Americans for a Safe Israel

Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) was founded in 1971 by Americans who believed that "a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict would only occur when the Arabs realized once and for all that Israel could not be defeated militarily or in any other way." Source

AFSI publishes the monthly magazine Mideast Outpost.

Ideology
Removing stateless Arabs from Israel or denying them citizenship, and supporting Israel's retention of all the territories it conquered in 1967.

Noted For
Opposing any Middle East peace plan which would involve Israel withdrawing from any territory, rejecting the George W. Bush "Road Map" plan in favor of "the Biblical road map" of the religious claim that God assigned Israel to the Jews.

Key Leaders

 * Eric Isaac
 * Herbert Zweibon, Chairman
 * Helen Freedman, Executive Director

Funding
Funds obtained from Irving Moskowitz's Bingo: $585,036 between 1987 and 2001.

More Information
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin reported in 1994 that Herbert Zweibon, AFSI's national chair, "so completely rejects the terms of the current Mideast peace process that he cannot even fathom Israel surviving alongside a Palestinian state", saying "I don't see a best-case scenario. It's not possible." Zweibon predicted that "the Gaza Strip will degenerate into another Lebanon", and called for stateless Arabs to be expelled or given "resident alien status" without voting rights, and said "On the historic record, there's nothing to indicate you can put your full faith and trust in Arabs."

Helene Klein, president of the Northern California chapter, said in 1995, "The peace process isn't going to lead to peace. It's leading to more and more murder." (citation needed)

AFSI has circulated its own "2 state solution" plan based on the 1922 partition of Palestine, rejecting the idea of a third Palestinian state. AFSI calls for stateless Arabs to be relocated out of Israel at international expense, with those remaining to be "declared citizens of Jordan with the appropriate legal steps taken so that they remain within Israel and loyal to Israel (sic) law." [Source: Mother Jones, "Daniel Pipes: Peacemaker?", 2003]

In their own words
The founders of Americans for a Safe Israel were convinced that Israel must retain possession and control of the territories it occupied in 1967 – the West Bank and Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights. The group's website says: "To abandon territory won in wars forced on it would make [Israel] vulnerable once again to renewed subversion and attack, not only by hostile Arabs in Judea and Samaria but unstable Arab regimes. AFSI believes that a strong Israel is essential to U.S. security and that the Jewish towns in these areas are the best guarantee against strategic vulnerability. Most importantly, the pioneering efforts of the residents in these areas have the potential of rejuvenating a dormant Zionism and igniting a second Zionist revolution."

Rabbi Julian White, a close associate of Mozkowitz's and regional president of Americans for a Safe Israel, has made public statements against a two-state solution and in support of Moskowtiz's actions in Jerusalem. White wrote about a Palestinian state on the Pro Israel website in 2003: "A two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict would be no solution at all…. It is time that PM Ariel Sharon (and President George W. Bush) realize that the real fact is that any consideration today of giving up land for a 22nd Arab state is not only moot but suicidal!"

On OurJerusalem.com (a website maintained by Moskowitz) White negatively depicted Arabs, writing: "Let us look now at the Arab Americans, growing in number and influence, who are exploiting every opportunity to promote their cause in America, their cause seemingly being the depreciation and dismantling of Israel. They project themselves into U.S. prisons, into high school curricula (particularly since 9/11), and onto college campuses where their efforts to downgrade Israel have achieved frightening results."

In an AFSI report on the Cherney Foundation's Jerusalem Summit in 2003, Helen Freedman wrote that Herbert Zweibon spoke in favor of Israel's "biblical entitlement" to the West Bank. She went on to write that "the Biblical road map would [...] emerge triumphant." [Source]

Articles about Americans for a Safe Israel

 * Michael Scherer, "Daniel Pipes, Peacemaker?", Mother Jones, May 26, 2003. alternate URL
 * Suzanna Spiro, "Americans for a Safe Israel panel denounces accords", Jewish Journal, May 26, 1994.
 * Natalie Weinstein, "Two-state solution ominous for Israel, says conservative", Jewish Bulletin, December 9, 1994.

AFSI website
Website: www.afsi.org