NCJ Number
193251
Journal
Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor Dated: February 2002 Pages: 12-15
Date Published
February 2002
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article examines Jewish fundamentalism and its effects on international relations.
Abstract
Two members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) were indicted in Los Angeles, CA, in January 2002 on charges related to a suspected plot to blow up a mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman. JDL has a long history of violence in both the United States and Israel. It and its offshoots have been influential in promoting religious extremism and violence in the occupied West Bank. Israel's criminal code includes the offense of racial incitement, punishable by imprisonment for 5 years. Critics in Israel are concerned about the fact that laws against racist incitement seem to be applied only to Arabs, and not to Jews. In addition, as the Israeli writer Amos Oz notes: "The real battle in the Middle East is no longer between Arabs and Jews, but between fanatics of both faiths and the rest of the people in the Middle East who want to find some reasonable compromise." Finally, the article claims there is too little understanding of the nature of the Jewish religious extremism which continues to be so much a part of Israel's political life and, increasingly, of Jewish life in other countries.