The sheriff said that among his fellow law enforcement officers, “there is not one of us who does not believe that something else is going to happen. We do not know when, we do not know where, nor how, but we know something is going to happen.”

He was joined Thursday, Dec. 16, by Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, former senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Am, at a forum on “Jews and Law Enforcement” co-sponsored by the San Diego Jewish Times and the Tifereth Israel Synagogue’s Men’s Club.

“We are doing our best to train our people to be alert, to be observant, to have an intelligent system that allows us to know who in fact would be dangerous in this community—we have done that. We have a joint terrorism task force with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is second to none in our state in terms of cooperation and collaboration among all the law enforcement agencies. “

Nevertheless, he said, “I am not sure where it (the terrorist threat) is going, and if you are not worried about it, there I something wrong.  You should worry.”

Zuckerman, who gave up his Beth Am post to create the Emergency Response Foundation —which takes American safety officials to Israel and Ireland to learn how they deal with terrorist incidents—commented that the last name of Osama “Bin Laden” literally means in Arabic “son of judgment” and Bin Laden has judged both Christians and Jews adversely.

“When we (Jews) think about the Spanish Inquisition, we think about Christians coming up and saying ‘convert to Christianity or die by the sword,’” said Zuckerman, who also serves as a chaplain to the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. 

In the Inquisition, “more Muslims died than Jew,” Zuckerman said. The current terrorism “is a payback for the Crusades,” he said. “Israel can fall off the map tomorrow, and it would not change.  The fact is that the United States is known (in Bin Laden’s parlance) as the Crusaders.  So the hatred goes back centuries.”

Casuto said it is important that as our nation responds to terrorism, “we are not going to stereotype an entire people.  We are not going to be barbaric in the way that we respond to those who would do us harm. Every totalitarian, dictatorial regime in history has underestimated the power of a democratic people.  The key to our success will be that we will fight this war and win it as members of a democratic society—not as members of a frightened, terrified society that is prepared to give up their individual freedoms for security, which will never be total.”

Zuckerman said the San Diego County bomb squad gets called out 500 times a year, frequently to deal with munitions left over from World War II days.  In comparison, he said, Israel’s bomb squad “is called out 7,000 times a year,” usually to deal with terrorist incidents or threats. 

His foundation is being designed not only to take law enforcement officials but other “first responders,” including the fire department, Red Cross officials, medical personnel, and political leaders to Israel and Ireland, so that they can learn together.

Kolender commented that it was in Israel he first saw a robot that can blow up bombs under the guidance of law enforcement personnel stationed safely nearby in a mobile monitoring unit.  Today, San Diego law enforcement has similar capabilities, he said.

Casuto cautioned that “Israelis are prepared to put up with things that this country is not prepared to put up with—unless, God forbid, something happens.”  He told of Israeli police officers coming to San Diego, and going out with ADL personnel to restaurants, and “they all said the same thing: ‘I am uncomfortable that there isn‘t a guard at the door.’ 

“One thing Israelis really know about is shopping, and when we would go into a mall, they were uncomfortable,” Casuto added. “There were 14 different ways into the mall, and none of the stores had guards. In Israel, the police have the right and the authority to close down a restaurant, a hotel, or a store that doesn’t have a guard in place. That isn’t going to be the United States, and it is never going to be the United States.

Zuckerman said he was not so certain Americans won’t someday accept more stringent security measures.  Before Sept. 11^th, people didn’t think they’d would have to submit to the type of airport security now considered commonplace.  “Things change,” he said.  “It is foreseeable, not that far-fetched, that this was just the tip of the iceberg.”