Disappointed That
U.S. is Urging “Restraint”

NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) strongly supports Israel’s elimination of Palestinian Arab terrorist leader Sheikh Yassin, and is deeply disappointed that the Bush administration is urging Israel to “exercise restraint” in its war against Hamas terrorists, instead of supporting Israel’s anti-terrorist efforts. Hamas has murdered hundreds of Israelis and at least 38 Americans since 1993.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said on CBS Radio (March 22, 2004) said the U.S. is “calling on everybody to exercise restraint.” Likewise, State Department spokesman Lou Finton “said the United States was urging both sides to exercise restraint.” (Washington Post, March 22, 2004)

Yet the United States itself has repeatedly engaged in similar targeted killings of senior terrorists and their sponsors, including the missile attack on a carload of terrorists in Yemen and the killing of Saddam Hussein’s sons.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “Just as U.S. forces have every right and obligation to protect Americans by pursuing and eliminating terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere without restraint, Israel has every right and obligation to protect Israelis by pursuing and eliminating terrorists in Gaza without restraint. The Bush administration should be supporting Israel’s actions.”

The ZOA president added: “Sheikh Yassin’s Hamas is responsible for the deaths of 38 of the 51 Americans murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in Israel since 1993. The Palestinian Authority’s passionate condemnations of the elimination of Sheikh Yassin remind us that the PA treats Hamas as its brothers, not its enemies; the PA names streets after Hamas murderers; and the PA’s official media calls Hamas murderers ‘heroes’ and ‘martyrs.’ But most of all, we must remember that the PA harbors Hamas murderers, including the murderers of dozens of Americans and President Bush said in his address to Congress on September 21, 2001: ‘We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism … From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.’”