New York – The ZOA has applauded President Bush’s recent address to the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., in which he explicitly identified the ideology of “evil Islamic radicalism”, “militant jihadism” and “Islamo-fascism” as the driving force of radical Islamic terrorist groups with whom we are at war. President Bush called for no concessions or weakening of resolve in fighting the terrorists and promised to prosecute the war on them until victory.

Excerpts from the President’s address:

• “We’re not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We’re facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers — no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder.”
  
• “They target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory.”
  
• “We will not relent until the organized international terror networks are exposed and broken, and their leaders held to account for their acts of murder.”
  
• “State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists, and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror. The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them, because they’re equally as guilty of murder.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “President Bush is to be applauded for articulating an unwavering vision of what the war on Islamist terrorism is about and what must be done to win it. He shows a clear understanding that reasonable grievances do not lie behind this terrorism and that ill-advised concessions to terrorists will not win the war, only stimulate their aggression. Or, as Winston Churchill so said so memorably, ‘Those who feed the crocodile will simply be eaten last.’

“We urge President Bush to apply his laudable commitment to ‘no concession, bribe or act of appeasement’ towards Islamist terrorist groups and apply the same commitment to the Palestinian Authority, which as of this moment has not dismantled the terrorist groups, ended incitement to violence and glorification of suicide murder against Israel and Jews in its mosques, media and schools or renamed schools, streets and youth clubs named after suicide bombers.”