ZOA Calls For Rex Tillerson’s Resignation

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By Josh Nathan-Kazis July 24, 2017

The right-wing Zionist Organization of America is calling for the resignation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson over language in the State Department’s annual terrorism report.

According to the ZOA, this year’s version of the report, issued in early July, includes language that “falsely blames Israel for Palestinian Arab terrorism against Israelis.”

The State Department report partially attributes terrorist violence to “lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank,” and other Israeli actions, including aggressive Israeli military tactics.

The ZOA claims that the language was not included in last year’s edition of the report.

“The new State Department should be draining the swamp and expunging the anti-Israel false and biased pronouncements of the former administration – not making them worse,” the ZOA wrote.

The ZOA’s president, Mort Klein, was the first Jewish leader to meet President Donald Trump after the inauguration, and has staked out consistently pro-Trump positions.

Yet Klein has opposed Tillerson since he was first nominated, citing a belief that oil executives are anti-Israel.

“In general, people who have led oil companies are not that friendly to Israel,” Klein told the Forward in December. “That concerns me.”

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

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