|
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The Zionist Organization of America issues qualified support for President Trump’s Gaza plan, with concerns. ZOA is thrilled at the prospect that – at the outset of the plan – all the remaining innocent Jewish hostages will be freed from the blood-soaked hands of the evil Arab-Islamic Hamas monsters, who committed unspeakable atrocities, and whose Charter calls for the murder of every Jew and Israel’s destruction. ZOA is grateful that the war against Arab/Islamic Hamas and their supporters will have achieved its primary goals and therefore may come to a successful end.
ZOA strongly thanks President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu for their unceasing efforts to help release our brothers from captivity. And we profoundly thank President Trump for supporting any and all of Israel’s actions if Hamas rejects this plan, or if the Palestinian Arabs and the Palestinian Authority do not fulfill their obligations of reformation and deradicalization required under this plan.
As we enter Yom Kippur, we are also hopeful that the plan will enhance Jewish unity and help usher in a year that sees better days for all of Israel and the Jewish people.
We are greatly concerned that the deal includes releasing 1,950 Arab/Islamist terrorists, including 250 who were convicted for murdering Jews, and similar capital crimes. In the past, many of these released Arab terrorists went back to murdering Jews. Forty of them became leaders of Hamas. It also increases and inspires the likelihood of more kidnappings of Jews.
We are also concerned about hostile-to-Israel Tony Blair having an important oversight role, and the prospect that untrustworthy non-neutral Palestinian Arabs could aid in running Gaza. So-called Palestinian technocrats have historically and invariably been terrorists. We are upset that Hamas leaders will not be held accountable for their Nazi-like barbarism and atrocities and will be given the right to remain in Gaza.
We very much appreciate the plan’s statement that Gaza will be deradicalized. However, it is unclear to us if this will include the strenuous, drastic, long-term programs and efforts needed to re-educate an entire population brought up from infancy to hate and aspire to murder Jews and Christians. If such serious efforts will indeed be made, that would be a historic game-changer, and could bring real peace. At a minimum, deradicalization must also include the Palestinian Authority ending pay-to-slay; and all Palestinian Arab regimes changing their antisemitic, Israel-bashing textbooks and daily indoctrination of antisemitic and anti-Israel hatred; removing the names of Jew-killers from schools, streets, sports teams and children’s camps; removing Imams and media that preach hatred and violence against Jews; publicly accepting Israel as a Jewish state; deleting the Fatah and Hamas charters’ demands to murder Jews and destroy Israel; changing emblems, such as the Fatah (PA ruling party)’s emblem, showing all of Israel as Palestine with a rifle and Arafat, and the Palestinian Authority logo showing all of Israel as Palestine; sincerely accepting the Jewish state; and placing Israel on all their maps.
We are concerned that mere interfaith dialogue and improving the economic situation of Gazan Arabs will not change the Gazan population’s Islam-inspired commitment to hate and kill Jews and destroy the Jewish state. This has been a religious/Koranic war against Israel’s very existence. It has not been about economics or a state. It is about destroying Israel and murdering Jews. Improving Palestinian Arabs’ material lives doesn’t impact their Islamist hatred of and violence against Jews. The Palestinian Arabs’ refusal to give up their overriding Islamic goal of destroying Israel is why the Palestinian Arabs rejected numerous offers of a “side-by-side” state accompanied with billions of dollars in aid. Remember, the Arabs rejected the British Peel Commission’s two-state offer in 1937, the UN’s non-binding partition recommendation in 1947, and numerous other rejected offers for a state, and instead went to war to annihilate the Jewish state. The economic improvements offered here unfortunately also reward terror.
We believe that the provision limiting Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza (e.g., “save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat”) needs to be broadly interpreted to make the perimeter of Israeli control permanent. Israel needs to retain and control a significant buffer zone in Gaza to assure Israel’s safety, and to make it safe for Israelis to rebuild the communities in southern Israel that Hamas and Gazan civilians destroyed on October 7. It must also be made clear that Israel must continue to control the Philadelphi border with Egypt so that no weapons can enter Gaza via Egypt. We must never forget that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was a disaster that resulted in over 30,000 rockets launched at Israel, repeated wars, and brutal terror attacks.
We also want to make sure that the clause about non-interference with aid is not (mis)interpreted so broadly as to prevent Israel from inspecting trucks delivering aid into Gaza. Israeli inspections for weapons are essential for Israel’s security and should not be deemed to be interference. Current Israeli inspections have not interfered with aid deliveries. Indeed, as of this past Sunday (Sept. 28, 2025), Israel has facilitated 2,097,488 tons of aid on 107,828 trucks and 13,209 pallets into Gaza.
We are also concerned about the statement giving UN agencies aid distribution roles – and hope that this provision is not used to revitalize UNRWA – the Hamas-infested UN organization that participated in October 7, hid weapons and communications centers for Hamas, and teaches unmitigated hatred for Jews and Israel in its schools. We also hope that the aid provisions are not interpreted to bar the U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) from its work: As of Monday, Sept. 19, 2025, the GHF has distributed 176 million meals in Gaza.
We are very relieved that the plan does not include an agreement to a Palestinian terror state. But we are somewhat uneasy about even the mention of a state in the vague provision: “While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.”
As ZOA has explained repeatedly, a Palestinian state would be a terror enclave and a mortal danger to Israel, and is overwhelmingly opposed by the Israeli people, officials, and the Knesset. “Reforming” the efficiency of the bloodthirsty Palestinian Authority will not justify taking away lands guaranteed to Israel under international law to form a Palestinian state. The aspiration of the Palestinian Arabs is not a state; it is Israel’s destruction, as their charter, their repeated rejection of side-by-side offers, their speeches and sermons, and textbooks and media all confirm.
ZOA is also unconvinced that Hamas and the Palestinian regime will fulfill their obligations under the plan. Can we trust Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and others to do what’s promised and what’s right? Nevertheless, given the present international and Mideast circumstances and the frightening surge of Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred everywhere, we believe it is now best to move forward and give the Palestinian Arabs yet another chance for peace. And if the plan is properly interpreted, properly carried out and properly monitored, and truly fulfilled, it has the potential to dramatically change the landscape and increase the safety and security of Israel and its people, and improve the lives of Jews, Arabs, Muslims, and Christians in the Middle East.
| 
