The ZOA is respectfully urging U.S. Senators and House members not to meet with Cindy Sheehan, an anti-Iraq war protestor, who has made vicious, extremist and false statements about America and Israel. Doing so only confers legitimacy and credibility upon Cindy Sheehan, which she does not deserve. Her extremist remarks include:
- “America has been killing people on this continent since it was started. This country is not worth dying for…”
- “When I was growing up, it was Communists. Now it’s Terrorists. So you always have to have somebody to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can build more bombs, guns, and bullets and everything.”
- “They’re not waging a War on Terror but a War of Terror. The biggest terrorist is George W. Bush.”
- “My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel.”
- “You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism.”
- “Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn’t know anything, and we would already be a fascist state.”
- “George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans.”
- “We have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a 5-week vacation in a time of war.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Anyone who has made statements such as these should not be given the respect of a meeting with a member of Congress.”
Cindy Sheehan was in Washington, D.C. this week and had meetings with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and the chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-TN). She is scheduled to meet with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) this Tuesday. Her scheduled meeting with McCain is especially surprising, as Senator McCain, when asked if President Bush should meet with Sheehan, said, “If I was President of the United States, I probably wouldn’t meet her … Sheehan is probably being used by anti-war groups.”
Klein added, “It is certainly appropriate to meet with people with whose views you disagree. But we believe it is inappropriate to meet with those who viciously and falsely attack the U.S. and Israel. Some have even construed Sheehan’s words as bordering on anti-Semitism.”
Cindy Sheehan has attacked the Bush Administration for allegedly lying to the American public in order to undertake the war in Iraq. She has written, “Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC [Project for the New American Century] Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full-well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by a George Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11. We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy…not for the real reason, becuase [sic] the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign policy. That hasn’t changed since America invaded and occupied Iraq…in fact it has gotten worse.”
Klein summarized by saying, “We respect Senators, Frist, Reid, Clinton, McCain, and U.S. Congressman Waxman as wonderful lawmakers who love and care deeply about America and its people, and promote policies they believe are best for all of us. We also greatly appreciate their strong support for strong U.S.-Israel relations. But we at the ZOA are concerned that these meetings and possible future congressional meetings with Sheehan give more publicity and respectability to Sheehan’s far out-of-the-mainstream and hateful views, which harm America and its greatest ally, Israel.
“Giving more visibility and dignity to her and her views only encourages her and her ilk, while helping to camouflage the truth of the great danger of the radical Islamic terrorist war against the U.S., Israel and the West. We therefore respectfully urge all members of the House and Senate who may be planning to meet her, to reconsider.”