Nearly 700 Attend
Successful National ZOA Dinner

NEW YORK- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), the keynote speaker at the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)’s annual Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner at the New York Hilton on November 16, said at the dinner that when he recently stood on the Golan Heights and looked out across the region, “I didn’t see any occupied territory, I only saw Israel.”

Congressman DeLay said that “the ZOA speaks the simple truth that others are afraid to utter,” and that ZOA’s efforts on behalf of America-Israel relations are “indispensable.” Congressman DeLay also called for “expanding military and economic relations between Israel and the United States,” and said that there must be “complete economic, social and political reform” among the Palestinian Arabs.

Rep. DeLay also said, “[ZOA National President] Morton Klein and I have something in common—the State Department has pictures of both Mort and me to use as a dart board.”

U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who also spoke, said “The ZOA is the clarion voice on Capitol Hill when it comes to Israel-related issues.” Congressman Weiner also called for an end to America’s $215-million in annual aid to the Palestinian Arabs.

ZOA president Klein, in his address to the dinner, said that the remarks by DeLay, the leading Republican in the House, and Weiner, a prominent Democrat, “demonstrate the broad and deep bipartisan support for Israel on Capitol Hill, and the ZOA is proud to have played a role in educating Members of Congress about Israel’s war of self-defense against Arab terror and the constant Palestinian Arab violations of the Oslo accords and the Bush Road Map.”

The ZOA recently initiated a letter, which was signed by 70 Members Congress, urging President Bush to stop “discussing further concessions from Israel” and to instead insist that the Palestinian Authority take “concrete, decisive action” against terrorists.

At the dinner in New York, the ZOA’s Ben Hecht Award for Outstanding Journalism was presented to Joseph Farah, the Arab-American syndicated columnist who is one of the most eloquent and principled pro-Israel voices in the world of journalism today. In his address, he gave numerous specific examples of anti-Israel bias in the media.

This year’s Brandeis Award recipients were Nina Rosenwald and Dr. Ben Chouake, who have been at the forefront of pro-Israel advocacy in Washington and beyond. Rabbi Moshe Zwick received the Zionist Educator Award for his extraordinary efforts to teach young Jews a deep and abiding love and knowledge of the Land of Israel. The dinner co-chairs were David Steinmann, former chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and Sylvia Freyer, the prominent Jewish activist and philanthropist. The Master of Ceremonies was Dr. Alan Mazurek, chairman of the ZOA national board.