New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has applauded to of the nation’s foremost national security experts, US Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and former CIA Director under President Clinton, R. James Woolsey, for urging President George W. Bush to repudiate the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) Report produced under the co-chairmanship of former Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton. In an open letter to the President, Kyl and Woolsey, warn President Bush against adopting the Baker/Hamilton Report’s major recommendations, including opening direct negotiations with Iran and Syria ( Center for Security Policy , December 9).

Excerpts from Kyl and Woolsey’s open letter to President Bush:

• “The Iranian regime is working to acquire nuclear arms and long-range ballistic missiles with which to deliver them. When combined with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated threats to “wipe Israel off the map” and bring about “a world without America,” we face the prospect that, in due course, the mullahs running Iran will have the means to carry out their apocalyptic intentions.”
  
  
• “As the ISG’s own report documents, far from being proponents of stability, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its de facto colony, Syria, have gone to great lengths to destabilize the Middle East and, in particular, to prevent Iraq from becoming a free, democratic and peaceful nation.”
  
  
• “Americans have been murdered for nearly three decades by Iranian operatives and Tehran ‘s proxies. U.S. and coalition personnel and civilians in Iraq are being slaughtered today by deadly Iranian I.E.D.s (Improvised Explosive Devices) and other weapons provided to like-minded Islamofascist groups.”
  
  
• “In our view, opening negotiations with Iran (and Syria) as suggested by the ISG will have several undesirable effects. First, such negotiations will legitimate that increasingly dangerous regime and reward its violent and hostile actions against us and our allies. We should rather endeavor to discredit and undermine this regime. Second, such a course will embolden our enemies who already believe they are sapping our will to resist them. Third, such an initiative would buy further time for the Iranian mullahs to obtain and prepare to wield weapons of mass destruction. Fourth, entering into negotiations with Tehran’s theocrats will create the illusion that we are taking useful steps to contend with the threat from Iran – when, in fact, we would not be. As a result, other, more effective actions – specifically, steps aimed at encouraging regime change in Iran – will not be pursued.”
  
  
• “Finally, we trust that you will recognize the necessity of including Israel in any regional conference in which its security and other equities might be a subject of negotiations and that, in such settings and elsewhere, you will continue to adhere to the principle that America supports fellow democracies and eschews appeasement of terrorists and aggressors.”
  
  
  

The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.