Likud Leaders Oppose
Palestinian State

NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Bush administration to respond to the latest in a long series of massacres of Israelis by Yasir Arafat’s Fatah movement, by announcing that the United States no longer supports the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.

In a letter to President Bush, ZOA National President Morton A. Klein wrote: “President Bush promised that the United States would fight to ‘end terrorist states’; the U.S. should not be supporting the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, which will obviously be a terrorist state. Arafat’s current regime massacres Jews, denies freedom of the press, tortures dissidents, and persecutes Arab Christians; if he is given his own state, it will become another brutal Arab terrorist dictatorship. By withdrawing America’s support for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, the U.S. would send a message to Arafat and all terrorists that there will be serious consequences for their actions. “

* The Likud’s political bureau —an internal forum of Likud leaders— this week voted unanimously to oppose the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.

* According to the Jerusalem Post (Jan.17, 2002), former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week “that a Palestinian state must never be established and that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat must be overthrown.” Netanyahu also said that “with its own independent port, such a state would receive shiploads of arms day and night and we would find ourselves facing a terrorist state, armed to the teeth.”

* A recent poll found 68% of Israeli Jews believe that “regardless of the size or strength of a Palestinian state, if one is established it will constitute a threat to the State of Israel”; and 64% of Israeli Jews believe the creation of a Palestinian Arab state would “increase the ability of the Arab states to threaten Israel.” Only 9% of Israeli Jews believe creating a Palestinian Arab state would reduce the Arab states’ threat to Israel. The poll was carried out on Nov. 25-26, 2001 by the Smith Institute, Israel’s most prominent polling firm; it was co-sponsored by the ZOA and the Israeli news agency IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis).

The ZOA points out that creating a Palestinian Arab state will:

* Undermine the fight against terrorism by giving terrorists a reward for their violence.

* Boost Bin Laden’s allies —Osama Bin Laden’s terrorists are closely allied with the terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Fatah, who are attacking Israel and who would control a future Palestinian Arab state.

* Endanger America’s ally, Israel, by establishing a terrorist state that will station its forces just miles from Israel’s major cities—and leave Israel just nine miles wide at its mid-section.

* Create another totalitarian, anti-American regime —Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority is a brutal Muslim dictatorship which tortures dissidents, silences newspapers that deviate from Arafat’s line, and persecutes Christians. The official PA media actively incites hatred against America, and the Arafat maintains warm relations with anti-American regimes such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, North Korea, and Cuba.

* Endanger Jewish religious rights —the PA has already destroyed one key Jewish religious site, the Tomb of Joseph, turning it into a mosque and barring Jews from the area. The ancient Shalom al-Yisrael synagogue in PA-controlled Jericho has also been burned down. PA officials have called for banning Jewish prayer from Jerusalem’s Western Wall and Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, and PA policemen regularly carry out shooting attacks on the Tomb of Rachel, near Bethlehem. In an Arafat state, Jews will be prevented from access to their religious sites.

* Endanger Palestinian Arab Christians —Christian Arabs living in PA territory “are subjected to brutal and relentless persecution,” according to the Israeli government. Bethlehem, which once had a Christian majority, is now 80% Muslim; most of its Christian residents have left because of Muslim harassment. Christians are not allowed to build, or even renovate, churches in PA territory. American courts have granted asylum to Palestinian Christian Arabs on the grounds that they will be persecuted if they return to PA-controlled areas. U.S. Senator Connie Mack and a delegation of ZOA leaders met in Israel in 1999 with Christian Arabs who described, first-hand, how they had been tortured by the PA police because of their Christian beliefs. If this is how badly Christian Arabs are treated by Arafat now, it will undoubtedly worsen if Arafat is given a sovereign state.