Amid ongoing tensions in Southern Lebanon, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) national president Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
This is not the time for Israel to leave Lebanon. ZOA urges Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stand strong against Hezbollah’s
demands that Israel must leave Southern Lebanon now.
The safety of northern Israel requires that the prime minister must stand strong, regardless of any pressures placed on him. Hezbollah operatives and weapons caches are still heavily present in Southern Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire deal.
If Israel leaves Southern Lebanon now, it will remain unsafe for the 80,000 Israelis displaced from northern Israel by Hezbollah rockets to return to their homes. There will be more war, rockets and terror attacks on Israel from Lebanon if Israel leaves prematurely. The prime minister’s father would have wanted him to stand strong on this vital matter.
Moreover, if the reports are true that the U.S. administration is joining Hezbollah in its demand, then ZOA urgently calls on the United States
government to cease taking this dangerous position. If the administration truly wishes to bring peace to the Middle East, Washington needs to put all the pressure on the Hezbollah terrorists
causing the war and terror, and the Lebanese government which allows
Hezbollah to operate. Israel’s presence and efforts to remove the continuing Hezbollah threat from Southern Lebanon are necessary for peace and for Israel’s and America’s safety and security, and should not be opposed.
We must never forget how Hezbollah perpetrated the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Barracks, along with numerous other attacks, in which hundreds of Americans were murdered.
