An aerial view of Capitol Hill. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Hundreds of Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) activists took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for ZOA’s Annual Advocacy Mission.

In addition to meetings with nearly 100 members of Congress and their staffers, ZOA held a luncheon that drew prominent speakers such as presumed presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Also among the bipartisan group of 21 speakers from the House and Senate was Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the Capitol Hill meetings, ZOA activists urged legislators to take three steps, according to a press release:

• “Support S. 2265 (Stand with Israel Act of 2014) and H.R. 1337 (Palestinian Accountability Act) which would oppose further U.S. aid  to Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) (currently over $600 million per annum) until it fulfils its signed agreements under Oslo to arrest and imprison terrorists, dismantle terrorist groups and end the incitement to hatred and murder within the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps, end the PA alliance with Hamas, and to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
• “Support S. 1881 (Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013) and H.R. 850 (Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013) which would lead to imposing new, tough sanctions on Iran in the event that it violates the Geneva Interim Agreement with the U.S. and Europe (P5+1) fails to agree to ending its nuclear weapons program. The ZOA also requested members of Congress to support U.S. or Israeli military action against Iran should it prove necessary to stop Iran going nuclear.”
• “Support and understand the legal, historical, religious and political right of Jews to live in Judea/Samaria and to oppose the canard, based on a willful and politicized distortion and intentional misinterpretation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, that Israel’s presence there is unlawful and a war crime.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said in a statement, “One delegate after another made it clear to me that they were thrilled to spend a day in their lives to fight for Israel, for strong U.S./Israel relations, and to educate members of Congress about the truth about the ongoing Arab war against Israel, which seeks Israel’s destruction, not any sort of negotiated settlement.”