Palestinians Don’t Deserve
Bush’s Praise as Peaceful
New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) strongly praised President Bush’s strong statements of support for Israel during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday, May 23 at the White House.
President Bush said, “We reaffirm the deep and abiding ties between Israel and the US, which include growing trade and economic relationships…Israel is a close friend and ally of the US, and in the event of any attack on Israel, the US will come to Israel’s aid. The US is strongly committed and I’m strongly committed to the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state.”
Nevertheless, ZOA is concerned about a report in Agence France-Presse (5-22-06) that said, “Israel and the US are locked in disagreement over the warplane of the future after Washington refused to let Israel upgrade the aircraft with its own technology. The US is refusing to allow Israel to install any more advanced systems in their batch of the F-35 planes – no navigation, sighting or fire control systems, or Israel-developed missiles…This could diminish the qualitative advantage of the (Israeli) air force over its regional rivals.”
The ZOA was also concerned that despite Israel’s apparent goal of retaining a small portion of Judea and Samaria while forcibly evacuating tens of thousands of innocent Jewish men, women and children, President Bush stated that “no party should prejudice the outcome of negotiating on a final status agreement.” And that “agreement will be only achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes, “meaning that President Bush will not be supporting even this final huge Israeli concession unless Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) support the Israeli policy of keeping only minimal parts of Judea and Samaria.”
President Bush also stated that “Hamas must accept all previous agreements between the PA and Israel.”
But, the ZOA pointed out, this implies that Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas accepted and fulfilled their agreements with Israel. The fact is that Arafat and Abbas fulfilled none of their Oslo or Wye or Road Map agreements. Bush should be demanding a full and complete fulfillment of all the agreements by the PA, before there can be any negotiations or concessions by Israel.
Another statement by President Bush was not accurate. He stated that “the Palestinians want to live in peace.” and that “our beef is not with Palestinian people but with the government.” We must understand that the Palestinians knew that Hamas was a terrorist group devoted to Israel’s destruction when they voted them into power. If the people really wanted peace with Israel, they never would have voted for Hamas. It’s like saying all the white people who voted for David Duke in Louisiana several years ago have nothing against black people. In addition, polls show that 75% of the Palestinians support acts of terror against Israel, while 65% of Palestinians support al-Qaeda attacks against Europe and the US.
Another recent poll by Bir Zeit Palestinian University showed that 85% of Palestinians said they would want conflict against Israel to continue even if a Palestinian State was created with Israel as its capital as long as Israel still existed in any form. In addition, different polls show that between 45% to 80% of Palestinians don’t support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State. (Source: Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, FAFO Norwegian polls)
ZOA President Morton A. Klein said, “Clearly, the Palestinian people are not much better than their Hamas terrorist government and must be held accountable for their votes and their views, and do not deserve President Bush’s praise.”