Teaneck—“It is Israel’s very existence, not her actions, that her enemies seek to change,” said Joshua London, the Zionist Organization of America’s co-director of government affairs, in a recent presentation in Teaneck. London stressed that for Israel and its supporters to pre­vail in this current war against Hamas, as well as any other threats to come, the conversation about Israel must change. He said repeated­ly that the assumption that our enemies want peace is a fallacy. The event gathered 50 local participants, many of whom were introduced to ZOA for the first time at this lecture.

Telling it straight, and asking the tough questions, is the way ZOA rolls, according to London. In that vein, the evening began with a stark fact. “The goal of the Arab war with Israel is, in fact, to eliminate the Jewish nation,” said Lau­ra Fein, executive director of New Jersey’s ZOA chapter, in her introductory remarks.

“If you see the materials, certainly of Hamas, and also of Fatah, they show a map of the entire state of Israel, not ‘the territories,’ not the West Bank and Gaza, not portions of Israel, but real­ly the entire territory that is in Jewish hands. The Fatah and Hamas are seeking to claim [this land] for the Palestinians,” she said.

“ZOA is recognizing this, and is trying to raise awareness of these positions, based on an understanding on the reality of the situa­tion, rather than what we all would hope would be our fantasy, which would be that we would have a true partner for peace, with neighbors who want to live side by side with us,” Fein said.

London shared that this past March, he worked closely with Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX), in his capacity as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, and helped bring to light details on how America provides direct support for terrorists and terrorist organizations with foreign aid tax dollars.

As a result, at a hearing in March, author Ed­win Black was invited by Poe to testify before Congress, where he shared his research in fol­lowing the money of the Palestinian Authori­ty, and described how since the PA has no army to speak of, all terrorists, especially those impris­oned in Israel for their crimes, are considered employees and are paid accordingly.

“Like any salary, payments to prisoners fol­low a sliding scale based on ‘quality.’ In this world, the more heinous the act of terrorism, the greater is the salary,” Black told Congress. “In setting the salary level, the system lets the Israe­lis themselves judge just how bloodcurdling the crime is. The more violent the crime, the longer the prison sentence, and in turn, the higher the monthly compensation,” Black said.

This is the nature of our opponent. Govern­ments with terrorists on their payroll probably don’t want to live peacefully side-by-side. Peo­ple Israelis call terrorists are heroes and saviors to the Palestinian Authority. “We have to think about what our policy goals are, look at the track record of the legislation that we keep put­ting forward, and tell me, ‘does that compute’?” And if not, why not?” asked London.

London added it’s not just bad govern­ment and the grievous misuse of federal dol­lars that is at issue. One of the fallacies that both­ers him most about the current conflict is that many politicians and military officials, even in Is­rael, feel that the Israel-Arab issue is an unsolva­ble problem. He said he recently heard an Israe­li general say, ‘There’s no military solution’ to the current conflict.

“Really?” London asked the group. “I seem to recall that the state of Israel, completely, 100%, stopped terrorism in Yehuda and Shomrom, following the second Intifada, through military means. There’s no military solution? Of course there is a military solution.

“How did the IDF do it? Sharon sent them back in, we retook, at tremendous human cost, unfortunately, at IDF cost, the cost of Israeli lives, Jewish lives — We retook Yehuda and Shomrom. And when I say retook, I don’t mean occupy, we went in and stopped the Palestinian Authority from bombing us. Military options work,” Lon­don stressed.

“They’re not palatable. No one likes to see anyone get hurt. It took a long time and cost a lot of money and resources, but it worked. If we want Israel to still exist, this violence has to stop,” London said.

By Elizabeth Kratz