Is JDL’s New Patrol Really a New Dawn?
As a Palestinian, I hope more than anyone else that the JDL will change for the better since its role was to fuel hatred and violence against us. However, I really do not see a change when Rubin does not condemn anti-Arab racism and continues to practice it. Notice, in your article, he regretted his statement about the (suspected) JDL murder of Palestinian activist Alex Odeh, but never condemned the killing itself. His organization’s founder and spiritual leader, Meir Kahane, has said that Arabs are “dogs walking on two legs.”
Additionally, I don’t think anyone can seriously take Rubin as someone who can improve the Jewish/black relations in that he is a self-proclaimed racist against Arabs, a notion no one in the African-American community will tolerate. Further, the JDL and Rubin have been consistent in their attacks on the African and African-American leaders, beginning with Kahane’s attacks on Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement in the ‘60s.
The question remains: Is it a new JDL we are seeing, or is it the onset of a carefully crafted false image that is being painted by some crafty public relations firm to mask the underlying racist and violent JDL?
HAJAR KAWASMEH
North Hollywood
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