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

ZOA was invited to a small “on the record” breakfast meeting on Tuesday morning (September 24) with U.S. Senator from Alaska Dan Sullivan, at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York. ZOA Director of Research & Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. represented ZOA. Senator Sullivan was in New York for a CODEL (Congressional Delegation) to meet with UN and foreign leaders at the United Nations General Assembly’s UN Week.

Senator Sullivan discussed his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal urging President Biden to use his then-upcoming speech at the UN – likely to be Biden’s last major foreign policy speech – “to condemn and impose sanctions on the Iranian terrorist regime for acting as the architect of chaos throughout the Middle East and Ukraine; . . . denounce the antisemitism that has pervaded the UN for decades and call out the organization for insufficiently condemning Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israelis; . . . demand that the UN declare Iran-backed Hamas a terrorist organization; [and] denounce the UN Relief and Works Agency, some of whose employees participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.” (“Biden’s Last Opportunity to Stand Up to Iran,” Sept. 20, 2024.)

Unfortunately, when President Biden delivered his UN speech an hour after our breakfast meeting with the Senator, as Senator Sullivan predicted, Biden made none of the wise statements that Senator Sullivan had urged Biden to say. Instead, shamefully, Biden inverted the innocent Jewish victims of Palestinian terrorism in Judea/Samaria with the perpetrators: Biden outrageously urged the UN to “address the rise of violence against innocent Palestinians in the West Bank.” And instead of calling for enforcing sanctions on Iran, Biden called for creating a Palestinian (Iranian-proxy terror) state that would threaten Israel’s existence.

Senator Sullivan also described his persistent efforts to have Biden enforce sanctions against Iran. Senator Sullivan reiterated the facts often mentioned by ZOA and ZOA National President Morton Klein, that the Trump administration’s maximum sanctions reduced Iran’s foreign reserves to a minimal $4 billion, but then Biden’s failure to enforce sanctions resulted in Iran’s foreign reserves ballooning to $80 billion, which Iran is using to finance terror throughout the region. Senator Sullivan mentioned that at a bipartisan meeting with President Biden and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about ten months ago, Biden agreed with Sullivan’s and a bipartisan Senators’ request to enforce sanctions, and said that Jake Sullivan will do this – but the Biden administration still failed to enforce sanctions on Iran, despite Senator Sullivan’s continuing efforts to have the administration do so.

Senator Sullivan asked the attendees to join in his efforts to pressure the Biden administration to enforce the sanctions on Iran, and asked for any ideas as to how to do so. ZOA’s Liz Berney brought up that Iran’s involvement and complicity in 9/11 – including training the pilots in Tehran, planning 9/11 together with Al Qaeda and facilitating the terrorists’ travel to the U.S. – is still unknown to most Americans, and that increasing awareness of this can help increase the pressure to enforce sanctions against Iran. Liz explained that Iran’s complicity in 9/11 was briefly mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report, and then expanded upon, after an 8-year investigation, in the findings of fact in the Havlish v. Bin Laden case in the Southern District of New York (federal court). Senator Sullivan, like most Americans, had not heard about this, and asked for information. Ms. Berney immediately forwarded to Senator Sullivan’s foreign policy adviser pertinent ZOA articles summarizing the court’s findings (see here and here); a ZOA op-ed; and the court’s Havlish decision.

Senator Sullivan also discussed his legislative efforts to counter campus antisemitism, and his experience at Harvard’s Widener Library during finals week last December, being confronted by keffiyeh-clad women who accused him of being a murderer and supporting genocide, when Senator Sullivan stated that he didn’t support a ceasefire because he strongly believes that Israel has the right to defend itself and destroy Hamas. (See “An Antisemitic Occupation of Harvard’s Widener Library,” by Dan Sullivan, WSJ, Dec. 15, 2024.) During this discussion, ZOA’s Liz Berney mentioned the legislation that Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) is working on.

ZOA’s Liz Berney was also able to speak directly with the Senator about other important issues of concern to ZOA and our friends and supporters, including UN Secretary General António Guterres’ praise in July for the unity agreement among the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and numerous other terror groups; the importance of opposing a Palestinian state – which the Knesset opposed 68 to 9; assuring that Israel has sufficient arms to combat the Hezbollah terror organization; and how the right given to the Palestinian Authority in May to introduce a UN General Assembly resolution resulted in the terrible anti-Israel resolution that the UNGA adopted last week. (See “ZOA Condemns UN Antisemitic Non-Binding Res. Calling for Evicting All 800,000 Jews from Eastern Jerusalem/Judea/Samaria and Boycotts, Sanctions and Arms Embargoes,” Sept. 22, 2024; and “Unity Agreement Between Hamas & Abbas Is Dangerous, Biden-Harris Must Stop It,” by ZOA Pres. Morton Klein, Jerusalem Post, July 28, 2024.)

It was truly a great honor to meet with Senator Sullivan and to discuss and hear about his important work.