ISRAEL
BONDS
Elie Wiesel Calls on
March For Jerusalem
Story
by TIM BOXER
ELIE WIESEL is beating the drum
for a march on Washington. He is calling on Jews all over America to
gather in the nation’s capital to voice their concern over the attempted
hijacking of the capital of Israel by the Palestinian Authority.
“I call it the March for
Jerusalem,” he declared at the 16th annual International Elie
Wiesel Holocaust Remembrance Award Dinner sponsored by Israel Bonds at the
Grand Hyatt.
“I call on thousands of Jews to
come to Washington for a demonstration,” he continued.
“It will tell Washington and
the world that Jerusalem is part of our history, tradition and future. We
must do that. There is still a president in the White House.”
Wiesel castigated the Jewish
community for being insensitive to Jewish concerns.
“Thirteen Jews are in jail in
Iran, and three soldiers were kidnapped at the Lebanese border. What are
we doing about it? We must mobilize.”
The Nobel peace prize laureate
denounced Yasser Arafat for murdering children.
“I will never forget such
atrocities as Maalot where his terrorists broke into a school and killed
30 children. That is unforgivable.
“What he is doing to Arab
children is incomprehensible. They are teaching their children to die?
Why? To embarrass Israel. For that they die?
“I was invited to Oslo but
chose not to go. I would have had to shake the hand of Arafat. That I
could never do. He is a murderer.”
On the other hand, Shevach Weiss,
Israel’s newly appointed ambassador to Poland, called for the continued
support of the peace process.
“We need to continue the work
of Yitzhak Rabin,” he insisted. “That is the only way for our country
to exist.”
“Arafat murdered our hope for
peace,” Wiesel countered. “We believe in peace. We pray for shalom
every day. Bu the other side does not.”
Wiesel presented awards to
Holocaust survivor Roman Kent and second generation Romana Strochlitz
Primus.
Israel Bonds president Gideon
Patt made a special presentation to Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice
chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations.
Noting
the hundreds of synagogues and other Jewish sites around the world that
have recently been fire-bombed or defaced, plus Arab efforts to “wipe
away any vestige of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount,” Hoenlein saw
this as “a war against the Jewish people.”
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