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My debut for @theintercept: “Decades after a Palestinian American activist was assassinated in California, two suspects in his killing are living openly in Israel” https://theintercept.com/2020/02/06/alex-odeh-bombing-israel/
Once Arab Americans began to organize politically in the 1980s, protesting Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and taking out ads in major papers calling for an end to annual aid packages to Israel, up-and-coming community activist Alex Odeh was killed in a bombing outside Los Angeles
What have the 3 suspects been doing for 35 years? The 1st is in jail for another, unrelated murder… but the 2nd became a lawyer, appearing dozens of times in Israel’s Supreme Court… and the 3rd founded an influential NGO authoring legislation passed by the Netanyahu government
The FBI’s 3 suspects moved to the West Bank, following arch-racist Rabbi Meir Kahane, then an Israeli lawmaker. In 1998, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about the suspects, he said: “I assure you that our policy is to cooperate fully with the murderers.”
In this 1998 video, Netanyahu demonstrates familiarity with the case of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American community activist assassinated in California in 1985. Netanyahu mentions 1 of the 3 followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane named as suspects in the murder >>
>> But when pressed about the other 2 suspects living freely in West Bank settlements, and about Israel not cooperating with the US Justice Department investigation, Netanyahu’s reply is astonishing: “Our policy is to cooperate fully with the murderers” >>
>> A meaningless gaffe? Or a Freudian slip? Consider: Just months after Netanyahu said this, 1 of those very suspects in Alex Odeh’s murder actually filed suit against Netanyahu – and the case even reached Israel’s Supreme Court! Netanyahu declined to comment on these allegations
Keith Israel Fuchs and Andy Green AKA Baruch Ben Yosef, American-born Jews who followed arch-racist Rabbi Meir Kahane to Israel, were identified as suspects in the murder of Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh before the wreckage of the bomb that killed him was even cleared
Could Israel’s infamous security services really have no clue regarding the whereabouts of Fuchs and Ben Yosef for the last 35 years, and therefore be unable to make them available to US law enforcement agents, so that they could be questioned about Alex Odeh’s murder? Consider:
Ben Yosef is not just one of the only Jews in Israeli history to be jailed under administrative detention; he actually holds the record, he served 2 six-month terms. The 2nd was in 1994, 9 years after the Odeh murder. Israeli officials knew very well where Ben Yosef was all along
Why was Baruch Ben Yosef – AKA Andy Green, named a suspect in the 1985 murder of Alex Odeh – jailed under administrative detention by Israel in 1980? According to former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gilon, it was for planning to blow up the iconic Dome of the Rock
Ben Yosef’s alleged plot to destroy the Dome of the Rock was stopped in time, but his desire to eliminate the Muslim shrine and replace it with a Jewish temple hasn’t waned. He’s often argued in Israel’s Supreme Court, demanding the right to pray and sacrifice animals at the site
Ben Yosef also served on legal teams defending 2 other followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who had previously plotted attacks on the Dome of the Rock. Yoel Lerner planned to explode it in 1975, 1978 and 1982, and later in 1982, Alan Goodman shot it up and killed 2 Palestinians there
Just last week, the Trump Administration endorsed altering the rules at the Dome of the Rock, to turn it into a worship site not only for Muslims, but for Jews as well, thus rewarding the suspected assassin of Alex Odeh, who has spent the last 3 decades spearheading that struggle
Now two decades after Netanyahu first provided political cover for that suspected assassin of Alex Odeh, he’s doing the same for that suspect’s protege, not only urging his coalition partners to join forces with the protege’s party, but even offering the protege an ambassadorship
Where did Itamar Ben Gvir, lawyer and leader of the Jewish Power party, infamous for defending the most notorious accused Jewish terrorists in Israeli courts, do his legal articling, in order to be accepted to the Israeli bar? With Baruch Ben Yosef, suspect in Alex Odeh’s murder
Once I asked Ben Yosef to comment on these allegations, YouTube videos of him calling to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and to turn Israel into a theocracy were deleted. But I saved copies. Watch this compilation video of Baruch Ben Yosef in his own words
If you’re the commissioning editor of a news outlet, consider soliciting from me another article about the Odeh murder and what the suspects have been up to all these years, because the piece I just published at the Intercept only includes the tip of the iceberg: [email protected]
If you’d like to learn more about the murder of Alex Odeh, and the movement that spawned his suspected assassins, the Jewish Defense League, and its founder, Rabbi Meir Kahane, watch the video of my latest lecture #MessiahMode at the University of Zurich: http://bit.ly/messiahmode
Here is the 14-minute clip from my #MessiahMode lecture focusing on the story of Alex Odeh and his suspected assassins. And in the coming days, watch out for another video of a special lecture I gave on the topic at the @PalestineCenter in Washington DC…
Want your community to learn more about the rise and fall and rise of Israel’s biggest racists? Invite me to give the #MessiahMode lecture, or invite me to give the new lecture about Israeli hasbara I’ll be debuting in the spring: Gaslight Unto the Nations http://davidsheen.com/tour/
Producing this piece took a tremendous amount of labor, so if you liked it, consider supporting my independent investigative journalism with a pledge at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/davidsheen
My 2nd piece on the alleged assassins of Alex Odeh, an op-ed in @The_NewArab: “ @IsraeliPM @Netanyahu has long run cover for Israel's biggest racists” https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/Comment/2020/2/12/Netanyahu-has-long-run-cover-for-Israels-biggest-racists
I was interviewed by @TheRealNews about my recent expose on the alleged assassins of Alex Odeh and the impunity they enjoy in Israel to this day:
My 3rd piece on the alleged assassins of Alex Odeh, an 8000-word deep-dive with lots of scandalous details in @AMEUlink: "Alleged Assassin of Alex Odeh Finds Safe Harbor in Israel" http://www.ameu.org/Current-Issue/Current-Issue/2020-Volume-53/UPDATED-The-Latest-on-the-Suspected-Murderers-of.aspx
My new AMEU article about Alex Odeh’s suspected assassins reviews what I’ve already published about the case in The Intercept, but also includes LOTS of scandalous details never published anywhere:
1) https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1246816446707089411
2) https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1246853799874039809
3) https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1247078204407451649
1) https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1246816446707089411
2) https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1246853799874039809
3) https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1247078204407451649
My 4th piece on the topic is now out at Electronic @Intifada: @realDonaldTrump’s ‘Middle East peace plan’ rewards Baruch Ben Yosef, the alleged assassin of Palestinian-American civil rights leader Alex Odeh https://electronicintifada.net/content/trumps-jerusalem-plan-rewards-suspected-killer-alex-odeh/29931
