Posted by David Meir-Levi Bio ↓ on Apr 2nd, 2012
Judging from the progress that anti-Israel “Lawfare” and pro-Shari’a movements have made in advancing the “Palestinian Cause” and Shari’a compliant programs in a distressingly vast array of our society’s institutions over the past decade, one must conclude that the Muslim jihadist forces working to infiltrate our society are winning.
The most obvious peril arises from terrorist infiltration. Terrorists identified as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian agents continue to enter our country via Mexico as illegal immigrants. Yet, almost a decade ago the present writer and others published analyses of the danger posed to our country’s security by such infiltration. If these agents were not bent on doing us harm, they could easily enter our country via normal ports of entry. The fact that they disguise themselves as Mexicans and try to sneak past our border guards is a very good indication that they are here on jihadist missions and know that if they were to try to enter the USA via normal channels, they would be identified as wanted terrorists. Once in the USA, they easily disappear into the American Muslim community, undocumented, untraceable, invisible and unstoppable.
The problem on our southern border has grown only worse since then, with continued jihadist entry via Mexico and the new alliance between Iran and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. The Iran-Venezuela connection and Iran’s quest for deployable WMDs create the threat of a nuclear armed Venezuela under Iranian influence holding the USA hostage with nuclear-armed missiles having in their cross-hairs all of the southern USA from San Diego to Sarasota.
Expert witnesses reporting to congress have indicated that Iran has active agents, both Hezbollah and Iranian government operatives, in the USA: sleeper cells awaiting orders while conducting surveillance in preparation for future attacks. While some pundits are convinced that Iran does not plan to attack the USA on its home front, the operative word that they ignore is “yet.” Iran has successfully laid the groundwork for future terrorism inside the USA with Hezbollah and other Iranian terrorist agents primed, ready and invisible.
Less obvious, but no less perilous, is the quiet, gradual and peaceful infiltration of Muslim operatives and their supporters into our social, legal, educational and political systems under the guise of legitimate democratic activism in the form of the Divestment movement, the BDS movement, the “One-State Solution” proponents, lawyers implementing “Lawfare,” those who seek to legitimize Sharia law, and a host of socio-political organizations including “Jewish Voice for Peace” and other “Peace and Justice for Palestine” groups.
The Divestment movement, which sought to pressure institutions (mostly churches and universities) to divest their retirement funds from companies doing business with or in Israel, began more than twenty years ago and soon became a nation-wide phenomenon gaining support and followers in churches, on campuses, and in a variety of other institutions holding substantial retirement funds. While few assets were actually divested, the real purpose of the movement was achieved: create a new podium from which to demonize Israel and by means of which to grab public attention and mainstream media coverage. Over time interest in divestment waned, and presenters found themselves preaching to the choir. So the movement morphed into” BDS,” boycotts, divestment, sanctions. By including calls for boycott and sanctions, the proponents of this movement created a wider panoply of audiences, since boycotts and sanctions do not need investment funds that can be divested. And as was the case with the divestment movement, the BDS movement cut a swath through college campuses enjoying large audiences on accommodating campuses with little opposition. Later, as audience interest diminished and presenters found themselves again preaching to the choir, the forces waging the campus war against Israel re-organized to create the newest front, the “One-State Solution” movement. Starting at the top, “One-State Solution” conferences were recently held at the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard University, schools of international repute whose status lent credence and legitimacy to this new venue for Israel-bashing. None of this could have happened were there not already on campuses a cadre of willing enablers, student and faculty activists and complicit or complacent administrative leadership, who energetically support these anti-Israel and anti-Jewish efforts.
The advance of Shari’a law displays a similar trajectory. From modest beginnings in the USA and Canada as local Muslims petitioned to have family disputes adjudicated by a Muslim religious court, Shari’a law and Shari’a finance have now become institutionalized. Thanks to Justice Elena Kagan and Professor Noah Feldman at Harvard, and other promoters of Shari’a as an alternative form of jurisprudence compatible with American secular law, we are witness to a gradually growing number of states accommodating the institutionalization of Shari’a courts into American legal venues; and we see the struggle of Shari’a supporters to prevent or overturn state-sponsored regulations that would exclude Shari’a from American law. Facilitating this struggle to give Shari’a credence, legitimacy, and legal valence are a host of lay folk, cheer leaders for Shari’a, including some rabbis, encouraging our legislators to grant Shari’a legal status in America. The dire and existential peril that Shari’a poses to women and Jews, to all Americans, to America, and to Western Civilizations has been adumbrated elsewhere. Suffice it to say here that much of Shari’a legislation is diametrically opposed to our society’s cornerstone freedoms and to our fundamental concept of all citizens’ equality before the law.
The “Lawfare” movement presents another new front in the infiltration of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-American forces into our legal system. The present writer attended the conference in San Francisco in 2010 where academics and lawyers enumerated the ways and means whereby American courts could be turned into staging grounds for anti-Israel lawsuits which could later be used as precedents for future legal battles against Israel, Israelis, and any legal or natural persons supporting Israel. Then it is only one step from legal decisions to legislation.
The proliferation of the organizations such as the “Jewish Voice for Peace” and numerous other groups claiming to be “for peace and justice in Palestine” on campuses, churches, world-wide Christian organizations, and on the grass-roots level of local communities, is another form of infiltration. Almost without exception, these groups promote the Arab side of the Israel-Arab conflict, ignore the reality of Israel’s need for defense against vicious genocidal terrorism, and act as mouthpieces for Arab anti-Israel propaganda. Rank and file membership may be dominated by benighted do-gooders whom Lenin would have classified as “useful idiot,” but leaders and funders know that the real purpose of these groups is to create an almost limitless supply of new venues for Israel-bashing and for the dissemination of Arab lies about Israel and the “Palestinians.”