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July 30, 2004/Av 5 5764, Vol. 56, No. 45
Commission says Al-Qaida targeted Israel
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Long before the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Qaida was planning terrorist attacks against Israeli and American Jewish sites.
That, at least, is one con-clusion of the 9/11 Commission Report, which was released July 22.
The report shows that American intelligence agen-cies received signals that Al-Qaida was looking to attack Israel or U.S. Jewish sites in the months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
It also shows that several of the hijackers, as well as Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, were motivated in part by hatred of Israel and anger over the support it receives from the United States.
While much of the information already had been released through public testimony and media stories, the report emphasizes the ties between the terrorist attacks in the United States and U.S. policy in the Middle East.
It also paints a chilling portrait of what might have been, by detailing Al-Qaida proposals to attack Israeli and U.S. Jewish sites that the group either rejected or postponed.
The report shows that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, was motivated by his "violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel," according to his own admission after being captured in March 2003.
Mohammed was interested in attacking Jewish sites in New York City, and sent an Al-Qaida operative to New York early in 2001 to scout possible locations.
He also brought a plan to bin Laden to attack the Israeli city of Eilat by recruiting a Saudi air force pilot who would commandeer a Saudi jet.
Bin Laden supported the proposals, but they were put on hold while the group concentrated on the Sept. 11 plan.
American intelligence offi-cials believed throughout the spring and summer of 2001 that Abu Zubay-dah, a Palestinian member of Al-Qaida, planned to attack Israel.
The terrorist leaders also con-sidered playing off developments in the Middle East. Mohammed told investigators that bin Laden had wanted to expedite attacks after Ariel Sharon, then leader of Israel's opposition, visited Jerusalem's Temple Mount in September 2000, and later when Sharon, who by then had become Israel's prime minister, met with President Bush at the White House.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said the report doesn't provide information that is new to Israeli intelli-gence officials.
"There's very good intelli-gence cooperation between the two countries," Regev said, not- ing that counter-terrorism comm-unication is parti-cularly good.
He said that while Israel is used to facing terrorism, it has been spared the type of "mega-terrorist attack" the United States suffered on Sept. 11.
The report is being viewed in the American Jewish community as con-firmation of what they've been hearing privately for years.
"We didn't need this report to tell us that Jews were and are a target," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "Throughout the years there were evidence and alerts and knowledge of specific times and threats."
The report comes as some Jewish leaders are working to secure federal dollars to make security improvements for Jewish sites. Charles Konigs-berg, the United Jewish Communities' vice president for public policy, said the report will "absolutely help us to make the case" for federal funding.
Other Jewish groups and some lawmakers fear that giving federal aid to houses of worship at risk of terror attacks would violate the separation of church and state.
The report reaffirms what many who follow the issue have believed, that anti-Semitic views were a key motivation for the Sept. 11 plotters.
JTA intern Alana B. Elias Kornfeld contributed to this report from New York.
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