Israel Bonds president Gideon Patt and wife Anne
| ISRAEL BONDS Elie Wiesel Calls on March For Jerusalem Text and Photos by TIM BOXER LIE 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.” Ronald Lauder (l-r), Malcolm Hoenlein, Elie Wiesel
| “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.” |