To:
ZOA Executive Directors
ZOA Regional Leaders
Friends of Israel Around the U.S.
From:
Morton A. Klein. National President
Zionist Organization of America
According to the New York Times (July 1, 2003), the Bush administration is planning to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid directly to the Palestinian Authority. This would represent a significant and disturbing change in U.S. policy—until now, the U.S. gave aid only to individual, non-PA building and social service projects in PA-controlled areas. Now it will be giving U.S. taxpayers’ dollars directly to a corrupt terrorist regime.
The aid package would begin with $300-million in CIA training and assistance, which will help build up the PA’s terrorist “security forces.” Additional direct aid to the PA could reach as high as $1-billion in the coming year. Tell President Bush what you think:
President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Ph: 202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
e-mail: [email protected]
Some Points You May Want to Make:
1. PA Violates Road Map Conditions:
During the months since the proclamation of the Bush administration’s “Road Map” plan, the PA has not adhered to the conditions listed in the Road Map. The PA regime under Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has failed to halt all violence, arrest terrorists, confiscate their weapons, and stop inciting hatred and murder of Israelis in their school books, television, radio, newspapers, speeches, and religious sermons by PA-appointed clerics. The PA is continuing to teach its people that Israel has no right to even exist. The Road Map stipulates that the PA must “confront and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,” yet the PA has failed to take such actions as outlawing terrorist groups, shutting down their training camps, halting monetary payments to imprisoned terrorists and dead terrorists’ families, and changing the names of streets and schools named after terrorists (including murderers of American citizens).
2. 76.7% of Americans Oppose Aid to the Palestinian Arabs:
Public opinion polls have consistently shown overwhelming American public opposition to the idea of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs. For example, a February 2003 poll by McLaughlin & Associates found that 76.% of Americans oppose the current U.S. policy of giving $150-million annually to the Palestinian Arabs; only 11.5% favor it.
3. Previous U.S. Aid Didn’t Make Them “Moderate”:
Despite the provision of more than $1-billion in direct and indirect U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs, including the Palestinian Authority, during 1994-2002, the PA continued to engage in terrorism and incitement against Israel, in violation of the 1993 Oslo accords, President Bush’s June 2002 speech, and the April 2003 “Road Map” plan.
4. The CIA’s Previous Training of PA Forces Didn’t Make Them Peaceful:
Despite the provision of training and equipment by the CIA, the Palestinian Authority’s police and security forces refused to take action against terrorists, and in many cases members of those forces themselves have engaged in terrorism against Israel.
5. Corruption in the PA Continues:
Despite protests by both the Clinton administration and Bush administration about corruption in the PA, including PA officials using humanitarian funds to purchase luxury apartments and automobiles for themselves and the disappearance of large amounts of foreign aid, such corruption in the PA has continued.