Poll: 76% of Americans Oppose
Aid to the Palestinian Arabs
ZOA Launches Campaign On Capitol Hill And Nationwide To
Oppose U.S. Aid To Terrorist Palestinian Authority Regime
NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America is launching a campaign on Capitol Hill and across the country to oppose the Bush administration’s plan to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the terrorist Palestinian Authority regime.
Until now, the U.S. gave aid only to individual, non-PA building and social service projects in PA-controlled areas. That aid totaled $100-million annually until this year, when it was increased to $200-million by the Bush administration. The U.S. refused to provide aid directly to the PA because of the Palestinian Authority’s long record of sponsoring terrorism and misappropriating foreign aid. But according to the New York Times (July 1, 2003), the Bush administration is now planning to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid directly to the PA.
The aid package is supposed begin with $300-million in CIA training and assistance, which will help build up the PA’s terrorist “security forces”—even though the CIA previously provided such training to the PA security forces, which then used that training in carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. Additional direct U.S. aid to the PA could reach as high as $1-billion in the coming year, according to the Times.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “It is appalling that a president who has vowed to put an end to terrorist regimes around the world now plans to give U.S. taxpayers’ dollars directly to a corrupt terrorist regime. We will do everything in our power to persuade Congress and the American public to oppose aid to the terrorist PA regime.”
The ZOA’s campaign will include meetings with Members of Congress, public rallies, newspaper advertisements, and joint efforts with pro-Israel Christian organizations. The themes of the ZOA’s campaign will include:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 and the disappearance of large amounts of foreign aid, corruption in the PA has continued.
4. 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.
5. 76.7% of Americans Opposed 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.