January 4, 2005
Contact: (212) 481-1500
Attn: NEWS EDITOR

ZOA: JESSE JACKSON'S COMPARISON OF ARAFAT TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, MANDELA AND
MOSES IS APPALLING

NEW YORK - In a recent statement issued by Jesse Jackson, Jr., founder
and President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he stated: "We grieve the
passing of the leader and father of the Palestinian people, Yasir Arafat.
He did much during his life on earth; his legacy will live forever...against
the odds, he built a people from identity crisis to a state, much like
George Washington and Mandela...Chairman Arafat rose from a rootless
beginning like Moses...and led his people from darkness to light..."

ZOA President Morton A. Klein said: "it is shocking that Jesse Jackson
would compare Yasir Arafat, the father of modern international terrorism,
airplane hijackings, and one of history's biggest killers of Jews, to George
Washington, Nelson Mandela and Moses. Arafat, a man who was banned from the
White House for his evil and terroristic actions, should not be receiving
praise from a Christian Reverend.

"We now wonder how sincere was Jackson's apology for having called New
York 'Hymietown', having said he was 'sick and tired of hearing about the
Holocaust', and having called Zionism 'a poisonous weed.'"
* * *

The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest
pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen
U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the
dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on
college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice
Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.