Also Praise for Bush’s Support of
Israel’s Response to Haifa Massacre
NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America has strongly praised the Bush Administration for vetoing a U.N. Security Council Resolution that would condemn Israel’s security fence as illegal and demand its removal.
The resolution, introduced by Syria (which is on the U.S. list of terrorist states), condemned the security fence, yet made no mention of incessant Palestinian Arab massacres of Israelis that prompted the fence’s construction, including the October 3, 2003 attack on a Haifa restaurant slaughtering 20 civilians. Since the beginning of the current Palestinian Arab terror war, almost 1,000 Israelis have been murdered and over 6,000 maimed by Palestinian Arab terrorists. At present, the fence would only encompass 5-8% of Judea and Samaria.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Dan Gillerman, criticized the one-sided nature of the proposed resolution, stating, “In a pattern that is as familiar as it is distasteful, we have gathered for yet another meeting of this Council, called to censure Israel for its measures to prevent terrorism, rather than address the terrorism itself” (Jerusalem Post, 10/15/03). Further, Gillerman said, “The Palestinians who oppose the fence simply want to kill more Israelis” (New York Sun, 10/15/03).
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., John Negroponte, in explaining the U.S. veto, stated, “We do not believe a Security Council resolution focusing on the fence furthers the goal of peace and security in the region” (New York Sun, 10/15/03).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein stated, “We strongly applaud the Bush Administration for its clear understanding of Israel’s need to protect itself from unrelenting Palestinian Arab massacres of Jews. The United States and other countries erect fences to keep out even peaceful immigrants seeking jobs; all the more does Israel have the right and obligation to use a fence to keep out Palestinian Arab terrorists intent on murdering as many innocent Israeli men, women, and children as possible.
“The Palestinian Arabs, whose actions compelled Israel to erect this fence, remind one of the proverbial child who kills his parents and then begs the court for mercy because he is an orphan.
“The Bush Administration is also to be applauded for statements that demonstrate an understanding for Israel’s recent self-defense measures in Gaza and Syria as not only valid and important in themselves, but also as an integral part of the global war on terror. As the President said, ‘Israel must not feel constrained in terms of defending the homeland….The decisions he [Prime Minister Sharon] makes to defend her people are valid decisions…We would be doing the same thing’” (Washington Post, 10/07/03).