ZOA: U.S. Should End
Relations With Arafat

NEW YORK – Yasir Arafat has again urged the Palestinian Arabs to continue waging “Jihad” (Islamic holy war) against Israel.

In a speech to a delegation of Palestinian Arab leaders from Hebron, which was broadcast on official PA Television on January 26, 2002, Arafat said:

“Yes, brothers, with our souls and blood we redeem you, O Palestine. This is the decision of the people of exceeding strength. This is a sacred bond. We are up to this duty. You know I am saying this because I know our people. I know what it means that in the midst of this economic crisis, yet none of them complained. However, they said: Allah is great! Glory to Allah and his prophet! Jihad, jihad, jihad, jihad, jihad!” (Translation courtesy of IMRA.)

(For the text of Arafat’s remarks, see http://www.mideastweb.org)

Morotn A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America, said: “Arafat is a terrorist and his regime is a terrorist regime. He is waging war against America’s ally, Israel, and every day urges the Palestinian Arabs to continue their war. The time has come for the U.S. to end all relations with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, and treat them as pariahs, exactly as it treats Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and Moammar Qadaffi. Ending relations with Arafat will send a message that there will be consequences for promoting terror and harboring terrorists. We must recognize that Arafat is Hamas and Hamas is Arafat, and that there is hope for peace with Arafat and his terrorist Palestinian Authority regime. It must be destroyed.”

Sixty-two prominent American Jewish and Christian leaders recently signed a ZOA-organized public statement urging President Bush to respond to Arafat’s “ship of terror” —his attempt to smuggle more than 50 tons of weapons to wage war against Israel— and the almost daily murders of innocent Israelis, by suspending all U.S. relations with Arafat and the PA. It appeared as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on January 30, 2002, in the national Weekly Standard this past week, and will appear in the days to come in Jewish newspapers in major cities across the United States, and leading Israeli newspapers such as Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post.

The signatories include present or past leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; the Zionist Organization of America; the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN); the National Religious Broadcasters; leaders of worldwide TV and radio Christian ministries; the National Religious Roundtable; AIPAC; B’nai B’rith; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; the United Jewish Appeal (UJA); the Jewish National Fund; the president of Yeshiva University; the Jewish War Veterans; the Simon Wiesenthal Center; the Rabbinical Assembly; the Rabbinical Council of America, and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors; former Members of Congress; a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination; and other distinguished individuals.