Transcript of ZOA President, Morton Klein addressing Knesset:

First of all, I want to say– many things have been said about Mike Huckabee. I want to say that I’m honored to be his friend and I would argue that Mike Huckabee is the greatest friend of Israel of any of the major political figures of America and I’ll go further and say if Mike Huckabee was a member of the Knesset, he’d be the Knesset’s greatest friend in Israel.

I hear this nonsense about, “Well, I have nothing against Jews, it’s just the Jewish state that I have something against.” What I would like to say, could I ever possibly say, “I have nothing against the Italians, but I think that Italy should be destroyed.” Do you think, maybe, I have hostility toward Italians because I’m calling for Italy to be destroyed? Well, of course, I do. This is the type of rubbish that we need to endure.

 I want to say a couple of quick things. First of all, words matter [inaudible] of delegitimization. We should be using the right words, the accurate words, that tell the truth as opposed to the words that the media and our enemies want us to use. We should not say “Arab/Israeli conflict”. There is none. The Jews would have peace with the Arabs in a minute simply [inaudible]. We should say the Arab war against Israel because that is what it is. And, please, stop using the word “peace process”, “negotiating process” maybe. We know this isn’t leading the peace. Don’t give it that legitimacy by using that term.

We shouldn’t say “We don’t have a partner.” That gives some legitimacy, that he’s just a partner and not a [inaudible]. We should say that Abbas is an enemy who doesn’t want peace. We’re dealing with an enemy, not someone who isn’t a partner. He’s a man who supported the kidnapping of Shalit. He named schools and streets and sports teams after Jew-killing terrorists. He doesn’t outlaw terrorist groups. He has parades glorifying terrorists. He’s a holocaust denier, a terrorist praiser. This is a horrible man. This is not some man in a suit who’s a decent moderate at all. We have to demonize this holocaust denying hater of Israel and Jews, Mahmoud Abbas.

And please, please for God’s sake, stop using the term “two-state solution”. Israel is already a state. By using that term, it’s as if east side is getting something. You want to say the “fraud Palestinian state solution”, at least you’re not acting as if Israel is not a state yet and we know, of course, a Palestinian state is not a solution because every time the Arabs have been offered a state requiring them to support Israel, they’ve said “No” forever. In 1937, the Peel Commission, they offered the Arabs a state on 95% the rest of Palestine, they said “No”. In 1981, they offered the Palestinians a state, essentially half or the rest of Palestine, they said “No” and invaded Israel. In 2000, Ehud Barak, and in 2008, Ehud Olmert offered them states on virtually all of the disputed territories and half of Jerusalem and they said “No”. Between ’48 to ’67, when the Arabs controlled Judea and Sumeria, they controlled Gaza and half of Jerusalem, did they establish a state? No, because their goal is not statehood. Let’s stop this myth saying that what they need is a state. That is not what they want. That’s not what their desire is. So, let’s stop using Palestinian state solution or two-state solution when, in fact, this is simply an Arab war to destroy Israel and nothing will work until they realize that it’s hopeless to try and destroy the state and that time hasn’t come yet.

Also, stop using the word “West Bank”. Menachem Begin came to America. He came to America. He begged the Jewish leaders to stop using the work “West Bank”. That was a term made up by the Arabs to de-Judeaize the area of Yehuda VeShomron and we should be using “Judea and Samaria. Never use the term “West Bank”. Never use the term “settlements”, for God’s sake. These are Jewish communities in Yehuda VeShomron. They are not settlements, which makes it look like there are a bunch of tents all on top of a hill somewhere. And let’s call it racism. When people are saying that the 350,000 Jews in Judea and Sumeria should not be allowed to live there, why on earth can’t 350,000 Jews live among the million Arabs, when 1.5 million Arabs live among 6 million Jews in Israel. Anyone that says Jews can’t live there, it’s racism and anti-Semitism, and we should call it that.

And stop saying that Jerusalem is holy to Muslims. That is a propaganda lie. The word Jerusalem doesn’t appear in the Koran ever. It appears 700 times in our Jewish holy books. No Arab leader visited eastern Jerusalem when they controlled it from ’48 to ’67. They allowed it to remain a slum. It’s not in the [inaudible] Charter. Let’s stop acting as if they have some right to Jerusalem. They have no religious, historic, or political right to Jerusalem and stop acting like we have to make a deal about Jerusalem. I’m sick and tired of their lies about Jerusalem.

You know, when I gave a speech about this at a major synagogue in LA, the Rabbi became very angry and said “The Arabs will decide what’s holy for them, not you, Mort Klein.” And I said, “Well, suppose, tomorrow,” to this Rabbi, “they decide LA is holy to them. We have to give them half of LA?” If there’s no basis, if there’s no basis for their arguments, they have no right to make their arguments.

And, please, let’s stop helping BDS by using the word occupation. For God sakes, there is no occupation. Israel has given away almost half of Judea Samaria. That’s where 99% of the Arabs live. They are running their own lives there, except for security. If they weren’t constantly developing terror cells to murder Jews, Israelis wouldn’t even half to be in Judea Samaria and the areas that Israel has given away. And let’s make it clear to the world that only of all the Jewish communities in Judea Sumeria, they comprise only 3% of Judea Samaria, 3%. The images, they are all over the place. I wish it were true, but it’s not true and we should make that clear. There hasn’t been a single new Jewish community built since Oslo began in 1993. Not a single one. There has been Jewish homes built within the boundaries of the legal, existing communities and Israel captured this land in a defensive war in 1967. Jordan, illegally, occupied this from ’48 to ’67. The UN never recognized it and King Hussein, himself, in 1988, probably relinquished all claims to Judea Samaria. This is unallocated, international land. Of course, there is no occupation. The Jews have a greater legal, political, historic and religious claim to this than any Arab or Muslim ever did. And, by the way, polls, recent polls, show that Americans, not Jews, Americans support the right of Jews to live in Judea Samaria by 3 to 1. So, we have the support of the American people on this issue.

What I’m saying are all facts. This is not editorializing. Let me just end by saying we should condemn, with all of our hearts and souls, this new alliance by Hamas and Fatah, which is an alliance with a Nazi group, whose Charter in Article 7 calls for the murder of every single Jew and what America, the European Union and the world has done is nothing short of diplomatic Kristallnacht. It is a diplomatic Kristallnacht. Not only have they not criticized it, they have embraced this alliance. They said they will negotiate with this alliance and they said they will fund this alliance. So, let’s use the right term for this. It is nothing less than diplomatic Kristallnacht. I’ve had Democrats calling me and Obama supporters screaming at me for using this term, but it’s the right term. It not Kristallnacht in that that Jews are being killed directly, but it’s a diplomatic Kristallnacht.

And let me, finally, end and say, and I will end, we should make it clear that this is called the Promised Land and we should ask everyone, “Who promised this land and to whom did he promise it?” God promised this land to the Jews and God does not break his promises.

Thank you very, very much.