To the Editor:
JTA’s report regarding the pressure being exerted on Israel to extend the 10-month freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria incorrectly claims that even those American Jewish groups that support these communities are not fighting that pressure aggressively and seem resigned to an extension of the freeze. Insofar as the Zionist Organization of America is concerned, this is completely untrue.
Last week, the ZOA issued a press release that laid out in detail our unqualified opposition to any extension of the discriminatory freeze on construction by Jews and only Jews in Judea and Samaria on moral, legal, historical and strategic grounds.
The ZOA has been in contact with the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, and members of the Israeli Cabinet and Knesset, as well as the Obama White House and the U.S. State Department, while also urging members of Congress in Washington, D.C., to exert their influence on the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s State Department not to pressure Israel to extend the freeze on Jewish construction.
We urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to abide by the promise he gave on Nov. 30, 2009, when he said, “This is a one-time decision and it is temporary … just as it says in the Cabinet decision and as I have personally stressed in both closed and open forums. We will go back to building at the end of the freeze.”
Morton A. Klein
National President
Zionist Organization of America
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