Dear Editor:
Interested in harming Jewish communities around the world? Hoping to weaken the State of Israel, yet unsure how to begin? Tragically, you can accomplish both of these goals by voting for Hatikvah in the election for World Zionist Congress. Hatikvah is led by members of J Street, an organization that openly supports a two-state solution and demands that Israel withdraw to pre-1967 borders. J Street is attempting to hijack the World Zionist Congress in hopes of uprooting settlements in Judea and Samaria and ultimately establishing a Palestinian state in its place.
Allowing a Palestinian state to be established in Judea and Samaria would be the equivalent of allowing a knife to be held to the throat of the Israeli citizens. Judea and Samaria, with mountains rising three to four thousand feet high, act as a de facto wall and buffer zone for Israel from any potential attack on its eastern border. If Judea and Samaria ever fell into the hands of an enemy, they would immediately gain the ability to torment the major Israeli cities below.
Abba Eban, the famed Israeli diplomat, once coined Judea and Samaria as the “Auschwitz Lines,” referencing the tragedy of the Holocaust and the potential danger of withdrawing from this land. Today, Israel faces a continuous security threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and an ever-increasing Iranian presence in Syria. Only 75 years after six million Jews died during the Holocaust, it is incomprehensible how anyone can demand that Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, must accept borders without the protection of Judea and Samaria.
If one could successfully argue the need for establishing a Palestinian state, history has proven that the Palestinian leadership lacks any desire to do so. In 1947, rather than accepting the UN Partition Plan and the chance to form a state, Arab leaders chose to unite and attack Israel. This culminated in the death of over 6,000 Israelis during Israel’s War of Independence.
Next, in the year 2000, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat swiftly rejected an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to form a state, and instead chose to help initiate the Second Intifada, leading to the death of more than 1,000 Israelis. The most recent rejection was in 2008 by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently serving the 15th year of a four-year term.
I urge you to reject the dangerous ideology that Hatikvah represents, and to join me in voting for the ZOA Coalition, slate #11. The ZOA Coalition is made up of 27 distinct organizations dedicated to countering global anti-Semitism, protecting Israel from the dangers of the BDS Movement, and ensuring that a Palestinian state will never be established in Judea and Samaria.
As anti-Semitism continues to rise, I refuse to stand in silence as Hatikvah works to hijack the World Zionist Congress in pursuit of implementing their radical agenda. My heart has stood with the State of Israel since the day I was born, and I urge you, the voter, to help protect this special land by voting for the ZOA Coalition, slate #11.
David Billet