Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Director of Research and Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. released the following statement:

ZOA strongly criticizes U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), his Democratic co-sponsors Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for endangering the Jewish people and the Jewish state, just before Rosh Hashana, opposing the policy of Israel by introducing a despicable resolution calling for recognizing a terrorist “Palestinian state” on Israel’s land. Fortunately, the Republican-controlled Congress will reject Merkley’s resolution. But the resolution is still a dangerous piece of hostile-to-Israel J Street propaganda, designed to delegitimize and undermine the Jewish people’s safety and sovereign right to the Jewish homeland.

Merkley’s resolution demanding recognition of a Palestinian state rewards Hamas and Palestinian Arabs for massacring Jews before, during, and after October 7, 2023 – and then calls on Hamas to end its “campaign of terrorism.” Why would Hamas listen to Merkley’s feeble, meaningless request to end terror, when Merkley’s resolution demonstrates that “terrorism pays”? And why did Merkley’s resolution omit mentioning the Palestinian Authority forces’ participation in the October 7 massacres?  

Merkley’s resolution’s operative clauses describe no borders for the imaginary Palestinian Arab state that the resolution calls on President Trump to recognize. However, the resolution’s “whereas” clauses refer to the UN’s partition recommendation in 1947 and “pre-1967 borders” (a misnomer for the 1949 Armistice lines – not borders – where the fighting stopped after six Arab nations invaded Israel and seized land legally guaranteed to the Jewish people). A Palestinian state on either of those lines would displace between a million and several million Jews, and expose Israel’s major population centers to constant rocket and other attacks. This would be absolutely suicidal for Israel.

Merkley’s resolution also repeatedly distorts and omits history. Its mention of the 1947 partition recommendation omits that this recommendation was non-binding, and that the Arabs rejected the partition of Israel’s rightful land and instead went to war to annihilate all of Israel. In fact, Merkley’s resolution never mentions any of the multiple times when the Arabs rejected generous offers of a Palestinian state, and instead responded with wars, murderous and violent Intifadas, and anti-Jewish pogroms. The only rejection mentioned in Merkley’s resolution is the Israeli Knesset’s 2024 just and overwhelming vote opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state, after the October 7 massacre once again made it clear that a Palestinian state would be a springboard for more October 7s.

Merkley’s resolution also attempts to whitewash the Palestinian Authority’s record of inciting and rewarding anti-Jewish terror by asserting that PA Vice President and terrorist promoter Hussein al-Sheikh wrote in a letter to Secretary Rubio that the PA is “committed to peace.”

Notably, al-Sheikh’s letter never commits to the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Merkley’s resolution also never mentions al-Sheikh’s real commitment – which is to reward terrorists who murder Jews. For instance, at a PA “Martyrs’ Day ceremony in January 2023, al-Sheikh stated that the PA’s “firm and unwavering commitment” is to the Palestinian “martyrs and prisoners [meaning, killers of Jews].” Al-Sheikh called these Jew-killers the Palestinians’ “most precious jewels” – and reassured the crowd that the PA “will spend our last penny on them and their families.”

Merkley’s resolution also falsely calls “settlement expansion” [meaning Jews who simply live in the Jewish homeland], “annexation” [meaning, the right of Jews to exercise sovereignty over the land guaranteed to the Jewish people under international law] and “rejection of Palestinian statehood as . . . incompatible with peace” and that states that “it must end.” In fact, Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish homeland reduces the ability of terrorists to perpetrate attacks, and is the surest path to peace.

Merkley’s resolution also asserts that Israel would be “secure”, and the Palestinian state would be “demilitarized” – while ignoring that having a state would enable the Palestinians to import more weapons from Iran. Germany’s demilitarization after World War I demonstrated that there is no such thing as a state remaining demilitarized for long.

The resolution’s claims that a Palestinian state would ensure Israeli security are particularly hypocritical. Merkley and his co-sponsors are the very same Senators who tried to destroy Israel’s security by voting for Bernie Sanders’ recent “Joint Resolutions of Disapproval,” to block arms sales to Israel.

ZOA looks forward to Merkley’s resolution ending up in a Congressional dustbin where it belongs.