NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America has sent an urgent telegram to President Bush, asking him to confirm or deny a New York Times report that senior U.S. officials recently visited Israel to select Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria that they want to expel in the near future.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, chairman of the board Dr. Alan Mazurek, and National Executive Committee chairman Dr. Michael Goldblatt wrote to President Bush:

“We are appalled that, according to a front-page New York Times article, Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley and National Security Council Middle East Affairs director Elliott Abrams recently took a helicopter trip across Judea and Samaria with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who wanted “to show them the precariousness of Israel’s security situation”, while Hadley and Abrams wanted “to get a bird’s eye view of Jewish settlements to see which ones would eventually be frozen or even dismantled as part of the peace negotiations.”

“Such activity by U.S. officials would be outrageous. The Israeli government has never adopted the position that Jewish communities will be expelled, nor has the government endorsed the Road Map plan, which calls for action against those communities. For U.S. officials to be selecting Jews to throw out of their homes and off their land sends a message to the Arabs that they do not need to compromise or even negotiate seriously, since the U.S. has already adopted the Arab position that the Jews should be expelled.

“Furthermore, it smacks of a racist double standard, with Jews in the territories targeted for restrictions or expulsion, while nothing is said about Arab construction in those territories, which is proceeding at ten times the rate of Jewish construction.

“If Hadley and Abrams acted without your authorization, appropriate disciplinary action should be taken. If they acted with your authorization, we appeal to you to reconsider this policy, which can only embolden Arab terrorists by showing them that their terrorism is resulting in U.S. support for their demand to expel the Jews. This severely undermines both Israel’s security and America’s war against terrorism.”