The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to new reports from Europe indicating that, as the ZOA has maintained throughout, terrorists abound among Syrian migrants entering Europe and seeking entry into America. 

• Last week, Germany’s national security agency admitted that it had been alerted to the presence of jihadists among migrants and arrested three Syrians on charges of planning a major attack in Dusseldorf. The arrests followed a confession by a fourth suspect, arrested earlier in France, who had informed officials there about the plot to kill “as many bystanders as possible with guns and other explosives.” This was similar to a plot recently foiled in Antwerp, Belgium (Antony Faiola, ‘Germany arrests 3 suspected Syrian terrorists, foils possible Islamic State plot,’ Washington Post, June 3, 2016).

• Last week, Netherlands intelligence officials, who had previously maintained that there was merely minimal chance that any migrant was a terrorist, now admitted, following the disclosure by the aforementioned French suspect, that radicals arrested in Dusseldorf had been part of a group of 20, divided between asylum centers there and in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. Dutch reports indicate that the Netherlands’ screening centers have been sloppy in their work screening for terrorists. For example, a report in the Dutch daily the Telegraaf observed that the system in use for checking fingerprints of migrants crashes daily, while document screeners fail several times a week; and “it is unclear whether all baggage of the asylum-seekers is being properly inspected.” Moreover, documents are rarely examined for authenticity –– a risky oversight given the huge ISIS-based industry in falsified Syrian passports. 

• One of the Paris bombers used such false passport to enter Europe, leading the former French intelligent chief to remark, “It’s obvious now: amongst the migrants, there are terrorists” (Antony Faiola, ‘The mystery surrounding the Paris bomber with a fake Syrian passport,’ Washington Post, November 18, 2015).

• In Canada, a $16 million effort to screen migrants was recently termed an “expensive security flop.” An internal evaluation of the effort determined that “the screening project delivered information too late, strayed beyond its mandate, and in the end did almost nothing to catch refugees who might be linked to criminal or terrorist groups” (‘Dean Beeby, ‘RCMP refugee screening a $16M flop, says internal report,’ CBC News, April 5, 2016).

Here, in America, as long ago as November 2015, the Department of Homeland Security described Europe’s failure to secure her borders as “cause célèbre for jihadists” and its migrant screening processes as “rife with security holes” (‘Syrian Refugee Flows: Security Risks & Counterterrorism Challenges,’ November 2015). The Homeland Security report recommended a temporary suspension of the Syrian refugee program in the U.S. “until the nation’s leading intelligence and law enforcement agencies can certify the refugee screening process is adequate to detect individuals with terrorist ties.” In January, however, Democratic senators blocked a bill that would do just that, even as the number of applicants has steeply risen during 2016 (Abigail R. Esman, ‘Arrests Show Jihadists Infiltrating Syrian Refugees,’ Investigative Project On Terrorism, June 8, 2016).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA has been saying since last year that the Syrian migrants pose a grave danger to all Americans –– and especially to American Jews and gays. 

“Many of these Syrians support ISIS and hate Jews. An Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies poll of 900 Syrian migrants in November showed that a third of Syrian migrants sympathize with ISIS, while 13% actually support ISIS. 

“According to a 2007 poll, a staggering 77% of Syrians support Hamas –– a terrorist organization whose Charter calls for murdering every Jew. Hamas trainers and trainees, who are in Syria, may very well enter the United States as Syrian migrants.

“The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes survey (2009) found that in majority Muslim nations such as Syria, over 90% held strongly unfavorable (anti-Semitic) attitudes towards Jews. 

“Gays also have every reason to fear an influx of jihadists, who have no compunction about murdering gays. Last December, it was reported that ISIS had murdered 36 men in Syria after finding them guilty of being gay. Among the many examples of anti-gay murder and violence stemming from the region that one could cite, ISIS members threw a 15-year old gay teen off a rooftop in Syria last January after he was accused of being homosexual. To cite another, In Palmyra, Syria, an ISIS ‘court’ condemned two gay men to death and then threw them off a rooftop. ISIS have previously released footage of men being murdered after they were accused of being homosexual.

“Top Obama Administration officials testified that Syrian migrants cannot be properly vetted. 

“FBI Director James Comey stated, ‘We can query our databases until the cows come home, but nothing will show up because we have no record of them.’ Comey also testified that the intelligence community is concerned that ISIS has the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intelligence sources reported that ISIS has passport printing machines, blank passport books and Syrian citizens’ biographical data for stealing identities.

“Homeland Security Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman, Congressman Peter King (R–NY) has said: ‘There is absolutely no real way of vetting these refugees coming in … there is no intelligence on the ground –– there are obviously no government records we can go to. Syria is a totally chaotic country, and it’s a hotbed of al Qaeda and ISIS. And we have no idea who’s coming out of Syria – it definitely puts the United States at risk … We know that ISIL will attempt to infiltrate its members into the United States with these refugees … ISIS perpetrators of the Paris massacre travelled hidden among refugees.’

“U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that U.S. intelligence officials have a “huge concern” about ISIS’ ability to infiltrate Syrian migrants. A top Lebanese minister warned that two out of every 100 Syrian migrants are ISIS fighters. An ISIS operative admitted that 4,000 ISIS fighters have been smuggled into Western nations, hidden among migrants.

“The violence perpetrated by Muslim immigrants in Europe –– especially toward European Jews –– portends what America has in store if we bring more such migrants here. 

“Shockingly, despite these grave perils, HIAS, the Anti-Defamation League, AJC, Union for Reform Judaism and the National JCRCs signed a joint letter with vicious anti-Israel organizations (i.e. Muslim Public Affairs Council, CAIR, the pro-BDS Presbyterians) supporting this dangerous Syrian migration, opposing additional restrictions and security measures on Syrian migrants, and giving credibility to these terrible anti-Israel groups. 

“American Jews and the pro-Israel community should join ZOA and most Americans in opposing bringing more ISIS-infiltrated, Jew hating Syrian migrants here.”