NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging President Bush to support the Israeli government’s decision to expel Yasir Arafat, the terrorist leader who is responsible for murdering thousands of Israelis and more than one hundred Americans.

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

“Expelling Arafat is a legitimate act of self-defense by Israel against the leader of the three year-long terrorist war in which nearly 1,000 Israelis have been murdered. Arafat is also responsible for the murders of over 100 Americans since 1968 by Palestinian Arab terrorists.

“If the leader of a regime next door to the United States had organized daily terrorist attacks against Americans, the U.S. would have immediately expelled him from the region. Indeed, the U.S. has taken swift and forceful action in recent years against the regimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, and Grenada—regimes whose leaders were hostile to the U.S. but were not murdering Americans daily, as Arafat’s regime is doing to Israelis.

“Expelling Arafat will not solve the broader problem of defeating the entire terrorist Palestinian Authority regime and eliminating the culture of poisonous anti-Jewish hatred and violence that dominates Palestinian Arab society and raises Palestinian Arab children to become murderers. But expelling Arafat, the Godfather of Terrorism, will be an important first step on the road to victory over the terrorists—and America should stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel in that fight. On this anniversary of the September 11 attacks, everyone must understand that Israel’s fight against terrorism is America’s fight, too.”