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Crucial Issues – For Israel, Jewish Community & Th e U.S.

T

Sheldon L.
Freilich

he Jewish Federation,
JCRC/AJC and Temple
Beth El should be compli-
mented for hosting Professor Alan
Dershowitz last month in Bloomfield
Hills. He raised crucial issues that
my organization fully agrees with
and has been openly publicizing.
• Professor Dershowitz reiterated:
“The primary obstacle to peace is
the Palestinians’ unwillingness to
recognize Israel as the nation state
of the Jewish people.” Land and set-
tlements are not the primary issue.
• He emphasized that BDS is anti-
Semitism: The goal of the BDS move-
ment and its founders is to simply
to destroy Israel as the nation state
of the Jewish people. The demoniza-
tion of Israel, with claims such as
“pink washing,” is more anti-Semitic
imagery.

The ZOA’s indefatigable
fight on behalf of Israel is
neither “right wing” nor
“left wing,” it is simply
moral and just.

• He strongly criticized former
President Barack Obama’s repeated
failure to support Israel and his
failure to veto the Security Council
vote condemning Israeli settlements
(U.N. Resolution 2334); stating else-
where: “… he just stabbed [Israel] in

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Arthur M. Horwitz
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the back … how dare a lame duck
president try to change 30 years of
American foreign policy without
any political accountability or any
checks and balances?” and “The
United States should defund the
United Nations [if] there is any effort
to implement U.N. Resolution 2334.”
• He announced that if
Congressman Keith Ellison becomes
the chair of the Democratic National
Committee, he “will resign my mem-
bership in the Democratic party,”
stating that Ellison’s work with Louis
Farrakhan and his recent actions
disqualify him.
Given Dershowitz’s analysis, I
cannot fathom how any organiza-
tion could be silent with the rise of
Israel bashers like Ellison, who just
last June called Israel an “apartheid
state,” worked for several years
for anti-Semite Farrakhan and his
Nation of Islam organization, while
personally engaged in disseminating
its Jew hatred, and has been among
the most hostile U.S. lawmakers
toward Israel.
American Jews have been at
the forefront of every major social
movement in our country. But the
Democratic Party’s move toward
anti-Semitism, should Ellison be
its leader, is one movement that
Jews and all intellectually honest
Americans should abhor.
As to U.N. Resolution 2334, the
Simon Wiesenthal Center rightly
said: “It is the worst anti-Semitic
act of 2016. The resolution has
turned truth and international law
upside down: The League of Nations

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Charter and the U.N. Charter’s
Article 80 affirmed that the Jewish
communities in eastern Jerusalem
and Judea/Samaria are legal under
longstanding, binding international
law and agreements. Israel is the
only country that has legal right to
the land. Suddenly declaring that the
Israeli and Jewish presence in these
areas has ‘no legal validity’ and is ‘a
flagrant violation’ of international
law violates over a century of juris-
prudence.”
But the U.N. Resolution has an
even more insidious aim. Labeling
Jewish communities as having “no
legal validity” justifies violence
against Jews. It emboldens and gives
legal cover for Palestinian Arabs to
continue their bloody wave of terror
in Israel that, since 2015, has killed
42 people and wounded 619 others.
Dershowitz misspoke on one topic,
when he incorrectly referred to the
ZOA as “right wing.” Interestingly,
ZOA has made the same points as
Dershowitz enumerated; however,
we were at the vanguard on these
issues.
The ZOA is neither “right wing”
nor “left wing.” As a tax-exempt, sec-
tion 501(c)(3) organization, it does
not promote the election of any can-
didate or party.
The ZOA’s founding purpose is
promoting the strategic benefits of
the U.S.-Israel relationship and fight-
ing the threats against Israel’s legiti-
macy. We fight BDS and anti-Semi-
tism. The ZOA is a civil rights orga-
nization, dedicated to protecting the
civil rights of the Jewish people and

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to fighting anti-Semitism, bigotry
and threats to Jews wherever they
rear their ugly heads — in Europe,
in Asia, in the U.S. and especially on
college campuses.
The ZOA battles any threats and
falsehoods against Israel and the
U.S.-Israel relationship. We have
criticized both Democrats and
Republicans, including former
President George W. Bush and
former Secretary of States Colin
Powell and Condoleezza Rice when
they said things that were hostile to
Israel.
We promote the truth about Israel’s
enemies and promote the truth about
Israel’s relentless pursuit of peace
while it takes dangerous risks in that
pursuit. We promote Israel’s remark-
ably humane policies despite being
surrounded by violent enemies. Israel
is a nonpartisan issue.
The Wall Street Journal has called
the ZOA “the most credible advocate
for Israel in America.”
As Dershowitz said last year: “God
will give the Jewish people strength
— only then will the Jewish people
have peace. That’s the lesson of
the Holocaust. That’s the lesson of
Israel. A strong Israel is required to
get peace. Never apologize for your
strength!”
The ZOA’s indefatigable fight on
behalf of a strong Israel and a strong
Jewish people is neither “right wing”
nor “left wing” — it is simply moral
and just. •

Sheldon L. Freilich is president of the
Zionist Organization of America-Michigan
Region.

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February 9 • 2017

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