ZOA: Overjoyed At Rescue; Saddened By Loss

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

The ZOA is overjoyed that the IDF valiantly rescued four innocent Israeli hostages, Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, and brought them home to their families and loved ones in Israel.

We congratulate and thank the brave IDF units who participated in this remarkable rescue operation. We are so proud of them, and happy for the rescued hostages and their families, and everyone in Israel who is heartened by the news of this brilliant rescue.

We are however deeply saddened that anti-terror officer and Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, 36, was critically injured by Hamas and/or Gazan “civilian” fire, while rescuing and protecting the hostages, and later died from his injuries. ZOA sends our condolences to Inspector Zmora’s wife and two children and everyone in his family.

The hostages were being held in brutal captivity in two Gazan civilians homes in Nuseirat, Gaza, reportedly including in the home of Abdallah Aljamal, a photojournalist and writer/editor for anti-Israel propaganda outlets Al-Jazeera and the Palestinian Chronicle. The fact that pro-Hamas “journalists” such as those contributing to Al- Jazeera, lack any semblance of journalistic ethics is once again demonstrated by “journalist” Aljamal imprisoning a hostage in his family home, and never writing a word about this.

Speaking of lack of journalistic ethics, too many news outlets and Israel-haters have once again parroted Hamas’ phony casualty numbers – and condemned Israel instead of acknowledging that Hamas is responsible for every single casualty resulting from abducting the hostages; imprisoning the hostages in civilian homes; and attacking the Israeli rescuers with rocket-propelled grenades while the rescuers were extracting the hostages.

ZOA also strongly condemns EU “representative” Josep Borell, a vicious Jew-hater who has been abusing his “lame duck” EU position to propagandize and promote actions against Israel while the EU parliament is not in session during the ongoing EU elections period. Borell outrageously libeled Israel’s brave, targeted rescue operation as “appalling,” “another massacre of civilians” and a “bloodbath,” and claimed that “the EU “condemns this in the strongest terms” – although Borell appears to have no authority to speak for the entire EU now, and may be removed from his job after the new EU parliament convenes.

We pray for the rescue or release of all the remaining hostages, and hope that this rescue will give strength to the hostages’ families and the IDF, and will help further unite all of Israel (despite Gantz’s resignation today) and their friends around the world.