[New York Times Magazine] Joshua Hammer - In 2002, when I was Newsweek's Jerusalem bureau chief, Jihad Jaara, a former Bethlehem commander of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, boasted to me that he was one of the killers of Avi Boaz, 71, a U.S. citizen living in Bethlehem. Israel considered Jaara a prolific killer, responsible for the murders of Israeli settlers, soldiers and accused Palestinian collaborators. Jaara has been living in exile for seven years, guarded by police, in a secret location on the outskirts of Dublin, protected by a multilateral agreement made to end the 39-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the spring of 2002 when the EU accepted 13 of the most-wanted militants. Last month I flew to Dublin: I wanted to find out if Jaara knew the FBI was after him and if he had any regrets about the Avi Boaz murder.
2009-06-26 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive