PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
4
Morton A. Klein
National President,
Zionist Organization
of America
Dear Friends,
As I write this message, I’m reminded of the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the
season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. . . .”
Those lines could very well apply to the season of light and season of darkness that the
Jewish people are experiencing today.
On the one hand, it is a time of great strides and blessings. Over a remarkably brief period,
years of persistence were suddenly rewarded.
Day after day, decade after decade, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) — with
your help — pressed for the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem; recognize Israel’s
sovereignty over the Golan Heights; close the PLO office in Washington, D.C.; stop funding
the Palestinian Authority, which pays terrorists to murder Jews; stop funding UNRWA, which
teaches hatred of Jews and stores Hamas’ rockets; stand up for Israel at the United Nations;
and formally recognize that Jews, too, have civil rights on college campuses. All of these critical
issues that we fought for together have come to fruition.
In many respects, our people are thriving.
Unfortunately, it is also a time when the darkness of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hatred
are becoming more and more mainstreamed, right here in the United States, right before our
eyes.
That’s frightening.
Every day brings more heinous statements and incidents.
Major public figures, even certain U.S. Congressmembers and the media, are ramping up
Jew-hatred.
Members of the so-called Squad (Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez) have falsely called Israel “evil” and an “apartheid regime”; falsely
accused Jews of “hypnotizing the world” and committing “massacres” against Arabs; falsely
accused pro-Israel Americans of dual loyalty; opposed Israel’s very existence; compared Israel
to Nazis; and promoted anti-Israel boycotts.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — often referred to by her initials, AOC — even openly advocated
for violence against innocent Jews, claiming that Palestinian Arabs “have no choice but