Levitt Letter Extra News

By Hillel Fendel, www.IsraelNN.com

At a suddenly-called press conference, the Prime Minister announced he will not participate in his party’s primaries. He said he would resign when a new party leader is chosen, “in order to enable the new leader to form a new government.”

Kadima’s primaries are to be held on September 17.

Olmert began his speech, timed to coincide with the national televised evening news broadcasts, by boasting of his administration’s economic successes, such as low unemployment. He added, however, that he believes that peace with the Arabs is the most important mission he faces.

“I have never tried to boast of my achievements for political purposes,” Olmert said. “I have always had to defend myself from attacks… I am the Prime Minister, and am therefore an address for political attacks, but everyone knows that it has gone out of control. Have I made mistakes? Certainly I have, and I regret them. But I deserve to be treated as innocent until proven guilty - yet this has not happened. I am proud to live in a state where even a Prime Minister can be investigated; the police must investigate, and the Prosecution must do its job as well. The Prime Minister is not above the law - but he is in no way below it. It cannot be that minor clerks determine whether a Prime Minister continues in office. Unfortunately, this is not what is happening…”

Towards the end of his talk, Olmert said, “The campaign of mudslinging being waged these days against me raises a question that I cannot and do not want to avoid: What is more important - personal justice for me, or the interests of the State?” He answered categorically that the latter take precedence, and therefore: “I have decided not to take part in the Kadima primaries, nor will I intervene in them. When a new party leader is chosen, I will resign in order to enable him/her to form a new government.”

“We have a wonderful state,” Olmert concluded, “which I love with all my being. I thank you for the opportunity you have given me to act on your behalf.”

Unsurprisingly, Olmert did not entertain reporters’ questions, and quickly left the room.

The media event was announced only two and a quarter hours before its scheduled starting time, and was held in Olmert’s official residence in Jerusalem. No further details were provided, and even some of the Prime Minister’s close aides said beforehand that they did not know what Olmert planned to say.

More Excerpts
Olmert summed up his term in office while decrying the “constant attacks” he has suffered from “self-appointed warriors for justice… I will not interfere in the internal elections. I will accept their results and give them my blessings.

“As a citizen of a democratic state I always believed that once a Prime Minister is elected in Israel, even those who voted against him in the ballot box must wish for him to succeed,” Olmert said. “However, almost from my first day in the Prime Minister’s Office, I have had to fight off wicked attacks even as I dealt with matters vital for the state’s security.”

“I have decided not to run in the primaries, and I will not interfere in the internal elections. I will accept their results and give them my blessings,” he said.

Speculation: Rife
Speculation had been rife that Olmert would in fact announce that he would not run in the upcoming Kadima party primaries. However, it had also been rumored that Olmert planned to step down from office, either by resigning, suspending himself, or possibly by announcing an indefinite vacation. Olmert’s close friend Vice Premier Chaim Ramon had intimated that the last option was the most likely, according to the NFC Hebrew news site.

Four Police Probes
Olmert is currently under four different police investigations: The Talansky cash envelopes, the Cremeiux St. house, the double-billing for his trip abroad, and his alleged intervention in an Investment Center decision on behalf of a close friend.

The police have asked that Olmert dedicate two or mour hours each week to these investigations. The Prime Minister has not yet responded to the request.

The political situation in light of the suspicions against Olmert is complex. Under pressure from the Labor Party to quit in light of the revelations that he had received cash-filled envelopes from New York philanthropist Moshe Talansky, Olmert agreed several weeks ago to hold primaries in his Kadima party in September - a far cry from the immediate resignation Labor appeared to be demanding.

Ironically, and in total defeat of Labor’s intentions, Olmert never said - until now - that he would not take part in the primaries.

Livni or Mofaz
The current front-runners for Kadima party leader are Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Sha’ul Mofaz. The primaries winner will then be granted a chance to form Israel’s next government. If he or she does not succeed within 42 days, elections must be held 90 days later - somewhere around the end of January. Olmert will remain the Prime Minister in the duration.

It is known that Olmert favors Mofaz, and had looked into the possibility of installing Mofaz as Acting Prime Minister in place of Livni. This would have paved the way for Olmert to resign and Mofaz to assume the premiership, if only on a temporary basis, even before the primaries. However, such a move requires the approval of the Knesset, and was considered an unlikely scenario.

By Roy Eitan, www.jta.org

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The long-awaited resolution to the Lebanese hostage crisis has cast a pall over efforts to retrieve the Israeli soldier held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Gilad Shalit was abducted to Gaza shortly before Hezbollah snatched Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev to Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Unlike the two army reservists, who suffered fatal wounds during their abduction and were repatriated for burial last week, Shalit is known to be alive.

That, Israeli security sources say, has hindered Egyptian-mediated negotiations on Shalit’s return. Having freed jailed Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar and four captive Hezbollah gunmen in exchange for two Israeli corpses, Israel is likely to face troubles bargaining down Hamas when it comes to a living hostage.

Citing senior Palestinian sources, the Ha’aretz newspaper reported that “Hamas isn’t willing to be flexible about Shalit at this time due to the recent prisoner swap with Hezbollah.”

“Israel set a precedent with its release of Samir Kuntar, considered a ‘prisoner with blood on his hands,’ in return for two bodies,” Hamas supreme leader Khaled Meshaal said. “In our case we have a live prisoner, and we have no plans to retract our demands — quite the opposite.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has long balked at the asymmetry of the swap proposed by Hamas, which seeks the release of some 1,100 prisoners, at least a third of them serving life sentences for deadly attacks.

Olmert successfully held out against a similar opening demand by Hezbollah, which had wanted many Arab prisoners, as well as the five Lebanese, freed from Israeli jails as a condition for returning Goldwasser and Regev.
But as Shalit enters a third year of captivity in conditions that are widely believed to be primitive, Olmert faces mounting pressure even from within his own Cabinet to compromise on the ransom.

At least three ministers have publicly backed the idea of releasing at least some prisoners “with blood on their hands,” a reversal of long-standing Israeli doctrine. One Cabinet member, Ami Ayalon, warned that failing to retrieve Shalit could risk losing him forever.

In several media interviews Ayalon, a former navy admiral and Shin Bet chief, compared Shalit’s situation to that of Ron Arad, an Israeli airman who bailed out over Lebanon in 1986. For the first two years, Arad was held in Lebanon by various militias while Israel deliberated over if and how to bargain for his return. Then he disappeared — to Iran, Israel assumes — and the trail went cold.

Shalit’s family has argued that Hamas eventually could decide to smuggle Shalit out of Gaza through the Egyptian Sinai and on to Lebanon or Iran.

“The similarities between the cases of Shalit and of Arad are terrifying,” Ayalon said.

Olmert has given no indication of how he might now pursue the Shalit issue, though recently he offered public reassurance.

“I phoned the Shalit family and promised, in all of our names, that we will do everything to bring Gilad Shalit back home — alive, healthy, in one piece, and as quickly as possible,” he told his Cabinet in broadcast remarks.

“I don’t have to tell you that it’s not simple, it’s not easy. Just as we labored for two whole years, day in and day out, to bring back Udi and Eldad, may they rest in peace, we are doing the same thing for Gilad Shalit. We will not be still or silent until he comes back.”

Freeing Shalit would be an enormous morale booster for Israel after the dispiriting sight of Goldwasser and Regev returning in black coffins earlier this month. It also could distract from a corruption case dogging Olmert and free up Israel’s armed forces to invade Gaza should there be a major resumption of cross-border rocket fire.

Israeli officials have hinted that the military was being kept in check at least partly out of concern that Shalit could be executed as a reprisal.

But while Hamas in Gaza might suffer from losing its bargaining chip, in the West Bank it would reap major strategic rewards.

The release roster filed by Hamas includes scores of its senior West Bank terrorists, including the planners of suicide bombing campaigns. Returned home and free to operate, they could undermine Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has tried to build on his split with Hamas last year by reviving peace talks with Olmert and instituting a law-and-order drive in the West Bank.

“We are talking about creating a ‘general staff’ for Hamas in the West Bank,” said Amram Abramovitch, a senior commentator for Israel’s Channel 2 television. “That would basically eliminate Abu Mazen,” he said, using Abbas’ nickname.

Yediot Achronot reported that Olmert would convene his security chiefs to think of a new approach to the Shalit negotiations while dispatching envoy Ofer Dekel to Cairo with orders to appeal to the Egyptian regime to apply pressure on Hamas.

Various stopgap ideas include bringing in French or German mediators, or holding simultaneous shuttle talks between Israeli and Hamas delegates in Cairo along the model of the indirect Israeli-Syrian talks under way in Turkey.

But according to an unnamed senior Egyptian official quoted in Yediot, even the Egyptians are not hopeful of a breakthrough.

“After your prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, we have to let things calm down,” the official said.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —

A man wielding a shotgun entered a church and opened fire as congregants watched a youth performance Sunday, July 27 2008, killing two people and injuring eight others, police said. The gunman was tackled by church members and eventually taken into police custody. No children were injured. A hospital spokeswoman said five of the wounded were in critical condition.

A church member who arrived moments after the shooting said the gunman fired three times and was tackled. Officials wouldn’t say exactly how many people helped subdue the gunman. “It was a large group and we are thankful for them for without it, this situation could have been even worse,” Mayor Bill Haslam said.

Jeff Seif’s comment:
My heart and prayers go out to the victims and their families. I’m publishing this article to commemorate them and solicit prayers on their behalf, and to extol the virtues of those who bravely subdued the gunman. I have long advocated that the world would be a much safer place if men would stand up and act decisively and bravely in defense of life and property. “Bravo!” I say, and may we see more and more heroes like them here, in Israel, the Middle East, and elsewhere!

By Ryan Jones, www.IsraelToday.co.il

Palestinian officials from the Gaza Strip have distributed a set of carefully-staged photographs they say are evidence that the smuggling tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border are for milk and other essential goods, not weapons.

The photographs show masked Palestinian militants lifting jugs of milk and sacks of baby food from the entrance to one of the tunnels on the Gaza side of the border.

Israel insists that the tunnels, of which intelligence estimates indicate there are hundreds, are used to import small arms and advanced weapons like heavy mortar shells, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. The tunnels are also said to be the conduit via which the Palestinians receive the material used to build their Kassam rockets.

Hamas has acknowledged Israel’s position by insisting during ceasefire negotiations last month that it would not agree to halt smuggling efforts as part of the truce.

“We cannot talk about stopping smuggling because it is something beyond our ability as a government and we did not give a commitment in this regard,” Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told worshippers at a Gaza City mosque on June 25 as the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was being finalized.

Egypt, too, has never tried to claim the tunnels were for anything other than arms smuggling, and has even made a show of closing a handful of tunnels and confiscating the weapons found inside for public consumption.

Also backing up the Israeli assertion that the smuggling tunnels could only exist for nefarious purposes are weekly and sometimes daily summaries published by the Israeli government of the quantities of humanitarian aid entering the Hamas-controlled territory. The Palestinians, say Israel, have no need to smuggle essential goods into Gaza because there is no shortage.

Between 100 and 150 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Israel and international aid organizations enter Gaza on a daily basis. Out of that number, the 50 or so daily shipments that enter via Gaza’s central Sufa Crossing contain milk and baby food, according to the manifests.

The Palestinians, and in particular the Hamas regime in Gaza, have been accused of manufacturing a dire humanitarian crisis to elicit international criticism of Israel. So far it has worked, as mainstream international media outlets today routinely refer to the situation in Gaza as a disaster of epic proportions. Some have even gone so far as to parrot the Palestinian line that the situation in Gaza is a “holocaust.”

Hamas and its supporters were briefly called out on their lie when in April they claimed that a shortage of industrial fuel had shut down Gaza’s only electrical plant and plunged the area into darkness. Israeli officials immediately pointed out that Gaza receives the vast majority of its electricity from Israel.

Further betraying the Palestinian deception were a series of news photographs that showed Hamas leaders covering the windows of their offices with heavy curtains and lighting candles to give the impression of a blackout during press conferences.

Israel has imposed a limited embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza, but has repeatedly stressed that the sanctions only limit the import of non-essential goods and some building materials that had previously been used to manufacture rockets. Exports from Gaza have also been curtailed to combat the terrorists’ practice of hiding bombs in shipments of agricultural produce.

www.IsraelToday.co.il

Israel has already deployed several units of an advanced solid-based laser system with Israeli forces stationed near the Gaza Strip. The new laser is being used to detonate terrorist-planted bombs along the Gaza security fence without putting the lives of Israeli soldiers at risk.

The laser is an eventual complementary system to the “Iron Dome” anti-missile system, also being developed by defense contractor Rafael. Working in tandem, it is hoped that the laser and the Iron Dome will be able to protect communities in southern Israel from Palestinian rocket attacks.

www.israeltoday.co.il

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday (July 28) met with US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to urge the latter to keep all options for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, including the military option, on the table.

Barak said that Israel is in favor of first trying more stringent economic sanctions to convince Iran to halt its nuclear program, but stressed that the West’s position must be backed up by the threat of military force.

Barak’s visit follows last week’s trip to the Pentagon by Israeli army chief General Gabi Ashkenazi, who raised similar points to that of the defense minister when he met with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.

Israel has expressed a degree of concern over recent statements by both Gates and Mullen suggesting that the US is no longer considering a military option against Iran, and would not support an Israeli strike on the Islamic Republic.

By Dick Morris & Eileen Mc Gann, www.JewishWorldReview.com

The most important primary for our 2008 election may be yet to come: the Kadima Party primary in Israel in mid or late September. It pits liberal-leaning Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni against hardliner and former Army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz. (Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to sit out the contest and concentrate on staying out of jail.)

The polls are neck and neck; in the most recent, Livni’s once-formidable lead has shrunk to 2 points. Hanging over the battle is the Iranian nuclear program.

Livni is thought unlikely to attack Iran precipitously; she largely sees eye-to-eye with advocates of diplomatic solutions to the various problems her country faces. But Mofaz has openly said he’d resort to bombing Iran if it were necessary to stop the mullahs from getting the bomb.

So if Mofaz wins, military action becomes much more likely. But when?

By most accounts, the Israel Defense Forces would need considerable American cooperation to pull off such a strike. No top-level Israeli politician has much confidence that Barack Obama would be forthcoming. But most are confident that President Bush or John McCain would give Israel the help that it needs.

So if Obama wins here, a Mofaz government would feel great pressure to attack before Bush leaves office. If McCain wins, Israel would have more time.

But Mofaz might not want to wait for our election. Why risk antagonizing a President-elect Obama by taking military action that he might vigorously oppose? If Obama, having won, were to counsel patience, what Israeli prime minister could ignore him?

Before the US election, on the other hand, Obama might be reluctant to take a position ‘ and the Israelis need feel no compulsion to conform to any advice from a man who isn’t yet be president-elect.

Surely, an Israeli attack on Iran would bring a sharp and instant response from Iran and from its satellites, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as its pawns in Iraq. It would presage war in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank along with an air war of Israeli missiles and bombers against Iranian missiles.

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states would criticize Israel in public but probably breathe a sign of relief in private that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were thwarted or at least postponed.

The ensuing crisis would probably militate in McCain’s favor if it erupted before the US election. The more a foreign crisis intrudes on our politics, the more voters are apt to trust a seasoned hand like him and not to give an ingénue like Obama his shot.

Polls show that voters trust McCain much more than Obama to handle a foreign crisis. An unavoidable national-security threat would give McCain a huge boost. Just as in 2004, if the issue is terrorism or foreign crises, the Republican will prevail. If the issues are domestic policy, the Democrat will win.

Of course, Mofaz would need other parties to form a governing coalition. The dovish Labor Party might not lend itself to any aggressive purpose ‘ but a Mofaz determined to bring down Iran’s nuclear program might reach across to Likud and bring in hardline ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a war politically possible.

Israeli government endorses plan to install world’s first electric car network in country by 2011

Associated Press

Israel’s government endorsed the ambitious plan of a private entrepreneur to install the world’s first electric car network here by 2011, with half a million recharging stations to crisscross the tiny nation.

Supporters hailed the undertaking as a bold step in the battle against global warming and energy dependency, but skeptics warned that much could still go wrong along the way.

In a signing ceremony with the French Renault-Nissan Alliance carmaker - under the slogan “Transportation without fuel, making peace between transportation and the environment” - Israel’s leaders pledged to provide tax incentives to customers to make Israel’s cars fuel-free.

The project is a joint venture between Renault-Nissan, who will provide the electric vehicles, and the Silicon Valley-based startup Project Better Place, which will operate the recharge grid. The replacement and charging of the lithium-ion batteries is supposed to work like that of a cell phone battery.

“For the first time in history, all the conditions necessary for electric vehicles to be successfully mass-marketed will be brought together,” the two companies said in a statement.

‘Humankind addicted to oil’
The initiative is the brainchild of Shai Agassi, a 39-year-old Israeli-American entrepreneur and high-tech star, who raised $200 million in investment money to get the project off the ground. “Our planet’s battery got charged over hundreds of millions of years, and yet we have consumed half the world’s oil in one century. In the process, we got addicted to oil, polluted our cities and altered our planet’s climate,” Agassi said. “Finally, we are running out of out most precious commodity of all - we are running out of time.”

Less than a year ago, Agassi quit as a top executive at the German software giant SAP AG to pursue his green dreams. Along with his partner Idan Ofer, he founded Project Better Place, aimed at helping reduce greenhouse emissions by building a network of charging stations for electric cars across Israel.

Agassi’s spokesman said his home country of Israel was the ideal laboratory to market his vision - with its high fuel prices, dense population centers, and supportive government.

Peres: Oil the greatest danger
In Israel, 90 percent of car owners drive less than 43.5 miles per day and all major urban centers are less than 150 kilometers 93 miles apart, making the use of battery-operated cars more feasible than in countries with longer average commutes. Green cars are also particularly attractive to Israel, which hopes to weaken the political clout of its oil-rich enemies.

“Today is a new age with new dangers and the greatest danger is that of oil,” President Shimon Peres said. “It is the greatest polluter of our age and oil is the greatest financier of terror.”

Other automakers have produced plug-in hybrid prototypes, which switch from pure electric to gas engine to a blended gas electric mode. But the Renault model is the first mass-produced model designed to be completely fuel-free.

“Zero emission, zero noise,” Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said. “It will be the most environmentally friendly mass-produced car on the market.” Ghosn said the cars, with a range of up to 100 miles per charge, would have a top speed o f68 mph — the top speed limit in Israel. And Aggasi vowed that, in the long run, the electric car would be cheaper to operate than one based on fuel.

Israeli leaders said they hoped the country would prove to be a trailblazer in the field of alternative energy. “This initiative will revolutionize cars in Israel and throughout the world,” National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.

www.littlegreenfootballs.com

United Nations “peacekeepers” stand and salute the remains of Hezbollah terrorists on a truck decorated with a photograph of Imad Mughniyeh, mastermind of the Marine barracks bombing that killed hundreds of U.S. citizens.

By Joe Kaufman, www.FrontPageMagazine.com

Another ICNA-sponsored convention has passed, drawing thousands of attendees, each charged a significant amount of money to do so. But where do the funds raised at this and other ICNA functions go? Next month, an unenviable anniversary will take place, memorializing a time when, two years ago, ICNA was involved in the financing of a terrorist group overseas. Given the group’s close ties to those that delivered the blood money, it is no small chance that the funds raised at the convention will wind up in the same hands.

Hamas was placed on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), in January of 1995. According to the United States government, it is illegal to provide financial support to any group found on that list. Yet, information ascertained by this author suggests that one Muslim organization, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), has done this and has gotten away with it.

ICNA or the Organization of Islamic Workers was established in 1971 as the American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). As highlighted on the website of ICNA’s publication, The Message International, “Using the organizational development methodology of [JI founder] Maulana Mawdudi and the Jamaat Al-Islami of Pakistan, which lays special emphasis on spiritual development, ICNA has developed a strong foundation.”

Today, ICNA acts as an umbrella organization for South Asian-oriented mosques and Islamic centers throughout the United States and Canada. Nevertheless, the group’s relationship with JI still remains intact.

The domain registrant for ICNA’s National website, as well as the website of the organization’s dawaa (religious outreach) division, Why Islam (WI), is farrukh.net. Named for current ICNA National Director Raza Farrukh, farrukh.net was originally a mirror site for Jamaat-e-Islami’s media division.

Now, the media division has been merged onto JI’s official website. Through it, the group issues numerous press releases. In 2006, several of the releases dealt with Hamas.

On January 26, 2006, after Hamas won a landslide victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, JI issued a statement praising the group and its dead leaders. It read in part, “Jamaat-e-Islami ameer [President] Qazi Hussain Ahmad has termed the election victory of Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Palestine a major development for the Palestinian and resistance movement. [Via phone with the head of Hamas Khaled Mashaal], Ahmad paid rich tributes to the sacrifices of Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Rintisi and other Palestinian martyrs which paved the way for today success.”

The following day, JI issued another press release lauding Hamas’s victory. It stated, “Thanksgiving prayers were offered throughout the country to express happiness over the victory of Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Palestinian parliamentary elections. The JI leaders and workers after offering Friday prayers distributed sweets among people and chanted slogans in favour of Islamic resistance movements throughout the world.”

On March 26, 2006, JI published a release blamelessly quoting Hamas leader Mohammad Mehmood Al Siyam verbally attacking Jews. The quotes included “Hamas cannot think of abandoning jihad against the Jewish occupation forces.” and “We will never let the Jews rule Palestinian territories.”

On April 18, 2006, JI announced that it was planning to finance Hamas and that JI’s President, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, was going to make a “formal appeal” to the nation of Pakistan to do the same. At the time, JI was aware that its actions flew in the face of the international community which had leveled economic sanctions on Hamas.

On April 28, 2006, JI published a release saying that it had set up a fund for Hamas and placed an initial amount of 10 million rupees, the equivalent of $165,000 U.S., in it. It read, “[JI President Qazi Hussain Ahmad] said US and Israel have joined hands to crush Islam and Muslims, and it was the duty of the Muslim world to fully back Hamas in order to make its first elected government survive the western economic onslaught.”

Then, four months later, in August of 2006, JI issued a statement saying that it had sent a delegation to Damascus, Syria to personally deliver a check for six million rupees ($99,000) to the head of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal. Mashaal thanked the group for the money and assured it that Hamas would continue to wage violent jihad against Israelis.

The gift to Mashaal was made through JI’s “charitable” wing, the Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF), which is located in Lahore, Pakistan. At the time of the money handover, as is the case today, ICNA was listed on AKF’s website as the organization’s top two donors, under the names ICNA-Relief USA and ICNA-Relief Canada.

Just as AKF is the “charitable” function of JI, ICNA-Relief is ICNA’s “charity.” The group also has a sister “charity” called Helping Hand, which has an office located in Islamabad, Pakistan. [Helping Hand is listed as an AKF donor, as well.]

Zahid Hussain Bukhari is the Chairman of ICNA-Relief. He has served in that capacity, since 1996. As such, Bukhari had headed the group, when the $99,000 was given over to Hamas. Prior to his tenure as ICNA-Relief Chairman, from 1990 – 1995, he was the Secretary General of ICNA. It is interesting to note that all information concerning Bukhari’s roles in ICNA has been omitted from his Georgetown University bio, where he acts as Director of the school’s American Muslim Studies Program (AMSP).

This month, Bukhari was a participant at the 33rd ICNA-MAS Convention, titled ‘Islam: Key to Peace and Happiness.’ He was a speaker for four of the gathering’s events. Two of the events joined him with then-Chairman of the Hamas-related Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Parvez Ahmed.

Functions, such as these, attract thousands of members of the American Muslim community, raising large sums of cash. But where does the money go? Just two short years ago, at least some of it went to Hamas.

In January of 2004, ICNA was named in a U.S. Senate terror financing investigation, headed by then-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Charles Grassley. In the end, ICNA got off ‘scott free.’

In February of 2006, the U.S. government shut down the Islamic “charity,” KindHearts, for the raising of millions of dollars for Hamas. At the time, then-President of ICNA, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, was the South Asian Director for the group. It took four years for the government to take action against KindHearts. How many years will the government take to move against ICNA, and how many deaths will Hamas be responsible for in the interval?

Will the government continue to ignore the facts about ICNA, or will it do the right thing and freeze ICNA’s funds for its role in the financing of Hamas?