NEW YORK (Press Release)– Richard Stone, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, released the following statement about Monday’s terrorist attacks:
The attacks today on the Israeli diplomatic missions in Georgia and India as well as the recent planned attacks in Thailand, Turkey and Azerbaijan pose severe danger to international diplomacy. The targeting of these diplomats requires the condemnation and response not only of the countries involved but of all nations that share civilization’s historical commitment to the safety of diplomats as well as to the world’s determination to fight terrorism and its supporters. It is not just Israelis who will be the victims but other innocent people as well. Terrorism knows no bounds especially when driven by radical ideologies and fanaticism. Evidence from earlier instances of terrorist attacks points to the involvement of Iranian agents, and certainly their support for Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorists around the world put them at the forefront of likely perpetrators.
Iran and its agents must be held to account by the international community. The failure in the past to do so adequately has given them a license to kill. We recall the attempt to murder the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, the deadly attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina almost two decades ago and Iran’s backing of attacks against American soldiers in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and now Afghanistan. These events underscore dramatically why Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons and why sanctions and all related efforts must be continued with even greater intensity.
We note that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has spent the last few days in Tehran, where he again asserted that the only way to deal with Israel is “the path of armed resistance” and that “the gun is our only response to the Zionist regime.” Clearly, Haniyeh endorses the direction that Iran has mapped out and implements with its terrorist allies throughout the region, which includes the destruction of the state of Israel.
We draw at least two conclusions: 1) Iran cannot be a responsible member of the international community and must be treated like the dangerous outlaw state that it is and 2) Hamas, by continuing to pursue the terrorist approach, shows why it must not be part of the Palestinian government and why the world cannot optimistically hope for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if Hamas continues to be part of the Palestinian government. The international community, which provides so much assistance to the Palestinian Authority, must make clear that they will not support a regime in which a widely recognized terrorist entity is given joint responsibility.
We pray for the quick recovery of those injured and urgently demand that the international community acts to end this violence and to hold those responsible to account in order to prevent this from happening in the future.
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Preceding provided by The Conference of Presidents,the central coordinating body representing 51 national Jewish organizations on issues of national and international concern.