Hundreds rally for Israel in New York

January 6, 2009

Photos

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Several hundred people demonstrated for Israel in New York City.

The rally, held Tuesday afternoon opposite the Israeli Consulate, was intended as a show of solidarity with the Jewish state as it continues Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks on its southern frontier.

Jewish community leaders pledged to stand by Israel. Some demonstrators held signs aloft calling for the elimination of Hamas, the controlling power in Gaza that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The rally followed a news conference opposite the United Nations in which leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations briefed the media on their recent solidarity trip to Israel. Israel's top diplomats in the city -- Consul General Asaf Shariv and U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev -- also were in attendance.

"We tell the United Nations today: Stay out," said the conference's executive vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein. "Let Israel do what it has to do."

The consulate rally was one of several displays of support for Israel being planned for cities across the United States this week.

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Salomon Benzimra

01/06/09 05:35 PM

Malcolm Hoenlein is absolutely right. The UN should stay out. Israel is doing the job that the Quartet (of which the UN is part) called for in its “RoadMap” of April 2003.
In its Phase One, the RoadMap calls for the “dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.” That is exactly what israel is doing, as the Palestinians were unwilling and incapable to do it ever since.

richard dent

01/06/09 08:58 PM

Glad to see some people on the street for Israel. The pro-Palestine demos have mostly been full of hateful rhetoric, as have many comments on blogs.

Richard

01/07/09 03:52 PM

Over the years, the UN has shown nothing but disdain and criticism of Israel without regard to the aggression of Hamas, Hezballah and other terrorist nations. Why should anyone believe that it would change positions now. The UN cannot be trusted to be fair to Israel so why allow them to create more damage.

Judy Simon

01/07/09 06:17 PM

Hundreds at the rally? I was there; the crowd was in the thousands, not hundreds.

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