The umbrella organization of American Jewish groups said Monday that reports of the danger of terror attacks against Jewish targets in the United States have been overstated.
Speaking in Jerusalem at the opening of the annual meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, executive vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein said that although there is cause for concern, the threat level has been exaggerated by the media.
"A lot of these reports have been based on misinformation, especially in the last two weeks, " Hoenlein told a news conference. "Information that is of a very general nature has been interpreted as being more specifically directed at the Jewish community than is the reality."
A February 7 report in Newsweek's online edition said U.S. authorities notched up the level of the national terror alert because of threats of multiple, imminent attacks by the Al-Qaida network against Jewish groups and Jewish-owned businesses in the United States. Hoenlein said his organization has been in daily contact with senior officials of the New York City police, the FBI and other agencies.
"Each day we get reports of another new alert or a rumor, which does create great concern and fear in the community," he said. "This is part of the tactic, terrorism is called terror because of the fear it instills."
Hoenlein went on to say that Jewish institutions should be security conscious but should not consider themselves the main focus of terror groups. "The Jewish community could be a target, not necessarily the target," he said. "The latest Al-Qaida documents in fact mention Christian (sites)...This is really of a much more general nature."
