Yair Lapid
Yair LapidReuters

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid endangered Israel by endorsing and legitimizing a "Palestinian" terrorist dictatorship state at the United Nations (UN), the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein said.

"The ZOA is appalled by the news today that temporary 'caretaker' Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid will publicly endorse and legitimize a Palestinian terrorist dictatorship state on Israel’s lawful land, during Lapid’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly," ZOA said in a statement, adding that Lapid’s speech also "mainstreams Palestinian regime dictator and terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, who calls people of the Jewish faith 'filthy Jews,' as a moderate peace seeker."

ZOA emphasized that Lapid's speech will "endanger and betray Israel and her citizens, and encourage more attacks on innocent Jews. Most Israelis – including Lapid’s own coalition partner, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – oppose a Palestinian Arab state. Bennett slammed Lapid’s intended speech, correctly noted that Israel has the right to this land, and aptly stated:"

"There is no room for another state between the sea and the Jordan . . . By the way, who are we talking about when we talk about Palestinians? About Hamas, which is supported by the majority of Palestinians? About Islamic Jihad? About Abbas who in his free time denies the Holocaust and pays murderers? They themselves are deeply conflicted and light years away from being able to govern."

ZOA also noted that, "The Palestinian Authority, its ruling Fatah party, and Hamas all still have the unrelenting goal of entirely destroying Israel and murdering as many Jews as possible. A Palestinian Arab state will strengthen Palestinian Arabs’ ability to kill innocent Jews; enable massive rocket and terror attacks on Israel’s major population centers and airport, and gravely threaten Israel’s existence."

"To this day, the official Fatah charter still calls for destroying the Jewish State, stating that: Fatah 'oppos[es] any political solution as an alternative to demolishing [Israel]'; and has as its goal the 'eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.' The Fatah charter moreover declares that, 'Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic . . . in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished.'"

"The Palestinian Authority’s official emblem shows all of Israel covered by a Palestinian Kaffiyeh, along with a picture of terrorist Yasser Arafat and a Kalashnikov rifle. Hamas’ charter likewise calls for Israel’s destruction, as well as the murder of every Jew in the world."

"The Palestinian terrorist regime has refused to negotiate for the last 12 years, and has turned down offers of statehood without counteroffers three times in the last 20 years, and 8 times in the last 85 years.

"Terrorist dictator Abbas continues to spend over $400 million per year horrifyingly paying Arabs lifetime pensions ( at five times the average Palestinian salary) to murder Jews and Americans. The Regime also continues to honor Jew-killers by naming schools, streets, sports teams and children’s camps after murderers of Jews, has parades honoring them and places thousands of their pictures in high schools and universities glorifying them."

ZOA also noted that every "separation" and "disengagement" has "caused more terror, more Intifadas (terror wars) and more murders of innocent Jews." Examples include the Oslo Accords, which led to mass suicide bombings and intifadas; withdrawals from checkpoints, which led to innocent Jews being murdered; the removal of Jewish communities near Jenin, which enabled Jenin to become a terrorist hotbed; and the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, which led to Hamas launching 25,000 rockets at Israel from the locations where Gaza Jewish communities once stood.

"It is moreover clear that a Palestinian Arab state would be a Hamas-Fatah-Iranian terror state," the organization emphasized.

It added that Lapid's speech "is also a serious betrayal of his role as a temporary 'caretaker' prime minister, until the Israeli elections take place in a few weeks, and the promises made by his misbegotten coalition when it was formed last year."

"Caretaker prime ministers are not supposed to make major diplomatic policies. Further, the Lapid-Bennett coalition of disparate parties assured the public that it would focus on economic and social issues rather than on Israeli-Palestinian issues," ZOA concluded.