration Flow to be More Difficult

Such attacks on Hamas and its offshoots and their contribution systems (and presumably any possible Hezbollah contributions from the Lebanese American Shi'i community), may well attract opposition from civil rights and church groups concerned with religious rights. The federal program also aims at cutting back sharply on immigration by Palestinians, slowing the numbers of those allowed to seek U.S. citizenship from the Arab world, while Jewish immigration from Russia, Israel and other countries would remain almost unimpeded.

It is ironic that a policy decision has been made to target the Palestinians.

White House briefings on the new program indicate that, while it is a general executive order not aimed specifically at Palestinians, the list of "criminal" or "international terror" organizations includes over a dozen Arab (mostly Palestinian) organizations or individuals, all based abroad, and only two or three Jewish organizations. Donations to any of them by American organizations, even for charitable institutions run by them in the camps of Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, might make the American individuals or institutional donors subject to RICO prosecution, including seizure of all assets.

Using a law aimed initially at common criminals and particularly drug and crime syndicate laundering of money before transmitting it abroad, in order to halt transfers to the listed organizations of tax-deductible funds collected in mosques, synagogues or tax-exempt Muslim or Jewish organizations will raise questions of interference in religious institutions. Lawyers will have a field day, according to civil rights groups.

Hamas Claims All American Funds Used for Charity

Hamas has claimed that all of its fund-raising is used for charitable purposes. Whether or not that is true, identical claims have been made for decades by Jewish-Israeli organizations (about a thousand of them exist). However, the uses to which some of them have put their money may well include funding the violence of the Jewish Defense League, and the violence of individuals identified with the JDL and hidden by Israeli settlers in the West Bank for years to prevent their extradition to the United States to stand trial for murders committed here.

Finally, the administration will ask a presumably willing Congress to change U.S. immigration laws to permit barring even "suspected" criminals from receiving visas to visit or immigrate to the United States. Wiretapping, presumably in the U.S., of suspected criminals also would be broadly expanded.

While all of this may be understandable, given the present determination to eradicate any private U.S. support for international terrorism, it is ironic that a policy decision has been made to target the Palestinians, the ethnic group that suffered most from the Hebron massacre which triggered the task force in the first place.

Off the record, officials are confirming that among their first priorities will be Hamas and its collections in mosques around the country. This could trigger an Arab witch hunt in the guise of rooting out international crime.

Asked about shutting down some of the more violent tax-exempt Jewish organizations, Abraham Foxman of B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was quoted in the Queens (NY) Jewish Week as warning against disturbing or challenging any Jewish tax-deductible organizations -- even Kahane Chai, Kach and other Jewish groups with a record of violence. Foxman said such closures would reflect unfavorably on legitimate Jewish organizations which had taken a long time to set up and get IRS clearance to pass funds to Israel. In the end, however, the administration has included the names of both Kahane offshoot organizations in its list of targets.

As Congress adopts legislation based upon the administration recommendations, it is likely to be so prejudiced against Arabs in general, and Palestinians in particular, that it will reach out too harshly against the Palestinian community without distinguishing between collecting money which is to be diverted for "terror" or arms and collecting money for quite legitimate hospitals and the support of religious and educational institutions on the West Bank and Gaza. FBI surveillance of Hamas may quickly spill over into surveillance of Palestinian Americans without cause.

The violence-prone Jewish settlers will probably continue to receive funds.

Meanwhile, the source of most of the tension in the Holy Land, the violence-prone Jewish settlers, will probably continue to receive funds to expand their settlements on illegally expropriated West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem lands with portions of the estimated $750 million in tax-deductible contributions transferred by American Jewish organizations and individuals to Israel each year, most of it for quite legitimate purposes within Israel itself.

The settlers need no money for defensive guns since they are supplied with all they need at no cost by the Israeli army. Therefore, the money that reaches them from the U.S. supports their presence and their provocations on the West Bank. These settler activities are undercutting the peace process more than any Hamas activity could ever hope to do.

Eugene Bird, a retired foreign service officer, is president of the Council for the National Interest in Washington, DC and diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Report.

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