A coalition of 20 pro-Israel organizations sent a joint letter on Tuesday to U.S. President Donald Trump, asking him to let Israel decide on sovereignty.
This was in response to nine Jewish groups calling on the president on Friday to stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was re-elected to a record fifth term last week, from carrying out his campaign promise to annex parts of the West Bank.
In reiterating Netanyahu’s pledge, Tuesday’s letter to Trump stated, “Throughout your presidency, you have done everything possible to keep your own campaign promises — with the move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, pledged by every President since Bill Clinton, being a prime example.”
“It is unfair and unreasonable to hold these Jewish communities hostage to the continuing intransigence of the Palestinian Authority,” added the letter. “And it is outrageous to suggest setting policy to kowtow to the anti-Semitic, terrorist-financed effort to boycott the world’s only Jewish state.”
Signatories on the new letter included the Endowment for Middle East Truth, the Rabbinical Alliance of America, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America and Turning Point USA.
“What was most painful about the previous letter is that it comes from Jewish organizations yet ignores the 3300-year attachment of the Jews to their homeland,” said Rabbi Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, which was one of the groups invited to Tuesday’s meeting at the White House.
“It also ignores the expressed wishes of the Israelis and claims to know what will ‘lead to greater conflict’ better than Bibi Netanyahu,” he continued. “Those who support Israel’s self-determination, especially with regards to its security needs, cannot afford to sit silent.”