Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
We are all reeling with pain from the horrific Muslim terror attacks this weekend: Today, two Muslim gunmen, while shouting Allahu Akbar, murdered at least 16 innocent Jews including Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger and a ten-year-old girl – and wounded another 40 innocent Jews, many seriously, including our friend Arsen Ostrovsky – at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi, Australia. And yesterday, another Muslim terrorist reportedly screamed the Muslim phrase Allahu Akbar while killing two innocent students and wounding nine other innocent students at a review session at Brown University, for a class taught by Rachel Friedberg, an economics professor and faculty associate in the Judaic Studies program, who previously taught economics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
This is the global intifada that New York City Mayor-elect Mamdani refuses to condemn, and that Hamas supporters on our campuses and streets around the world keep calling for.
This horrific tragedy on top of so many other Muslim terrorist attacks cries out to us to unite to pursue policies to keep our communities and children safe. Major officials and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders need to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” as a clear and present danger to the Jewish community and all Americans, and take all possible actions to end or restrict such calls wherever lawful (for instance, on campuses, which are required to be safe, harassment-free learning environments under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964).
As Egyptian President El-Sisi said, we must demand that Islam reform and reeducate its people from within. We need to demand that Imams in every mosque must call for an end to jihad and violence against Jews and others.
There must also be international pressure to transform the education in the Arab/Muslim schools in the Arab/Muslim countries and the teachings and sermons at too many mosques that promote hatred and violence against Israel and Jews and other non-Muslims. This is absolutely critical. A revolution in these areas is needed. Now!
We need to support President Trump’s proposals for extreme vetting, and for restrictions on immigration and student visas from countries, especially Muslim countries, where Jew-hatred is endemic. Hungary and Poland have had virtually no terrorism due to their restrictions on Muslim immigration, while European countries with large influxes of Muslim immigrants have experienced major Muslim terror attacks, even at Christmas celebrations.
We must demand that groups such as HIAS (formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), formerly led by Presbyterian Christian Mark Hetfield, go back to its roots of assisting Jews – instead of its present-day focus on resettling large numbers of Muslims in America.
President Trump, Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, and Minority Leader Schumer need to all give new major addresses (in addition to their previous addresses and efforts) or even have a joint press conference condemning “globalize the intifada,” “from the river to the sea,” the false “genocide” claims, “death to America and Israel” and other ugly chants that clearly promote hatred and violence.
We need to demand that Muslim Brotherhood branches – including its branches in Turkey and Qatar – be designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and oppose the recent effort to soften the relevant legislation.
It is also high time that mayor-elect Mamdani, Reps. Omar, Tlaib, McClintock, and other people in political power condemn the use of such phrases. ZOA also urges that the extremist Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR be placed on a U.S. terrorist list as Texas Governor Abbott and Florida Governor DeSantis have done. Furthermore, we urge President Trump to urge Qatar, Turkey, and the leader of Syria to publicly condemn these dangerous phrases and the resultant murders.