Morton A. Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), released the following statement:

President Obama’s false anti-Israel statements and lies made at a press conference on Friday, October 16, are disgraceful. He actually falsely blamed Israel for committing violence, incitement and changing the Temple Mount’s status quo.

First, Obama shockingly blamed Israelis for committing random violence against Palestinian Arabs, by stating that, ”We must try to get all people in Israel, and the West Bank, to recognize that this kind of random violence isn’t going to result in anything other than more hardship and more insecurity.” But virtually all the indiscriminate and random violence and murder is being committed by Arabs against Jews — not Jews against Arabs.

Second, Obama said, “Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s elected officials and President Abbas and other people in positions of power must try to tamp down rhetoric that may feed violence or anger or misunderstanding…all parties have to lower the rhetoric…and the status quo that allowed shared worship in and around these spaces needed to be maintained.”

But it’s only Palestinian Arab dictator Mahmoud Abbas (serving his eleventh year of a four-year term) who is inciting Arab violence against Jews by lying that Israel wants to change the status quo of the Temple Mount by dividing it. (It is Judaism’s holiest place, where the two ancient Jewish Temples once stood.) This Abbas blood libel is being promulgated despite the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly stated this allegation is a lie and that the status quo has not changed. Why hasn’t Obama condemned Abbas for this outrageous lie, instead of feeding it? It is only Abbas who is inciting Arabs to kill and maim Israeli Jews by his ugly statements: “The Al Aqsa Mosque is ours and Jews have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem. We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood spilled for Allah. Every Martyr will reach paradise and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah.” Abbas continues to promote the despicable lie that Israelis are intentionally “executing” young Palestinian Arab teenagers. In fact, Israeli soldiers have only shot Palestinian Arab teenagers who were in the act of stabbing or shooting innocent Israeli Jews. And Mahmoud Al-Habbash, PA supreme Sharia judge and Abbas advisor, acknowledged on PA television that Abbas was, “inciting the people in Jerusalem to ribat (religious war to protect Islamic land).

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has not incited Jews to violence against Arabs. As Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh wrote this week, “The PA and its leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas, cannot evade responsibility for the latest wave of terror attacks against Israeli Jews in Jerusalem and the West Bank.” Yet, President Obama falsely claims that Netanyahu does incite. Also, President Obama is wrong when he says there is “shared worship in and around” the Temple Mount. The truth is that Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount or even to move their lips (which might look like praying), because it would offend the Palestinian Arab Muslims for a Jew to pray near their mosque. It’s also peculiar that President Obama here criticized “Israel’s elected officials” but neglected to mention the Palestinian Authority when criticizing their “people in positions of power.” Why is Obama using the word “Israel” but not the words “Palestinian Authority” when criticizing their officials?

Third, Obama essentially blamed Israel for Palestinian Arabs attacking, maiming and murdering innocent Jews by saying, “The only way that Israel is going to be truly secure, and the only way that the Palestinians are going to be able to meet the aspirations of their people, is if there are two states living side by side in peace and security.” President Obama ignores the fact that the Palestinian Arabs have twice turned down statehood offers from Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who offered Yasser Arafat and Abbas over 95% of Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. And Secretary Kerry has blamed the current Arab violence on the Netanyahu government “building settlements,” even though Israel has built almost no homes in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for many years. In fact, he’s built fewer homes than any previous Israeli Prime Ministers – including Left Wing PM’s Peres, Barak and Olmert. Moreover, the Palestinian leaders and Arab terrorists are screaming about the Temple Mount’s status quo being changed — not about statehood.

Fourth, it’s also very telling and painful to notice that at three different times in his remarks, Obama condemned violence and killing of “innocent people.” He refused to say innocent Jews or innocent Israeli Jews. But Arabs are directing their attacks at Jews, not at innocent Arabs or other people.

Fifth, Obama acts as if both sides are responsible for the negotiations to have stopped, by stating, “Those talks…have stalled. I think it’s going to be up to the parties…to see if they can restart a more constructive relationship.”

But it’s the Palestinian Authority dictator Mahmoud Abbas who has refused to negotiate by sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu only twice in the last seven years. Netanyahu has repeatedly, to this very week, begged Abbas to come to the table. Abbas has repeatedly, to this very week, refused.

President Obama owes Israel and Jews everywhere an apology for, and retraction of, these disgraceful and false anti-Israel, anti-Jewish statements. But, President Obama’s friends, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Prof. Rashid Khalidi, Ali Abuneimah, Al Sharpton, and Bill Ayers must be pleased. President Obama has once again proven the truth of the ZOA prediction in June 2009 that he would become the most hostile president to Israel, ever.