NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed its strong disappointment at a report that National Security Council adviser Condoleeza Rice is actively raising funds for Yasir Arafat’s terrorist regime.

According to the Washington Post (May 3, 2004), the Bush administration has launched a diplomatic offensive intended to impress the Arab world, including trying “to emphasize its concern for the Palestinians.” The Post continues: “As part of the diplomatic offensive, national security adviser Condoleeza Rice last week called some Arab countries that were behind in making payments to shore up the Palestinian Authority [PA].” Arafat is chairman of the PA.

This directly contradicts the Bush administration’s own Road Map plan, which states that Arab states must “cut off public and private funding and all other forms of support for groups supporting and engaging in violence and terror.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “Everyone knows Arafat is a terrorist. Condoleeza Rice should be devising plans to bring him down, not raising funds to ‘shore him up’.”

The fact that Arafat’s Palestinian Authority regime is guilty of “supporting and engaging in violence” has been in effect confirmed by the State Department itself, which just last month stated, in its new report, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003, that “some personnel in the [PA’s] security services, including several senior officers, have continued to assist terrorist operations.” The previous year’s report said the same thing. During the past two years, Israel has released hundreds of captured documents bearing Arafat’s own signature, ordering and paying for terrorist attacks.

Moreover, the Bush administration has, for the past two years, refused to have any dealings with Arafat because of his involvement in terrorism. And the Israeli daily Ma’ariv recently reported (April 14, 2004) that Arafat himself gave the order for the October 2003 Palestinian Arab terrorist attack on U.S. diplomatic vehicles in Gaza, murdering three American security personnel.

The Jerusalem Post reports (May 4, 2004), “Just this past weekend the PA transferred funds to Hamas-affiliated organizations in Gaza.”