ZOA’s Klein Getting Challenge From The Right
Vote set for Sunday is first real test for longtime president; rival cites ideological and fiduciary issues.
Morton Klein, who for the last 20 years has been the right-wing voice of the pro-Israel camp in the United States as president of the Zionist Organization of America, is for the first time being challenged for re-election by a board member who claims Klein is not right-wing enough. The election is Sunday in Philadelphia.
Steven Goldberg, ZOA’s national chairman and a Los Angeles attorney, wants to unseat Klein because he believes Klein may one day be willing to give parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians for their own homeland.
“It’s not a territorial issue, it’s a religious issue,” Goldberg said. “It’s antithetical to the fundamental Islamic tenets to have a Jewish state on what is considered to be holy Muslim land. You can’t say that maybe under the right circumstances we’ll compromise and give it [the West Bank] away.”