ZOA: Senator Clinton Strongly Supports Undivided Jerusalem & Defensible Borders For Israel

This is a special note to all those in the community who seek to convince people of this preposterous idea that somehow Hillary and the democratic party is not supportive of Israel and it’s security, and that somehow George W. Bush Amazing acknowlegement from the ultra right-wing  Zionist Organization of America:

October 02, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500 http://www.zoa.org/2007/10/senator_clinton.htm

Hillary Clinton makes it clear that Israel can’t go back to pre-67 borders

New York — Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has recently reiterated a position she originally enunciated in 1999 when she stated that, “I personally consider Jerusalem the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel” and also called for secure, defensible borders for Israel. Senator Clinton’s office has issued a paper, ‘Hillary Clinton: A Long History of Strong and Steadfast Leadership for the U.S.-Israel Relationship,’ which states that “Hillary Clinton believes that Israel’s right to exist in safety as a Jewish state, with defensible borders and an undivided Jerusalem as its capital, secure from violence and terrorism, must never be questioned” ( New York Sun, September 17).

Senator Clinton’s stance is in line with Congressional support for the indivisibility of Jerusalem. In 1995, the U.S. Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which calls for the U.S. Embassy to Israel to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Regrettably since that time, both Presidents Clinton and Bush have exercised waivers to defer implementing this law, passed by overwhelming 90% plus majorities in both Houses of Congress.

Senator Clinton’s support for defensible borders for Israel is also important and consistent with the way these were explicitly defined by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In his last address to the Knesset, delivered on October 5, 1995, one month before his assassination, Prime Minister Rabin said that in his peace vision, the

State of Israel … will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state … “The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines … The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term … [Israel will undertake] the establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria … The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.

There is a growing number of military and Middle East experts as well as others who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State, arguing it would only become another terrorist entity, not a viable democracy. They include former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon; former head of the CIA, R. James Woolsey; Mideast scholar, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, Bernard Lewis; Dr. Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum and former New York Mayor, Rudolf Giuliani. ZOA’s Morton A. Klein has noted that Iran, North Korea, and Syria are sovereign states, yet are not peace-loving in consequence and that statehood does not guarantee a peaceful law-abiding country or society but on the contrary may only strengthen the promotion of violence and extremism espoused by the underlying culture

FLASHBACK: (just sayin…)
Bush’s Call For Return To 1967 Borders Conflicts With Promises Made To Sharon

June 03, 2004  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500 http://www.zoa.org/2004/06/zoa_bushs_call.htm NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is requesting clarification of the apparent contradiction between President Bush’s latest call for Israel to return to the indefensible 1967 borders, and the promise he made to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon less than two months ago that Israel would not be expected to return to those borders.
In his remarks at the United States Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony on June 2, 2004, President Bush described his “Road Map” plan as “the most reliable guide to ending the occupation that began in 1967.”
But in his April 16 meeting with Prime Minister Sharon, at the White House, President Bush said that “it is unrealistic to expect … a full and complete return” by Israel to the pre-1967 borders.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “We respectfully request that President Bush clarify the apparent contradiction between his latest statement and his promises to Sharon. We hope that the administration has not returned to the old State Department position of demanding that Israel retreat to the indefensible 1967 borders, leaving Israel just nine miles wide at its vulnerable mid-section which is why Abba Eban described those borders as ‘Auschwitz lines’.”
The ZOA notes that there have been additional indications that the Bush administration has backtracked on the promises to Sharon, including the May 3 Quartet statement that Israel “must end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967”; the May 6 statement by President Bush, after meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II, that the U.S. would not take any positions that would “prejudice” negotiations over the borders; and President Bush’s May 17 speech to AIPAC, in which he conspicuously failed to reiterate the promises he made to Prime Minister Sharon even though he was speaking to a pro-Israel audience that would have appreciated such a statement.
The ZOA points out that the claim that there is still an Israeli ‘occupation’ of the Palestinian Arabs is a myth. Those parts of Judea-Samaria-Gaza where 98.5% of the Palestinian Arabs reside are under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, not Israel. The Israelis withdrew from those areas during 1994-1997. The PA currently rules more than 80% of the Gaza Strip and more than 40% of the Judea-Samaria territories. Those parts of Judea-Samaria that Israel still controls should be characterized as disputed, not occupied. No other country has a valid legal claim to the area, and even Jordan, which illegally occupied it from 1949-1967, publicly relinquished its claim in a speech by King Hussein back in 1988. Moreover, Israel’s legal, historical, and religious claim to those areas is far stronger than the claims of the Palestinian Arabs or any other party.