The great
Chassidic master, Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlav, once said, “There
are people who, in their public role, have no authority
whatsoever; but in their private life, they rule the
generation.” Angels in human form surround us, but we rarely
sense who these people are, or the extent to which their quiet
activities nourish our world.
The rabbis of
the Talmud speak about the Lamed-Vav Tzaddikim — the
thirty-six holy, hidden individuals without whom the world could
not continue to exist. According to one understanding about the
Messiah, any one of these special, righteous people could turn
out to be the Redeemer of Israel and all of humanity — history,
culture and politics permitting.
A recent
National Post review (Saturday, May 17th) of the
book, “Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman
Who Infiltrated the Islamic Terror Network”, tells the story
of one such individual. This amazing woman, who goes by the name
Sarah, is hardly your typical undercover agent.
She is a
diminutive, middle-aged mother of three, an Iraqi-born Israeli
who lives in the suburbs of an American city. Yet her undercover
activities with various radical Islamist groups have allowed US
authorities to raid companies, shut down charities and close
Internet sites that support terror.
Sarah isn’t
easy to find or identify. Her address is secret, and even those
who know how to reach Sarah are carefully screened by her
receptionist. She says the she would love to go public, but that
it would put both her life and work at risk. Yet Sarah works
closely with agents at the FBI, the INS, and the US Treasury
Department. She also regularly feeds information to the RCMP and
the Canadian Security Intelligence Services.
What would
motivate a nice Jewish girl like Sarah to get involved with such
a nasty business? “We are at war, whether we want it or not,”
she writes. “It’s my honour to be on the front lines of this
war. It’s the right thing to do, and this is who I am. This is
what my father would have wanted me to be.”
In the wake of
the Six Day War in 1967, Iraqi authorities accused Sarah’s
well-to-do father of being a spy. When he refused to confess to
the trumped-up charges, Iraqi police arrested, tortured and
violated Sarah’s mother in her husband’s presence. The first
chance she got, Sarah’s mother gathered up Sarah and her brother
and, with the help of Kurdish smugglers, hiked three weeks
through rough terrain to reach Iran. From there, they boarded a
ship to Israel. Years later, Sarah discovered the photograph of
her father’s execution in an old newspaper at the library in Tel
Aviv.
In Israel,
Sarah married and had children, but after Iraq fired off dozens
of Scud missiles at Israel in 1991, Sarah and her family
immigrated to the United States. Then one day, Sarah happened
upon a pamphlet from the Holy Land Foundation — the largest
Muslim charity in the United States. Disturbed by the
discrepancies that she discovered in the pamphlet’s English and
Arabic texts, Sarah dressed as an observant Muslim and attended
several Holy Land meetings. She quickly discovered that the Holy
Land Foundation funded the families of Hamas terrorists,
safe-houses for terrorists and hiding places for their weapons.
Having
discovered a new career, Sarah continued attending rallies,
visiting mosques and monitoring conferences, documenting
frequent calls to jihad and martyrdom right under the noses of
the authorities. In New York, she recorded an official from the
American Muslim Council, an erstwhile moderate organization,
leading a call-and-response in Arabic: “Anybody support Hamas
here? Hear that, Bill Clinton? We’re all supporters of Hamas!
Anybody support Hezbollah here?” The crowd roared its approval.
Since 9/11, US
authorities have begun to take Sarah’s work extremely seriously.
However, Sarah has been less impressed by the reactions of
Canadian officials. According to Sarah, the Canadian chapters of
radical Islamist organizations continue their activities
unhindered, even after their US counterparts have been
investigated and shut down. “The Canadians do not understand yet
what Islamic terrorism is about,” she says. “The war on
terrorism has to be fought in our own backyards, in our own
countries, because this is where they are.”
As we prepare
to enjoy the summer season, let’s take a moment to thank God for
Sarah, and her contributions to the peace and freedom that have
prevailed in our community and our country until now. “May God
give strength to His people; may God bless His people with
peace.”
With all best
wishes,
Rabbi Green
