Stop U.S. Aid to Arafat and
Cut Ties to PA Regime

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Two hundred and fifty Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) activists from 20 states traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to lobby against the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, to urge an end to U.S. relations with the Palestinian Authority because of its terrorism against Israel; and to urge U.S. action to capture Palestinian Arab killers of Americans.

The ZOA’s Mission to Washington was led by its National President, Morton A. Klein, and the chairman of the ZOA’s National Executive Committee, Dr. Michael Goldblatt. It was organized by the ZOA’s director of Capitol Hill affairs, Sarah Stern, and the Director of the ZOA President’s Office, Kathy Branch.

At a special dinner at the Israeli Embassy, the ZOA activists were addressed by MS-NBC television talk show host (and former Assistant Secretary of State and former ambassador at the U.N.) Dr. Alan Keyes; Ambassador Rafi Barak, Deputy Chief of Mission; and Dr. Michael Ledeen, the noted foreign affairs expert and Senior Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Dr. Keyes pointed out that the Arabs already control 78% of the original Palestine Mandate territory, since they were given the area that became the Kingdom of Jordan—and the majority of the Jordanian population consists of Palestinian Arabs. The area that today comprises Israel and Judea-Samaria-Gaza is just 22% of the Palestine Mandate.

Dr. Ledeen, in his remarks, said there is no political solution to the Palestinian Arab terrorist war against Israel — only a military solution.

The next day, groups of ZOA lobbyists held meetings with 150 U.S. Senators and Representatives. They warned that the creation of a Palestinian Arab state which would certainly be a terrorist state and endanger Israel. They also urged a halt in the $150-million annual U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs; urged Congress to support the Arafat Accountability Act, to impose sanctions on the PA because of its terrorism; to support the Syria Accountability Act, which imposes restrictions on U.S. exports to Syria until the Syrians end their occupation of Lebanon and stop sponsoring terrorist groups; and to support the Koby Mandell Act, to create an office in the Justice Department to capture the Palestinian Arab killers of nearly 100 Americans and seek financial compensation for the victims’ families.

Later, five U.S. Senators and more than twenty House members attended a ZOA luncheon at the Rayburn Office Building on Capitol Hill. The speakers included Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), John Ensign (R-NV), Frank Murkowski (R-AK), Gordon Smith (R-OR), and Bob Smith (R-NH); the House members who attended included six members of the House International Relations Committee, Representatives Eliot Engel (D-NY), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Joseph Hoeffel (D-PA), Shelley Berkley (D-NV); as well as Representatives Mike Pence (R-IN); Constance Morella (R-MD); Henry Waxman (D-CA); Robert Filner (D-CA); Steven Israel (D-NY); Butch Otter (R-ID); and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Also speaking was Gary Bauer, president of American Values and former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Another of the speakers at the luncheon was U.S. Representative Peter Deutsch (D-FL), who recently returned from Israel. He displayed an actual flak jacket specifically designed and manufactured for Palestinian Arab terrorists to carry suicide bombs. Rep. Deutsch also showed large poster-size copies of documents signed by Arafat ordering and paying for terrorist attacks against Israel.

Later, the ZOA group met with Aaron Miller, one of the senior State Department officials in charge of Middle East policy. They raised a number of issues with Miller, including:

* the extreme danger that Israel will face if a Palestinian Arab state is established in Judea-Samaria-Gaza, since that would force Israel back to the indefensible pre-1967 borders and enable Yasir Arafat to station his terrorists directly adjacent to Israel’s major cities;

* the failure of the State Department to acknowledge Arafat’s thoroughly-documented role as organizer, director, and financer of the ongoing Palestinian Arab terrorism against Israel;

* the failure of the State Department to publicize the names and photos of the suspects in Palestinian Arab killings of Americans, even though it publicizes the names and photos of other terrorists who have killed Americans overseas;

The ZOA lobbyists also met with the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Planning, Douglas Feith; and David Schenker, Assistant Secretary of Defense, to discuss the military dangers that Israel now faces, and the increased dangers that would arise from the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state next to Israel.