ZOA to Bush: Giving Them a
State Would Be Disaster for Israel
NEW YORK- In the wake of a new poll showing the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs still support violence and the destruction of Israel, the Zionist Organization of America is urging President Bush to drop his effort to create a sovereign Palestinian Arab state.
At a press conference in Indonesia on October 22, President Bush emphasized that he supports creating a Palestinian Arab state, “And I’m the first President to ever articulate such a vision, and I still believe it is possible.”
But a new poll of Palestinian Arabs carried out by pollster Frank Luntz, the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, the Public Opinion Research of Israel, and Palestinian media watch (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 22, 2003) has found:
* 80% of Palestinian Arabs say that even if Israel surrenders all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem, the Palestinian Arabs should still insist on the “right of return” —which would mean flooding Israel with millions of Arab “refugees” and thereby putting an end to Israel as a Jewish state.
* 59% of Palestinian Arabs believe that Hamas and Islamic jihad should continue their violence against Israel, even if Israel surrenders all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem.
* 96% of Israeli Jews say that the 9/11 attackers were terrorists, but only 37% of Palestinian Arabs consider them terrorists. In addition, 26% of Palestinian Arabs believe that Israelis planned the 9/11 attacks.
* 61% of Israel Arabs, and 42% of Palestinian Arabs, say they support the terrorists who are attacking Americans in Iraq. Zero percent of Israeli Jews support the attacks.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “It would be a monumental mistake to give a sovereign state to people who overwhelmingly support anti-Israel terrorism, seek Israel’s destruction, and sympathize with the 9/11 attackers. It would mean creating an anti-American terrorist regime that would both endanger Israel and be closely allied with America’s enemies. We urge President Bush to withdraw his support for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.”
Fifty prominent Jewish and Christian leaders, as well an former U.S. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Secretary of Education William Bennett, and former Republican presidential candidates Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes recently signed a full-page ZOA newspaper advertisement headlined “President Bush, creating a Palestinian Arab state means creating a now terrorist state.
The ad appeared earlier this year in the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, the Israeli newspapers Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post, and Jewish newspapers throughout the United States.
A national poll by McLaughlin and Associates earlier this year found that by a margin of 71% to 13%, Americans oppose the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
The poll found that by a margin of five and a half to one, Americans oppose creating a Palestinian Arab state; by a margin of six and a half to one, Americans oppose U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs; by a margin of four and a half to one, Americans want Palestinian Arab killers of Americans handed over to the U.S. for prosecution; by a margin of more than three to one, Americans believe that the Palestinian Arabs’ goal is the destruction of Israel; by a margin of two to one, Americans believe that a Palestinian Arab state will be a terrorist state; and by a margin of three to one, Americans say that world leaders should not meet with Palestinian Arab officials such as Abu Mazen, Yasir Arafat’s second in command, who have denied or distorted the Holocaust.