The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) asks all supporters of Israel to contact their U.S. Senators and Members of Congress, to urge the Obama Administration to cease its strong, one-sided pressure upon Israel to make further unreciprocated concessions to Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) and cease blaming Israel for the absence of peace talks, which harms Israel’s image world-wide. Instead, they should urge the Obama Administration to commence pressuring the PA to end incitement to hatred and murder and imprison terrorists.

In recent months, the Obama Administration has:

·         Publicly condemned Israel for merely announcing a future program of construction of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem;

·        Applied pressure for Israel to make further, one-sided concession to the PA, despite the refusal of the PA and the Arab states to make even small, conciliatory gestures or concessions towards Israel that Obama himself originally urged them to make;

·        Openly linked U.S. efforts to combat the looming Iranian nuclear threat with the Israeli/Palestinian hostilities, even saying that what the U.S. does to deal with the problem will be at least to some extent dependent on Israeli concessions to the terror sponsoring PA; and

·        Strongly warned Israel not to launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, even though the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the Iranian regime poses a serious threat to the United States itself.

Israeli officials have privately told ZOA that the U.S. has hinted to them that there may be anti-Israel actions, like threatening not to veto anti-Israeli resolutions at the UN, not being cooperative in dealing with the looming Iranian nuclear threat, withholding orders of U.S. weaponry, if Israel doesn’t comply with Obama Administration’s demands.

Also, in January, President Barack Obama falsely stated in an interview with TIME magazine that Israel has failed to make “bold gestures” for peace and has not been willing to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians. In fact, Israel has frozen Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria for 10 months and repeatedly stated it is ready to talk with Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA). In contrast, President Obama conceded that Abbas’ PA has not made any concessions of its own but explained this away by reference to Abbas “having Hamas looking over his shoulder” and without explaining why he therefore supports the creation of a Palestinian state under current conditions when Hamas is, by his own admission, a major influence on the PA.

Write, email, phone or fax your members of Congress asking them to urge the Obama Administration to desist from its harsh, unfair and counter-productive pressure upon Israel, America’s only true and lasting ally in the region and its only stable democracy.

In your message, you might consider including some of the following points:

• Negotiations are stalled, not because of Israel building apartments in Jerusalem, but because the Obama Administration’s heavy-handed and public efforts to pressure Israel to adopt the racist and discriminatory policy of freezing all Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, a policy which resulted only in the PA seizing on this as a pretext for refusing to negotiate with Israel until this occurs.

• Jewish growth in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem has a fundamental legitimacy and poses no obstacle to a true peace if Palestinians are ready for one, so the Obama Administration’s insistence on a construction freeze would remain inappropriate even if the prospect of genuine peace negotiations with a truly peaceful Palestinian partner were possible.

• The Obama Administration’s on-going public pressure on Israel, coupled with near silence on genuine Palestinian anti-peace acts, like incitement to hatred and murder within the PA, harms Israel’s relations with European governments, like Germany, whose Chancellor, Angela Merkel, last year called up and later criticized Israel on Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem at the behest of the Obama Administration.

• Many European government’s policies towards Israel have become more hostile since the Obama Administration started pressuring Israel. Britain, for example, has refused to renew export licenses of military hardware to Israel, issued new regulations mandating that products manufactured by Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria be labeled ‘product of the West Bank’ or even of Israeli settlement origin, which assist the campaign of economic boycott being waged against Israel.

• There is no legitimate place for U.S. pressure on Israel to make concessions to the PA by reference to the looming threat posed by Iran. This linkage is both illogical and hostile to Israel. Arab states that are genuinely threatened by the looming Iranian nuclear threat will need no inducement to cooperate with America in our efforts to prevent Iran from manufacturing these weapons. Weakening or pressuring Israel will not deter Iran.

·        In contrast to its condemnation of Israel, the Obama Administration promotes ‘healthy relations’ between the U.S. and the Arab Muslim terrorist regimes of Syria and Libya; President Obama has even said that we shouldn’t ‘meddle’ in the internal affairs of Iran – but does precisely that in the case of Israel.

·        President Obama said in a speech to the G-20 Summit that the U.S. will no longer ‘dictate’ to other countries and will ‘forge partnerships as opposed to merely dictating solutions.’ In Middle East, negotiations, he told Al-Arabbiya that the U.S. will henceforth start ‘by listening, because all too often the U.S. starts by dictating’ – but this is exactly how the Obama Administration is behaving towards the human-rights loving ally Israel that is now being treated like an antagonist.

Please urge President Obama & Secretary of State Clinton to immediately defuse the current tension with Israel and to rescind their unprecedented and unwarranted pressure upon Israel and to start condemning Palestinian terrorism, incitement to hatred and murder and glorification of terrorists, in clear language and without delay.

House and Senate members can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and through our website.