Amb. Kurtzer Demands
Transfer of Jews
NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly protested the remark, as reported by the Israeli media, that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer said it would be “unacceptable” if Israel’s courts rule that the community of Migron is legal.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “Imagine the outcry if there was an issue before an American court, and Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. demanded that the U.S. government take action on the issue, regardless of the court’s ruling. Ambassador Kurtzer demand that Israel expel and transfer Jewish men, women, and children from their homes in Migron is blatant interference in Israel’s internal affairs. It also smacks of a troubling double standard—because he has never called for the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their homes in legally-questionable areas.”
The ZOA notes numerous previous instances in which Ambassador Kurtzer interfered in Israel’s internal affairs:
* In August 2001, Kurtzer publicly criticized Israel for striking at Abu Ali Mustafa, head of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has murdered 14 U.S. citizens and numerous Israelis. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a statement on August 28, 2001, saying it was “surprised and dismayed” that Kurtzer “felt compelled to raise the issue with Prime Minister Sharon [while] we did not hear of any similar actions when American citizens were the victims of terror attacks over the past few months.”
* Kurtzer demanded that Israel stop spending government funds on Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria and Gaza, and “take care of the disabled and or economic development” instead. (Washington Times, Jan.9, 2002)
* The Israeli (Labor) government’s ambassador to Washington, Itamar Rabinovich, has described a “stormy dispute” between Kurtzer and the head of Israel’s negotiating team, in which “Kurtzer thought that Israel was not going far enough with the Palestinians. There were sharp exchanges between them [and Kurtzer] rebuked” the Israeli negotiators. (Ha’aretz, April 6, 2001)
* Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has said: “Kurtzer frequently pressured Israel to make one-sided concessions to the Arabs; he constantly blamed Israel for the absence of Mideast peace, and paid little or no attention to the fact that the Palestinians were carrying out terrorist attacks and openly calling for the destruction of Israel.”
* Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has said more than once that with Jews like Kurtzer, it is impossible to build a healthy relationship between Israel and the United States.” (Ha’aretz, April 6, 2001)
* Morris Amitay, former executive director of AIPAC, has said: “Kurtzer has a track record of pushing for Palestinian rights. He will use his Jewishness as a protective cover for his anti-Israel views.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 29, 2001)
* The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot (August 9, 1991) reported: “Possibly more than any other U.S. State Department official, Kurtzer has been instrumental in promoting the goals of the Palestinians and in raising their afflictions to the center of the U.S. policymakers’ agenda. Kurtzer’s poor relations with Jerusalem’s political bureaus reached a new climax” in 1990, when he authored a speech by James Baker strongly criticizing Israel, which was delivered at an AIPAC conference, “causing a commotion among the conference participants…A Jewish community leader told Kurtzer (shortly afterwards], ‘Your children will bear the consequences of the Israeli policy you are encouraging.”’