Effects of Fighting in the Middle East Felt in the U.S.

October 13, 2000

Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 13, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Ventura County residents and elected officials said they were concerned Thursday about events in the Middle East after an apparent terrorist bomb killed six crewmen aboard a Navy destroyer in Yemen and rioting mobs killed two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank...Ventura County's military base, the combined station at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme, has not been put on alert since the explosion next to the Cole, a destroyer that was pulling into port in Aden, Yemen, said a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon. Jews and Muslims in the county said the events half a world away troubled them, and they worried about how the events would affect friends and relatives in the Middle East...Bader Iqbal, an Indian-born Muslim and spokesman for the Islamic Center of the Conejo Valley, said the growing violence makes him hope for U.S. intervention. The U.S. government is supposed to step in and stabilize conflicts between unevenly matched combatants and Israel is 'the strong sibling who is just beating up on the weaker,' he said. 'We, as the world's superpower, should be pretty aggressive in saying, 'Hey, hold on here,'' Iqbal said. 'If there are two children fighting and one is much stronger than the other, the parent does intervene and separate the two.' Iqbal, a family physician...said the escalating conflict has not carried over into tensions locally--either between mosques and synagogues, or between Muslims and Jews. 'We stand for peace and submission to God,' he said. 'We feel there's got to be a way without shooting rockets and machine guns at people.'"