Palestinian suicide bombers aren't enemies of the US

Submitted by Pseudoerasmus (United States), Jun 11, 2002 at 17:47

...Pipes's analogy between a hypothetical Nazi front organisation and the Holy Land Foundation is flawed and tendentious. Nazi Germany was a declared enemy of the United States. Any organisation which raised money for it was guilty of treason; and any student group which praised that organisation was being at least unpatriotic.

However, the Holy Land Foundation raised money for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers who -- regardless of whether one considers them terrorists or resistance fighters -- are not avowed enemies of the United States. Palestinians have never been implicated in anti-American terrorism. They are avowed enemies of Israel.

Therefore, Zayed Yasin was not being unpatriotic or unAmerican. On the contrary, what he was doing was little different from what millions of Irish-Americans have done in the past 25 years: put in a few good words for the Irish republican fight against Britain and maybe slip a few dollars for the IRA at Irish-American pubs. This kind of politics -- taking sides in ethnic conflicts far away from home -- is an American tradition...

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