NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed its strong disappointment at President Bush’s pressure on Israel to halt its anti-terrorist operations.
Just days after the Passover massacres, in which Palestinian Arab terrorists slaughtered 49 Israelis during the first four days of Passover week, President Bush publicly demanded that Israel (1) cease its anti-terror actions; (2) withdraw its forces from areas where they are pursuing terrorists; (3) stop “humiliating” Arabs; and (4) halt all construction activity in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. He also praised the Saudi Plan, which would force Israel to retreat to the suicidal 1967 borders and surrender half of its capitol, Jerusalem. In addition, the President is sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to rescue the terrorist dictator Yasir Arafat, to personally pressure Israel to make additional concessions to Arafat, and to enhance the image and stature of Arafat, an international criminal.
In a letter to President Bush, ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, Chairman of the Board Dr. Alan Mazurek, and Chairman of the National Executive Committee Dr. Michael Goldblatt wrote:
“The inconsistency in the administration’s policy is alarming. You demand that Israel cease its anti-terror actions against terrorists who are just miles from Israel’s major cities—yet the U.S. is continuing its own anti-terror actions in Afghanistan, ten thousand miles from America’s major cities. You demand that Israel withdraw its forces from areas where they are pursuing terrorists—yet the U.S. is keeping large numbers of its own forces in Afghanistan to pursue terrorists. You demand that Israel halt all construction activity in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza —yet you have not said a word about the Palestinian Authority’s construction activity in those areas, which is proceeding at ten times the rate of Israel’s and which —unlike Israel’s construction— is illegal and violates the Oslo accords.
“Your statement sends a message to Arafat’s terrorists that their continuing mass murder of Jews will be rewarded with pressure on Israel and further movement towards the creation of a Palestinian Arab state. It sends a message that murder pays. It is an attempt at appeasement of a terrorist dictator. And it is a victory for terrorism.
“If the United States can go 10,000 miles across the world to fight terrorists in Afghanistan, Israel has the right to go across the street to fight terrorists who murder its citizens every day. Yasir Arafat is Israel’s enemy, just as Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are America’s enemies. Just as America’s allies should not pressure the U.S. to refrain from acting against Bin Laden and Saddam, the U.S. should not pressure its ally, Israel, to refrain from acting against the terrorist dictator Arafat.”