Anti Fascism

Jewish Defence League Mosque Bomb Plotter Jailed

Earl Krugel, a member of the banned terrorist group, the Jewish Defence League, has been sentenced to 20 years for his part in a bomb plot which intended to target a Los Angeles mosque and a US Congressman of Lebanese Christian descent.

Brett at Lock and Load catalogues some of the things which have not been said about Earl Krugel:

‘We cannot say we pat these misguided boys on the back but we do want to listen to them. They have gone astray so we want to treat them in a way that will set them straight… we want to treat them the way clerics treat their students, the way fathers treat their sons.’

The evidence which convicted Krugel has not been characterised in this manner:

“We are in the 21st Century. The cows can be made to look as dancing, the horses can speak like humans, so these things can be doctored or can be produced.”

Progressive politicians and journalists did not write soul searching articles seeking to explain the link between the terrorist plot, and the effect on jews of racism or of seeing their “brothers” being targeted by suicide bombers.

The Guardian did not publish an article seeking to contextualise Krugel’s actions, supposedly from a Jewish perspective, which argued that “the young get angry with that breed of Jewish “community leader” who remains silent while anger is seething on the streets… The don’t-rock-the-boat attitude of elders doesn’t mean the agitation wanes; it means it builds till it can be contained no more.“.

Instead of all that, the immediate response by the Anti Defamation League – the prominent Jewish anti-hate speech campaigning organisation – to the arrest was as follows:

If the current allegations about the JDL are true, the [Anti Defamation League] abhors and condemns this potential terrorist plot to attack members of the Los Angeles community. This incident is one more example of how organizations expressing hatred often turn to violence. We praise the diligent work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that led to the arrest. We have full confidence that this case will be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.

That, as Brett correctly observes, is the proper response to terrorism.