Catching up with the man who almost started World War III

Twenty-one years ago next month, Alan Harry Goodman, a 37-year-old Jew born and raised in Baltimore, made world headlines by storming Jerusalem's Temple Mount compound — the holiest site in Judaism and third holiest site in Islam — and beginning a shooting spree that killed a 65-year-old Muslim guard and wounded four others. In the 20-minute attack, Mr. Goodman ran into the Dome of the Rock mosque, where he eventually was overpowered by Israeli police.

During a riot in the compound immediately following the attack, an 18-year-old Arab female passer-by was killed by Israeli police and seven others were wounded. Riots also immediately broke out in other parts of the city and in the West Bank, wounding scores of people.

Mr. Goodman, who during the attack was wearing his Israeli army uniform and carrying an M-16 automatic rifle issued weeks earlier during basic training, said he intended to "liberate" the Temple Mount from Muslim control.

After serving 15 1/2 years in the Israeli prison system, Mr. Goodman was released and sent back to the United States in October 1997. He was freed early by the Israeli parole board on condition that he would spend the following eight years outside of Israel. Since then, Mr. Goodman, who is unemployed and long divorced, has lived with his mother in her Upper Park Heights residence. He calls himself "a non-person."

Baltimore Jewish Times Managing Editor Alan H. Feiler recently met with Mr. Goodman, now 58, to discuss his life since returning here, his views on the Middle East today, his place in contemporary Jewish history, and the events that led him to resort to violence on April 11, 1982, during the Passover festival.

An articulate, gregarious man ("Call Me Alan") fond of quality cigars and Chinese buffets, Mr. Goodman was unabashedly candid throughout the three-hour interview about his hatred of Arabs, the media and left-leaning American Jews while fiercely proud of his actions on the Temple Mount. What have you been doing since your return?

Mr. Goodman: Taking courses at Baltimore Hebrew University and other things. I do what I do best, which is nothing. [Laughs] I think about how to start the third world war.

What I'm living now is a dream-like existence. I have a warm, clean, quiet place to live for the first time in my life — for five years. I mean, you have some fantastic buffets all over town and America. I'm the original foodie. ...

But even living in the best possible places, you're going to get tired of it after a while.


Why did you come back to Baltimore?

Where else would I go? I had to take care of my mother. But I was born and bred here. It's practically in the blood. I feel a little comfortable here.

When you returned to Baltimore, did you expect a hero's welcome?

I didn't know what to expect. The Jews are such a sick, twisted-up people that nothing you can do is right. They said I could only be welcomed into the Jewish community if I renounced what I did at the Temple Mount. Fat chance.

Seven black men around town have recognized me and congratulated me. But no Jews. I'd be happy to talk to anyone who'd listen. Not one Jew has come up to me, not even in my classes, not even teachers who have my name there, have come up to me.

Are you frustrated with your lack of recognition in the Jewish community?

No, it's better this way. What do I want to be recognized for? They don't care. But outside of these cheap little pseudo-liberal Jewish groups that control the Israeli media, almost every Israeli I encountered showed me support and solidarity. The hundreds and hundreds of prisoners, they all showed me support and solidarity, except for four or five and they were really crazy. All the police in Jerusalem, the prison guards, they couldn't be nicer.

Were you disappointed with Israel's decision to keep you out for eight years?

It's a hell of a long time. ... You know, soldiers who survive a war or battle, their friends were killed and they feel a little guilty about surviving. I feel as if I've run out on Israel. What can I do here? Kill the Arabs? Walk into an Arab restaurant in Baltimore and start shooting waiters? That's not really going to do.

Why did you consent to leaving Israel for eight years?

Look, 15 years of anything, even if you have a penthouse in Baltimore or New York or London or Jerusalem, you're going to get tired of it. If I'm nothing else, I'm intense, and seeing those four walls, you know, and seeing a bunch of nervous, hairy Jewish boys for 15 years, yeah, I wanted to see something else and come back to Northwest Baltimore to see a bunch of nervous, hairy Jewish boys. [Laughs]

How often do you think about April 11, 1982?

Just once or twice every day now. In prison, it used to be once or twice an hour. I had nothing else to think about. I thought, "Boy, that was a great day."

Do you have any regrets?

The only thing I regret now, in the light of these endless Arab atrocities, is not shooting more Arabs in the mosque. There were about seven or eight workers in the mosque. These guys were a higher-value target. These were grown males. But at that moment, I just couldn't shoot them. They seemed so frightened. It was a moment of Jewish weakness.

No other regrets?

I have no regrets about what I did. The only regret is that I didn't execute every Arab Nazi in Jerusalem, which is every boy Arab from 15 to 55.

My only regret is the Arabs that the Israelis have not killed. The Israelis have a lot of weapons and arguably the second most powerful air force in the world, and the most accurate. They have 250,000 napalm bombs, or maybe twice that many by now. They've got 250,000 cluster bombs, and maybe twice that many. And probably a minimum of 1,000 atomic and hydrogen and neutron bombs.

I regret they have not dropped their nuclear weapons on every one of these Arab Nazi entities from Algiers to Baghdad.

What was going through your mind that day on the Temple Mount?

That I had fulfilled my mission in life. And I still feel that way, except it wasn't enough.

How did you prepare for the attack? What did you do the night before?

I went to a little restaurant in Jerusalem, had a steak dinner and then I had saved a bottle of white wine. Usually, I used to sleep well after a bottle of wine, but not this time. I don't know why. I woke up with a headache.

Were you a religious zealot, as portrayed by the media?

Absolutely not. If there is a word, I would guess I would say I'm agnostic. I'm sure I don't believe in God. I'm not looking to bring back the Moshiach.

Journalists write what supports their prejudices. It made a better story to say I was a religious zealot, with the beard and the hair flying.

I'm a Jew. I was bar mitzvahed at Beth Jacob. I'm a Jew. It's not something you can choose, or you put on your head. You can have tzitzis to the floor, that doesn't make you a Jew. It's what's in your head and your heart.

When did you first move to Israel?

I'd been there before, for visits. I arrived in August of '78, with the intention of making aliyah. Three months later, I became a temporary resident.

And you fell in love with Israel?

No, not exactly. I'm a Jew. That's the place where you're going to end up. We don't have anyplace else. But I'm not in love with any piece of land, with the rocks and deserts.

I was a temporary resident. And then I came back here and did some other things. And then I think after three years as a temporary resident, you become a citizen automatically. After you become a citizen, you register for the draft board. And they call you up a few months afterward. So in the summer of 1981, I got the notice to report to the pre-induction for the older olim [immigrants] unit.

What were you doing before that?

Well, I lived in Scandinavia for a long time, mostly picking up the best-looking Scandinavian women around. And I taught English on the side. In Israel, I lived on kibbutzim.

Did you get involved with any Zionist militant groups, like the late Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach outfit, as was widely reported?

No, I attended some of his meetings at his office. But I didn't belong to anything. The first organization I ever belonged to in my life was the Israeli army. ... I'm not a follower.

What exactly led you to that April day in 1982?

Do you remember that bus massacre in March of 1978? The Arabs came in from Lebanon from the sea, and they massacred two busloads of Israelis — three-dozen Israelis were murdered and dozens more were maimed. That's what set me off. I knew I had to do something about it.

After the bus massacre, I was just trying to find a rifle. The good thing about the army is they give you one, you don't have to go through clandestine sources to buy it.

I wanted a rifle and clips, and for them to teach me how to use it. The other stuff — putting up tents, helping out in the kitchen — I'm not really made for that stuff.

So we shot a few times and after 10 days, most of us got the Pesach furlough.

Why the Temple Mount?

It's the highest-value Arab target to make a statement. I could've walked into any cafe and executed those Nazi pigs there. But I didn't.

The Temple Mount is Jewish land. It's the temple, and with the Arabs there, this is just a filthy Arab occupation. They have no more rights to be on the Temple Mount than the Jews.

Was your intention to start World War III?

I sincerely hoped to. Absolutely. I thought I had done my life's work. But now with these atrocities every day, yakety-yak, I've got to go back. I sincerely hope to go back [to the Temple Mount] in nearly three years.

[In a lower voice] What I want to do is attack the Arabs again with whatever is available — a rifle, a pistol, a napalm bomb, a neutron bomb, whatever they've got.

Do you think Israel will ever let you return?

By law, the Israelis have to let me back in, although they can severely restrict me.

Why do you repeatedly call Arabs "Nazi pigs"?

That's exactly what they are, a bunch of Nazi pigs. These atrocities against these innocent Israeli civilians and these Americans on 9/11 have nothing to do with war or politics. This is genocide. These are not suicide bombers but homicide bombers.

But what about the Druze and other Arabs who support Israel?

Arabs are a schizophrenic people. On the outside, they rape and murder and steal and complain about everything when they have the best life of any group of people anywhere in the world.

If there is a good Arab, what does that mean? In war, you kill off the enemy as sufficiently as you can. There is no murder in war, it does not matter if someone on the other side is good or not good.

The question is to hit the enemy and his most valuable targets. That's what I tried to do. The Israelis should have laid waste to the [Arabs] within a week or two after these atrocities started a couple of years ago. They should have laid waste to Bethlehem and Hebron and Jericho within weeks of when these atrocities began. These precision attacks, it's not going to do it.

The media has portrayed you as mentally deranged.

That's what reporters do. They print whatever agrees with their prejudices. The entire Israeli news media is ultra- liberal. And these Jew bastards who control the American media are ultra-liberal. And they are not going to paint a good picture of any Jew who acts and speaks for Jewish rights.

But would you characterize yourself as someone with emotional or psychological problems back then?

Yeah.

Were you being treated?

No.

Did you need treatment?

Yeah. I knew I'd get it in prison. ...But I did this for as pure a political reason as anyone who's committed violence for political reasons. The Arabs think they have reasons for murdering as many Jewish men, women and children as they can. I felt that I have every reason they have and much more.

It just so happens that the person who committed this act has problems, emotional problems — paranoid, schizophrenic, with manic depressive, everything. I'm all [expletive] up, to tell you the truth. But that doesn't matter. That doesn't take anything away from this act.

Were you on medication at the time?

No, I couldn't get it. I came back here for about a year and lived on Franklin Street, and I went to [a local hospital] to the psychiatric unit because I'd read there were new medications — anti-psychotic, anti-schizophrenic. I'd never heard of any of them, something against psychosis. So I went there for medication, and a nice young psychologist essentially told me to get lost.

Are you on medication now?

No.

What exactly happened once you reached the Temple Mount?

I knew from the first shot I fired that my life would change completely, that I was going to step up to another class of life and get away from this less-than-nothing life.

What kind of class of life?

The one I have now — like you're talking to me like a human being here. Can you imagine this happening if I just dropped in off the street and said I want to talk to the Jewish Times about these Arab atrocities? My life on this earth was going to change for the better. Compared to what it would have been, it's a better life.

Do you consider yourself a Jewish patriot?

Yes. I put my life where my mouth was. Absolutely.

What was it like to shoot another human being?

I was born a Jew and I'll die one. Killing people didn't come naturally. We're not natural-born killers. The Arabs are natural-born murderers. The American guys are natural-born killers. Just look in their eyes, there are psychopaths walking on the streets.

Are you a violent person?

No, not at all. I am what I was born — a nice Jewish boy. The Arab Nazis and their sympathizers forced me to do this, including these Jewish collaborators with the Arabs — Shalom Achshav [the Peace Now organization] and their Jewish corps over here, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters.

Are you saying you want to shoot Mike Wallace?

He would not be the first target, but if he were an Arab and was as sympathetic to the Israelis as he is to the Arabs, the Arabs would've killed him decades ago. I can understand the Arabs, but I can't understand the Jews, the little Nazi sympathizers.

So you could lift your hand against a fellow Jew?

Yes I could. Yeah.

Do you consider yourself a person of compassion?

Yes I do. I have compassion for people in the world who are really suffering, the oppressed, the starving, the impoverished, the diseased. ... But the Arabs have sucked the blood out of the Jews, they've sucked every dollar they could out of the world economy, and they cry all these crocodile tears. There's nothing for anyone else.

Did you want to be a martyr on the Temple Mount?

In a sense, yes. My life has been so painful that death holds no real fear for me. The only thing is, I did want to fight my hardest before I died, and I felt I had not, that shooting up two Arabs, what does that mean? You've got a million Israeli guys and girls who can do these things.

But I explained my case, I explained the Jewish case. And nobody else is doing that.

Do you feel that you still need to do teshuvah [repentance]?

Oh, hell no! I'm sorry that I'm not strong enough to take control of Israel. That this fat, overstuffed bucket of crap [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon] has not led. I will. They will not fight. I will, and this time to the death.

In light of today's Middle East strife, do you feel vindicated?

Absolutely, certainly. If there had been a consistent pattern, with a little more force, maybe these Arabs could've been deterred.

What about international reaction to an all-out Israeli assault?

They're going to condemn the Israelis whatever you do. These are not attacks on so-called settlements. They are attacks against Israel's existence. The atrocities at New York and the Pentagon had nothing to do with America's support for these Israeli — quote — settlements. If there was any reason, it's for America's support for Israel's existence within the pre-'67 borders.

Were you disappointed that the riots after your Temple Mount attack didn't go further?

I regret every Arab airliner the Israelis have not shot down. I regret every Arab airliner that the Israeli commandos have not hijacked and crashed into the Arab cities and airports. I regret every atomic bomb in the Israeli warehouse that has not been dropped on every one of these Nazi entities from Algiers to Baghdad. That's where my regrets are.

If we have the ability to wipe the Arabs off the face of this earth, why not do it?

What is the difference between yourself and an Arab militant who attacks innocent people for his own cause?

The difference is, there have been a hundred thousand attacks on Israeli civilians between 1967 and 1982. I committed one act of restrained political violence against the Arabs. And then there was Baruch Goldstein. I support what he did. I'm only sorry there are not hundreds of thousands who've done the same kind of thing.

You may be morally and politically on the defense, but even then you have to fight a war offensively. Didn't [Rabbi Kahane] say that the Jews will either bury their respectability or their respectability will bury the Jews?

Do you ever worry about an Arab taking revenge against you?

It's possible. It could happen. My apartment house had a really nice handyman, but he retired. The guy we have now has light brown skin, curly hair, a little mustache. And I was hoping against hope that he was a Mexican or Puerto Rican. So after he'd been on the job a few months, one day we got in the elevator together and he had a drill in his hand. I asked him where he was from and he said Egypt. And I said, "OK." He could've drilled me, or I could've taken it away and drilled him.

Do you consider yourself part of Jewish history?

From the first shot I fired, I had such a feeling of exhilaration, that I had finally done something worthwhile with my life. And nearly everything that happened to me since that day has been good. It was a fantastic experience, the most fantastic experience of my life. Didn't Shakespeare say that all the world's a stage? In his lifetime, a man plays many roles. I think I should get more credit, because if you're a natural-born killer, killing people is not that difficult. But we're not born that way.

And also, I did it with class and with style and with restraint. It could've been a bigger bloodbath.

But what was gained by your action?

There was nothing lost. If I had not done this thing, I could not have died satisfied that I did as much as I could with my life.

What do you think will happen in the Middle East in the next few years?

The Israelis are going nowhere but out of this world. Israel is finished. It was finished as a Jewish state a long time ago. The Israelis fell a long time ago. Now, it's just a fight until the death. It's all over. There's absolutely no hope, no chance at all.

Then why go back and stir things up again?

It's not only about victory or defeat. It's also the fight that has value. We fight, therefore we are. Would you say Cal Ripken wasted his life because he played on a team that after we won the World Series in 1983, it was basically just Cal and the 24 dwarfs?

How do you think history will remember you?

I don't think history will remember me at all, and I don't want to be remembered by history. I did my job in Jerusalem, and I'm only sorry in the end it hasn't mattered. But on the other hand, nothing else has mattered either.

I made a stand, the most serious act of political violence that any Jew has ever committed privately. I did it on my own, no one knew I was going to do it, no family members or friends.

It was the high point of my life, the climax of my life, and everything since has been an anti-climax. But it's been a fantastic anti-climax.

I did it my way, like the song goes.


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