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Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein and Director of Research & Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. released the following statement:
On January 30, 2024, the leaders of nine North American Reform Judaism organizations, led by Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) head Rabbi Rick Jacobs, issued a shameful and dangerous statement rewarding the massacre, defaming Israel and making thirteen (13) demands on Israel that would result in more anti-Israel terror and existential threats to the Jewish nation. Back in October, Jacobs briefly spoke about the importance of Jewish unity. How quickly Jacobs jettisoned “Jewish unity,” in his zeal to impose on Israel his far-left, extremist, dangerous, hostile-to-Israel agenda! The Reform leaders’ agenda is opposed by over 80% of Israelis.
It’s especially unconscionable that Rick Jacobs and the other Reform leaders issued their statement at a time when Israel is under attack from all sides, and is still reeling from the October 7th barbaric massacre/rapes/torture/mutilations of innocent Jews. Hamas, PIJ, Palestinian Authority (PA) Arab Islamic terrorists, PFLP terrorists and thousands of accompanying Palestinian civilians who were as bad, or worse (if that’s possible) than the “official” terrorists.
We had hoped that October 7th would have woken up the Reform leaders to the existential dangers posed by their left wing policies that have damaged and endangered Jews and Israel for years. Rick Jacobs served on the boards of hostile-to-Israel groups J Street and “New Israel Fund” (“NIF,” which finances groups that promote anti-Israel BDS and that partner with PFLP front groups and anti-Zionist groups including IfNotNow – now active in pro-Hamas demonstrations). Jacobs also defended the corrupt, antisemitic, Israel-hating group BlackLivesMatter and recklessly and absurdly and falsely accused ZOA of “racism” and demanded ZOA and Klein be thrown out of the Conference of Presidents umbrella group when ZOA legitimately and truthfully criticized the BLM/M4BL organizations’ defamatory anti-Israel platform, social media posts, terror connections and anti-Jewish pogrom in Los Angeles. Jacobs is also infamous for joining anti-Jewish demonstrations on behalf of Palestinian Arabs illegally squatting in buildings owned by Jewish charities in Shimon HaTzadik, Jerusalem.
Another signer of the Reform leaders’ statement, the “Association of Reform Zionists of America” (ARZA) leader Josh Weinberg advocates for divestment against Jews living in the historic, lawful Jewish areas over the artificial “green line” (eastern Jerusalem and Jerusalem suburbs in Judea/Samaria). That’s a type of BDS. Weinberg even opposes funding building a Reform Synagogue in the ancient Jewish homeland of Judea/Samaria.
Sadly, the Reform leaders’ recent statement shows that they’ve learned little or nothing from October 7th.
Note: Fortunately, the Reform leaders who signed this shameful statement do not speak for everyone whom they claim to speak for. ZOA members and friends include many Reform Jews who adamantly disagree with the Reform leadership’s harmful, left wing Israel agenda – especially at this sensitive, dangerous time.
The Reform leaders began their recent statement by proclaiming that they “love” their “Israeli siblings.” So how did the Reform leaders express that love? Let us count the ways:
(1) The Reform leaders wrongly condemned the “ongoing West Bank occupation,” demanded that Israel must “commit[] to ending the occupation,” and also called for “halting the construction of [Jewish] West Bank settlements.” These antisemitic demands seeks to remove over 500,000 Jews from their homes in the Jewish homeland, ignore massive illegal Arab construction throughout Israeli-designated areas of Judea/Samaria, and falsely call Israel an “occupier” of her own lawful and historic Jewish lands. (See ZOA Resource “Israel has the Legal Right to the Land Of Israel, Including Jerusalem, Judea-Samaria & The Golan, Under Binding International Law”)
The Reform leaders’ demand reveals that they are frightened Jews who are ignorant regarding Jewish history and international law; are willing to reward Hamas’ Jew-hating atrocities; and are blind to the reality that every time Israel relinquishes her rightful territory, terrorists immediately take over and use the relinquished territory to attack Israel and murder Jews.
(2) The Reform leaders falsely blamed Israel for the lack of peace, and insisted: “Denying the Palestinians’ right to self-determination [meaning, a Palestinian Arab state] is an impediment to peace.” So what was the “impediment to peace” when Arabs were offered – and rejected – a state on the Jewish people’s lands in 1937, 1947, 2000, 2008, 2014, etc., and instead turned around and murdered and maimed thousands of Jews? What was the “impediment to peace” when the Arabs turned the areas under their control in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza into hotbeds of anti-Jewish terrorism?
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