By COLlive reporter
Famed Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel published an indirect plea to U.S. President Barack Obama Friday, not to pressure Israel on the issue of Jerusalem.
In a full page ad published Friday in the Washington Post, Wiesel writes: “For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics.”
Haaretz Correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya reported Wiesel wrote: (Jerusalem) “is mentioned more than 600 times in Scripture – and not a single time in the Koran…the first song I heard was my mother’s lullaby about and for Jerusalem.”
In the ad, titled “For Jerusalem”, Wiesel wrote that Jews, Christians and Muslims are able to build their homes anywhere in Jerusalem and that only under Israeli sovereignty has freedom of worship for all religions been assured in the city.
“The anguish over Jerusalem is not about real estate but about memory,” he wrote.
Yedioth Aharonot reported in April 2010 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Wiesel to tell President Obama he’s mistaken in his appraisal of the motivations and actions of Netanyahu and his government.
Wiesel’s ad comes a day after another friend of Netanyahu, Ronald Lauder, philanthropist and President of the World Jewish Congress, published an Open Letter to Obama in The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post and The Washington Post.
In his letter, Wiesel wrote that the old city of Jerusalem would still be Arab if Jordan had not joined Egypt and Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
“Is there a solution? There must be, there will be,” Wiesel wrote. “Why tackle the most complex and sensitive problem prematurely? Why not first take steps which will allow the Israeli and Palestinian communities to find ways to live together in an atmosphere of security. Why not leave the most difficult, the most sensitive issue, for such a time?”
It would be more productive to persuade the Israeli gov. -incl. Bibi!
This is all Netanyahu’s fault. He’s like a cornered lamb. If we want to keep Yesha then we need a plan how to do it! The Arabs aren’t going anywhere. We can’t just pretend they’re not there and everything is just great. Obama is not the problem. The problem is that there is no plan on the right. At least the left offers a way forward, as dangerous as it is. What does the right offer? Nothing, that’s what. What are we going to do, keep the Arabs in zoos?
Nice try for Elie Wiesel but no one is going to get very far with this issue unless they stop sugar coating it in diplomacy and unless they switch gears and say the plain simple truth instead. All that needs to be said to Obama is what Rashi says in the first Posuk in Chumash!. This what the Rebbe said repeatedly about this issue and unless we say the plain truth, we are denying the plain truth. Once you deny the plain truth and start playing games with what you consider politically correct to say, then there is no end… Read more »
way to go number 14 while were praying already may hashem bless eli weisel with cheim nitzchim and keep us all safe and sound cuz ultimately its hashem who is in charge
Can someone find out Yossi Sarid`s mother`s name.
you and your friends are more dangerous to the jewish people than all the Obamas and Ahmedenijads of the world
because of you, we are living this hell you initiated in Oslo
We should all remember very well with whom he was hanging out with FOR YEARS before he became president.
He openly snubbed Bibi when he was at the white house.
He will meet the same fate as all other soinei yisroel. May it happen immediately unless he does teshuva like Paroh
Baruch Hashem that the Pintele Yid of Reb Eli was not extinguished in Auschwitz. Am Yisroe Chai! Od Avinu Chai!
What is going on here? Elie wiesel knows what he is talking about and is entitled to express his feelings. Yes there are porblems in jerusalem, but it is ours now, and we shouldn’t be fighting like children, as if we have to grab a toy from another child. Its in our hands, Obama has no right to tell us not to build there. If he wants a two state solution, deal with it another way. As for this other guy yossi sarid, he’s so covered up in politics it seems as if he can’t see the world besides him… Read more »
You still love your Obama? I am sure u love health care… and all the other bribes he gives you … but at what price? You love your pocket more than your brother?
Mr. Sarid is not in any position to speak about “holiness.” His g-d is Politics and he dwells in a lower realm than those who live with emunah and Divine consciousness. It is his ilk that have allows Barak Hussein Obama and his Kapo Jewish cohorts to acts that compromise the integrity of our Land. Yes, blessings to those who seek the true Peace of Yerushalayim, Moshiach Tzidkeinu!!
You are clearly a non observant jew who doesn’t pray three times a day nor dons teffiliin nor keeps the mitzvot of the Torah. Therefor by you Jerusalem is a political pawn.
Those who do pray to Hashem state cleary V’leYerusholayim Irchah berachamim tashuv.It is Hashem’s city which is entrusted to the bnei Yisroel. You Mr Sarid, are not a guardian of Israel and surely not of Yerusholyim.
You need to become observant, Mr Sarid, and stop with your anti Jerusalem rhetoric. Do you consider yourself an equal to Eli Weisel? naaaa.. I don’t think so.
HaShem bless those who speak up for Jerusalem, and give more people the ability to do so.
and give them revealed blessings
He failes to address the fact that this is not their land and was never rightfully there land. In addition he lives in the dream that there will be peace when the Jews withdraw. Just like the ‘peace’ we had after withdrawing from lebanon. Like the peace we have with eygpt – a country which allows terror to take place against israel unimpeded and pretends it stops, at the same time imbuing its children with a terrible hate of the Jews. They are just waiting for the right time to strike. Is it a wonder that they practice attacking israel… Read more »
i heard anough about that empty air head
BIG Fan! Thank you Mr. Wiesel taking the innovative and writing this letter to President Barak Hussien Obama. May Hashem watch over you and the entire Jewish people
can u please post a link to the original article in the washington post….. ‘for jerusalem’