NYC-WTC_000230729

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

daily NEWS, Wednesday October 24,2001

Rudy was right to give back $10M By EVA MOSKOWITZ ayor Giuliani’s decision to reject M a $10 million donation to the Twin Towers Fund from a Saudi Arabian prince who criticized American They don’t want us to change our for­ eign policy — they want us to be humiliat- , ed. They don't want America's leaders to adopt “a more balanced stance toward ' foreign policy has prompted at least one the Palestinian cause’ — they want our elected official — Democratic Rep. Cyn­ thia McKinney of Georgia — to write a government to overreact and plunge us letter apologizing for the mayor’s behav­ into a global war that, according to their ior. strategy, will make it easier to realize the As a lifelong New Yorker and an elect­ goal of creating a theocratic state encom­ ed official who represents a district passing the entire Islamic world. where thousands of people are recover­ ' Perhaps the only thing more striking ing from the loss of a friend or loved one, ' than the morally repugnant nature of the I would just like to register my formal prince's comments is their almost total support for the mayor’s actions. As the lack of plausibility. Even if there were mayor said himself, the Sept. 11 atroci­ , some willingness on our part to tailor ties were an act for which “no moral I American foreign policy to the preferenc­ equivalent” can serve as justification. es of terrorists and bigots, it would be im- At the very least. Prince Alwaleed Bin t possible to do so for one very simple rea­ I Talal appeared to be blaming the victim son; You don’t negotiate with terrorists. ’ when he suggested that the terrorism ' Ever. should prompt the United States to ‘reex­ t This has been the policy of the United amine its policies in the Middle East and • I States for many years, and we should fol- J adopt a more balanced stance toward the I low it now with more vigilance than ever ' Palestinian cause.” This is complete and . before. utter rubbish, of course ~ our foreign ) With all due respect to the congress- policy may not be perfect, but Americans i woman from Geor^a, the people of New have nothing to apologize for when It I York City stand by the mayor^s decision ; comes to this unprovoked attack or the . to reject the donation from Alwaleed. Ac- ' ; mayor's decision to tell the prince where . ‘Jj* i he ^an stick his money. , ed us all in his highly objectionable! What’s even more appalling, however, । is the way Bin Talal tried to explain his . i Moskowitz, a Democrat, represents parts ' public relations snafu in an Arab ncwspa- , of midtown and the East Side, from 14th' per; "The whole issue is that I spoke to 97th Sts., on the City Council, about their position [on the Middle East] ' and they didn’t like it because there are Jewish pressures and they were afraid of I them." ' Could the prince’s anti-Semitism be more blatant? The problem isn’t U.S. for­ eign polity or “Jewish pressures," to bor­ row from the prince's euphemistic lan­ guage. The problem is that a group of well-organized religious fanatics have de­ cided that the best way to cany out their war on modernity and pluralism is by kill- , ing civilians.

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NYC-WTC_000230729