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Israel
Bonds president Gideon Patt and
wife Anne
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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.”
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Ronald Lauder (l-r), Malcolm Hoenlein, Elie Wiesel
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“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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