IRAQI POLITICAN'S SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL COSTS HIM 2 SONS

Iraqi politicians’ support for Israel costs him dearly, but he presses on
By Heather Robinson

NEW YORK, May 9 (JTA) — For daring to visit Israel, Mithal Al-Alusi has paid with more than his life: It cost him his two sons.

A Sunni Moslem who founded the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, or DPIN, Al-Alusi believes the new Iraq should defy the longstanding policies of most Arab nations and normalize relations with Israel.

Last September, while serving in the Iraqi interim government as director general of the national commission on de-Ba’athification, Al-Alusi visited Israel to attend the Herzliyah conference, an international policy forum that attracts scholars, politicians and Israel’s military and political elite.

Al-Alusi hadn’t even left the conference when his family began receiving death threats from insurgents.

Ultimately the insurgents murdered Al-Alusi’s sons, Ayman, 30, and Gamal, 22, who were assisting him in establishing his grassroots political party, which is forged on the principles of individual rights and cooperation with other democracies.

Al-Alusi hasn’t given up, however.