The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to press for a vote on statehood at the United Nations (U.N.), and a vote could come as early as tomorrow. Every friend of Israel must take action today to help stop this unilateral act of aggression against Israel.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton told our national radio audience yesterday that the PA and its terrorist partner, Hamas, "hopes people will vote for this Palestinian state without regard to whether it will become a terrorist state virtually from the moment it begins its existence." The creation of a terrorist state – led by Hamas, whose stated mission is the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people – would be an immediate threat to Israel and our national security.
I told you about this new danger to Israel on Tuesday, and over 33,000 of you responded by signing our petition to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton urging them to stand with Israel and veto the creation of this terrorist-led state at the U.N.
If you have already signed this petition, please share it with your friends through Facebook, Twitter, and forwarding this email.
It is critical that President Obama hear your voice in support of Israel. In his speech to the U.N., President Obama voiced mild support for Israel, but he never said in his public remarks he would do the one thing that could stop this threat to Israel in its tracks – veto the creation of a terrorist-led Palestinian state.
The world was watching. The world was waiting. While he may be telling world leaders privately about the U.S. intent to veto any move to create a PA state, he failed to exercise much-needed leadership - and failed to make a firm declaration backing Israel when he omitted any public reference to a U.S. veto in his speech.
The United Nations is made of many Arab countries that have never been a friend to Israel, nor the United States. It should come as no surprise that news reports are now saying that the Secretary General of the U.N. supports a divided Jerusalem – a move that would put the security of Israel at risk and put many of Israel’s holy sites at risk.
Our legal and legislative teams at the U.N., in Washington, D.C., and in Israel are hard at work to prevent the creation of this terrorist-led state. We just publicly released one of the letters we have sent to the United Nations members explaining the legal ramifications of such a vote which states: “U.N. concurrence in the Palestinians’ attempt to bypass negotiations with Israel would make the U.N. complicit in breaching the solemn agreements entered into by Israel and the Palestinians” – a violation of international law.
In addition to exercising America’s veto power at the U.N. Security Council, former Ambassador Bolton said that there is another "surefire way to stop this, and that is to say if the General Assembly or any other U.N. body votes to declare Palestine a state, we will cut off funding to the U.N."
It may come to that, but President Obama has an opportunity to stop this move now by vetoing the creation of this terrorist-led state when it reaches the United Nations Security Council.
Thank you for your unwavering support for our friend and ally, Israel.
Jay Sekulow
ACLJ Chief Counsel
