Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein is overjoyed to release the following statement:
The Zionist Organization of America strongly congratulates President Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance on their overwhelming election victory as the next U.S. President and Vice President, winning both the popular vote and the electoral college vote. This victory can be considered a mandate from the American people. President Trump and VP-elect Vance are extraordinary friends of Israel and the Jewish people.
ZOA Board members Ed Lewis (who is chairing ZOA’s upcoming Gala on November 17 at Cipriani 42nd Street in NYC) and Gary Schottenstein (who is receiving the prestigious Justice Louis D. Brandeis award at ZOA’s upcoming Gala) are close friends and major supporters of President Trump and VP-elect Vance. (President Trump recently attended the wedding of Mr. Schottenstein’s son at Mar-a-Lago in Florida). At the ZOA Gala, we will be honoring the Trump administration’s U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, Esq., who will receive his award from Trump’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
President Trump’s great achievements during his first presidential term prompted the ZOA to award President Trump ZOA’s highest honor at ZOA’s 2022 annual gala – the rarely-given gold Herzl Medallion. When ZOA National President Morton Klein gave President Trump the beautiful Herzl Medallion, Mr. Klein stated that President Trump should have received the Nobel Peace Prize for forging the Abraham Accords.
Throughout President Trump’s long battle to regain the presidency, he proved his mettle again and again. We marveled at his ability to withstand outrageous “slings and arrows” – multiple court cases; sickening false statements comparing him to Nazis, despite President Trump’s repeated and thorough condemnation of Nazis; Iran’s alarming assassination threats; and the bullets of attempted assassins. We are so thankful that the Almighty preserved President Donald Trump to reach this day.
In 2021, ZOA National President Morton Klein and ZOA Director of Research and Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. authored a book chapter entitled “Trump: Friend Extraordinaire to Israel and the Jewish People” (published by the University of Southern California’s Casden Institute), describing President Trump’s important accomplishments for the Jewish people during his previous term as president. (See also article summarizing the chapter here.)
We are looking forward to President Trump reinstating and expanding upon his many great achievements affecting Israel and the Jewish people. During this first term, President Trump:
- Issued the executive order affirming that Jewish students are entitled to protection on college campuses under the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
- Withdrew from the dangerous Iran deal, and enforced maximum sanctions against Iran so that Iran could not afford to fund and arm its terror proxies;
- Recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem;
- Recognized that Jewish communities (so-called “settlements”) in Judea/Samaria are legal;
- Recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights;
- Consistently stood up for Israel at the United Nations, including by vetoing every anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution and by withdrawing from the antisemitic Israel-bashing UN Human Rights Council;
- Cut off American taxpayer funding to Hamas-infiltrated UNRWA (whose employees murdered Jews and abducted hostages on October 7, 2023 after Biden resumed funding UNRWA);
- Cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority terror regime (which continues to pay terrorists to murder Jews);
- Reversed the Obama administration’s anti-Israel labeling regulations;
- Refused to pressure Israel to make dangerous “deals” such as the Lebanon maritime surrender that the Biden administration pressured Israel into;
- Allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to list “Israel” on their passports;
- Eliminated some of the world’s worst terrorists with the blood of Americans and Jews on their hands, such as Qassem Soleimani;
- Deported the last known Nazi from the U.S. after multiple administrations failed to do so;
- Brought Heather Heyer’s killer in Charlottesville to justice;
- Restricted immigration from terror-supporting nations in which the U.S. has no on-the-ground presence to enable proper vetting of U.S. entrants;
- Obtained U.S. energy independence;
- Appointed pro-Israel, pro-American officials to key administration positions;
- Kept his campaign promise to end the days when the U.S. treated Israel like a second-class citizen; and
- Forged the Abraham Accords peace agreements between Israel and four Arab/Muslim nations.
There will be much to do after four years of dangerous Biden-Harris policies. We especially look forward to the new Trump-Vance administration fixing the Biden-Harris administration’s failures to take action to protect Jewish students who are being attacked and harassed on campuses across the country; re-imposing maximum sanctions on Iran; cutting off the Biden-Harris administration’s dangerous resumption of enormous payments to UNRWA and Palestinian terrorists; ending the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to undermine and overthrow Israel’s democratically-elected government; closing down the Palestinian Affairs Unit in the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem (which was one of the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to undermine Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital); reversing the Biden-Harris administration’s threats to impose arms embargoes on Israel and pressures to tie Israel’s hands while Israel battles the genocidal Arab-Islamist terrorists attacking Israel on seven fronts; reversing the Biden-Harris administration’s refusals to veto anti-Israel UN resolutions, and appointing strong pro-Israel, pro-Jewish advocates to important posts affecting Israel and Jewish people, unlike the hostile-to-Israel Biden-Harris appointments, almost all of whom were close friends of former president Barack Hussein Obama.
We – and the Jewish and Israeli people –are thrilled to have such great friends of our people back in the White House. We pray for the success of the upcoming Trump-Vance administration.