April 26, 2024

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

The Honorable Antony Blinken
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

The Honorable Charles E. Schumer
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear President Biden, Secretary Blinken and Senate Majority Leader Schumer:

Violent antisemitism/anti-Zionism is rocking America’s campuses and streets, making many universities and areas unsafe for Jewish Americans. At the same time, Iran and its proxies have been emboldened to launch unprecedented levels of attacks on Israel’s citizens. We urge you to take bold, unequivocal action to curb this dangerous situation, which will otherwise continue to escalate.

First, we urge you to make major speeches unequivocally emphasizing that Israel has the right to exist and has the right to all her lands under binding international law, in addition to Israel’s religious and historic right to her lands; and that Israel has the absolute right and duty to eliminate and defeat the genocidal Hamas terror army as well as Hezbollah’s and other Iranian proxies’ terror threats.

In addition, it is imperative for you to make it clear in major speeches that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza – while Hamas and Iran are promoting genocide, and that in fact, Israel has been taking great care to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, even while Hamas deliberately places civilians in harm’s way. Hamas, moreover, shoots Gazan civilians who try to escape from serving as human shields, and has misfired over 1,000 rockets into Gaza, causing many of the civilian casualties. The number of Gazan civilian casualties resulting from Israeli fire aimed at Hamas terrorists is in fact remarkably low – far lower than the casualties caused in other wars throughout the world. This must be emphasized again and again to stop the vicious blood libel that Israel is perpetrating “genocide” – which is energizing campus violence against Jews.

Second, we urge you to also immediately and publicly correct and rescind all statements that you have made that are contrary to the foregoing facts. These include: your dangerous statements urging Israel to refrain from taking the necessary steps to eliminate the four Hamas battalions in Rafah; your statements urging Israeli restraint against vital Iranian targets; your false statements that Gazan casualties are too high; your false statements that Israel isn’t doing enough to allow in humanitarian goods – despite the fact that Israel has facilitated over 417,231 tons of humanitarian supplies into Gaza since October 7, 2023; your statements calling for a Palestinian Arab (terror) state on Israel’s lawful land; and Secretary Blinken’s false statement on February 24, 2024 that new Israeli settlements are “inconsistent with international law” – which reversed U.S. policy. Notably, Secretary Blinken made that statement just one day after three Arab terrorists ran along a highway, shooting, killing and wounding innocent Jews who were sitting in their cars in a traffic jam near Ma’aleh Adumim. All of the above described statements have encouraged violence and genocidal “From the River to the Sea” chants against Jews on American campuses and streets.

Third, we further urge you to call for the resignation or firing of university presidents, by name, including Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, who fail to take immediate strong action to end illegal trespassing and occupations of their campuses and/or who fail to prevent threats and intimidation against Jewish students. And urge the expulsion of any student who calls for violence against Jews or Israelis, for the destruction of the Jewish State, or who praises Hamas, Hezbollah or any terrorist group.

Fourth, real action is needed to make it clear that the intimidation, violence, riots, threats and exclusion of Jews from college campuses and public spaces is intolerable and must end now. In 1957, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10730, placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control, and sent 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to stop the violent riots that prevented Black African students from attending Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. We need similar action today. We strongly urge you to call in the National Guard to assure that Jewish students can attend their college classes, study in their college libraries, and walk around their campuses unmolested by antisemitic rioters.

Fifth, we urge you to rescind the unjustified, dangerous severe sanctions that you have issued against a number of Jews in Judea/Samaria, based on Hamas-affiliated and PFLP-affiliated anti-Israel groups’ libelous unproven accusations of “high levels of extremist settler violence.” These unjustified sanctions caused European governments to follow suit, and to issue unjustified sanctions against even more Israelis. This is all further encouraging the anti-Jewish riots in America.

Sixth, we likewise urge you to end and reverse the Biden administration’s reported complicity in and “green-lighting” of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s heinous intention to issue arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and other top Israeli officials. You need to stop the disgraceful, unlawful plan for the ICJ (a misnamed, politicized UN body) to sanction Israeli officials for morally defending the Jewish nation. Failing to stop this would sink the U.S. to a new low, would give more ammunition to those who falsely malign moral Israel as a genocidal state, and would encourage still more violence against America’s Jewish community.

Seventh, we urge you to publicly condemn the Palestinian regime’s paying Arabs lifetime pensions to murder Jews; naming schools, streets, sports teams and children’s camps after Jew-killers; calling Jews filth, promoting murder and hatred of Jews in their schools, media, sermons and speeches, and bragging about their joining Hamas in murdering Jews on 10/7; and condemn their official emblem showing ALL of Israel as Palestine, adjoining a picture of terrorist Yasser Arafat with a large rifle. Condemn the Palestinian atlases used in schools showing all of Israel as Palestine. Also condemn and demand the abrogation of the Palestinian regime’s charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews. Condemn their policy and actions of disseminating pictures of Jew-killers as heroes on the walls of their high schools and universities. Condemn Palestinian TV shows teaching Arab children the “beauty and holiness” of becoming a suicide bomber and powerful pictures teaching Palestinian Arabs how to murder Jews by ramming cars into Jews and slitting their throats.

Eighth, condemn Mauritanian, Nigerian and Sudanese Muslims for still having Black slaves. And condemn Black Nigerian Muslims for weekly murders and rapes of Black Christians (now totaling 52,000 over the last decade) and condemn African Muslims’ continuing destruction of thousands of black churches.

Sincerely,

Morton A. Klein
National President
Zionist Organization of America