Bloomfield's falsehoods about the Zionist Organization of America - opinion

Israel’s democratically elected government and the majority of Israelis share the Zionist Organization of America’s principled pro-Israel positions, including ZOA’s opposition to President Joe Biden’s pressure to hand Gaza to the Palestinian Authority terror regime (which continues to pay Arabs to murder Jews); ZOA’s opposition to Biden waiving billions of dollars of sanctions on Iran; and ZOA’s criticism of Biden for falsely accusing Israel of “indiscriminately” bombing Gaza. 

Douglas Bloomfield, in his December 28 Jerusalem Post op-ed, (“ZOA makes Bibi look dovish”), promotes the “indiscriminate bombing” blood libel against Israel, thereby revealing that he is the one who is at odds with the Israeli people and government. Bloomfield’s op-ed then repeatedly misleads and misinforms readers, and ignores mainstream agreement with ZOA’s sensible views, to falsely label ZOA. 

For instance, he attacked ZOA for criticizing Biden’s failure to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2720 (December 22, 2023). Bloomfield misleadingly omitted the resolution’s serious flaws, which warranted ZOA first urging the Biden administration to veto it, which then prompted the ZOA to criticize Biden for allowing the resolution’s passage.

Bloomfield’s op-ed failed to mention that UNSC Res. 2720 helps Hamas by calling for “unhindered” and “expanded” supplies – especially fuel – to be furnished to Gaza, when Hamas immediately seizes and uses fuel and other supplies to launch rockets into Tel Aviv, launch misfired rockets into Gazan civilians, and operate its terror tunnel network. 

Nor does Bloomfield mention that the resolution tries to set the stage for a ceasefire that would prevent Israel from eradicating Hamas (i.e. it “calls for urgent steps... to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”). 

The UN helps Hamas in ways the column didn't tell you about

Bloomfield also omitted that UNSC Res. 2720 helps Hamas by declaring that UN facilities (meaning, the UNRWA facilities that Hamas operates out of and launches rockets from) “are protected under humanitarian law” (even though under actual humanitarian law, any facility used by terrorists becomes a legitimate target).

The resolution also fails to prioritize the hostages; rewards terrorism by calling for a Palestinian state in Gaza governed by the Palestinian Authority terror regime; authorizes appointing a UN “Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator” to monitor and verify all humanitarian relief (an attempt to undermine Israel’s authority to vet shipments that Hamas could use for military purposes); and undermines Israel’s humanitarian efforts to have civilians move to safety by declaring that it “rejects forced displacement of the civilian population.”

SIMILAR TO ZOA, Israeli Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Brett Jonathan Miller, criticized UNSC Res. 2720 for failing to prioritize the hostages and their medical care; failing to condemn Hamas’s atrocities; and unnecessarily calling for expanded humanitarian aid when Israel has already enabled this. 

Miller further warned that UN monitoring or coordination of aid “cannot be done at the expense of Israel’s security inspections,” and declared: “Israel not only has a right, but also an obligation to guarantee its security,”

Another example of Bloomfield’s sleight-of-hand was his failure to mention that, when ZOA issued a rare criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for caving in to “Biden’s unconscionable pro-Hamas pressure,” this was long before any hostage deal, and Biden was pressuring Israel to have extended unilateral “pauses” (ceasefires) without any agreement to release hostages in return for those pauses.

Bloomfield omitted unsavory facts about Biden's Jewish appointees

ZOA President Morton Klein wrote at that time (November 9): “There is no indication that these pauses will help free even a single hostage. Indeed, Israeli President [Isaac] Herzog stated today that Hamas has made no viable proposals to release hostages.” 

But outrageously, Bloomfield falsely claimed that hostages freed in a deal many weeks later would have disagreed with ZOA’s statement about the earlier pauses-for-no-deal. 

Bloomfield also omitted the facts when he criticized ZOA’s concerns about the anti-Israel and antisemitic backgrounds of numerous high-level Biden appointees. Bloomfield failed to mention that Biden’s appointees include: Hady Amr, who says that he was “inspired” by the Intifada murders of Jews; Ramzi Kassem, who justifies terrorism as a reaction to its victims; Reema Dodin, who justified suicide bombing; Maher Bitar, who ran a session at a conference of the Georgetown Students for Justice in Palestine Georgetown-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on “how to demonize Israel”; Uzra Zeya, who accuses “the Israel lobby” of “subverting” the American political process by establishing a secret network of “dirty money,” and many others.

Bloomfield only mentioned a few Jewish Biden appointees – but failed to mention their troubling records. For instance, Bloomfield ignored that Jack Lew lied to American Jews to promote the disastrous Iran deal at a Jerusalem Post conference. The Post conference attendees repeatedly and loudly booed Lew’s speech. In Bloomfield’s view, that apparently makes the Jerusalem Post’s attendees “extreme right-wingers” too.

Bloomfield also leveled ridiculous, unsourced “many people believe” attacks on ZOA’s president, and invoked third-hand unproven allegations by a fired ZOA employee. He referred to accusations against ZOA initiated by the Jewish Community Relations Council-Boston’s J Street and New Israel Fund members, who are hostile to Israel – without mentioning that the full JCRC-Boston board voted to reject J Street’s and NIF’s false petition against Mr. Klein and ZOA. 

The writer is Zionist Organization of America director of research.