Martin Raffel offers some interesting ideas on how the Democratic Party platform might address Israeli-Palestinian issues (“Democrats’ Platform,” Opinion, June 3). But he forgot one — in fact, one that particularly impacts American Jews, and which should be of special interest to the Democratic Party. I refer to the murder by Palestinian terrorists of 140 Americans since the 1960s. Not one Palestinian involved in the attacks has yet been extradited by the Palestinian Authority to the United States to face justice, even though many of the suspects have been identified by name; and some are even serving openly in the Palestinian security forces.
The issue impacts American Jews because many of the victims were American Jewish tourists visiting Israel or young American Jews studying in Israel. (Including my daughter Alisa, a Brandeis University junior, who was studying in Israel when she was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1995.) If we as a community encourage tourism and study in Israel, then we bear a responsibility to speak out when those tourists and students are harmed.
The issue also should be of special interest to the Democrats, because the victims include Harold Rosenthal, a former aide to Democratic congressman (later New York Gov.) Hugh Carey and Democratic Sen. Walter Mondale; and Gail Rubin, the niece of Democratic Sen. Abraham Ribicoff.
Rosenthal was murdered by terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). How about a plank in the Democratic platform urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to expel the PFLP from the PLO? How about a plank urging the Palestinian Authority to stop naming streets and parks in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered Gail Rubin?
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