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Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein, ZOA Director of Research & Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq., and ZOA Director of Government Relations Dan Pollak released the following statement:
It is shameful that certain members of Congress (Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul; Representatives Ro Khanna and Tom Massie) are sponsoring and pushing for an early vote on their resolutions to direct the removal of U.S. forces from the Islamic Republic of Iran at this time.
The only real effect of these resolutions is to give aid and comfort to America’s worst enemy – the Islamic Republic of Iran – a regime that has murdered and maimed countless Americans and has been at war with the United States ever since its terror forces seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held our diplomats hostage in 1979.
These resolutions are extremely unlikely to pass in a vote or veto override vote. Similar resolutions (H.Con.Res.38 submitted by Rep. Massie; S.J.Res.59 submitted by Sen. Kaine) were defeated last June after Operation Midnight Hammer severely damaged Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan. There is no indication that the voting would result in a different outcome today. Further, all these resolutions rely on a section of the War Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)) that is widely considered to be an unconstitutional infringement on the U.S. president’s Article II § 2, cl. 1 constitutional powers as commander in chief.
Moreover, President Trump’s actions against the Iranian regime are legal. The War Powers Act – the very same law that the proposed resolutions rely upon – authorizes the U.S. president to continue military actions in undeclared wars for sixty days following a report within 48 hours of the introduction of U.S. armed forces into hostilities, plus an additional thirty days in cases of unavoidable military necessity respecting the safety of United States armed forces. (50 U.S.C. 1544(b).) President Trump’s projection that the mission will take approximately four to five weeks is well within these time frames.
ZOA once again thanks President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu and the armed forces of both nations for the brilliant joint U.S.-Israeli mission to rid the world of the dangers we face from a nuclear and ballistic-missile-armed Islamic Iranian terror regime.