Tens of thousands of demonstrators, encouraged by a message from US President Bush, chanted and cheered solidarity with Israel at the US Capitol on Monday, equating the military onslaught on Palestinian militants with Bush's war on terrorism.
The rally, held as Secretary of State Colin Powell struggled to mediate between the historic enemies and secure a cease-fire after months of violence, heard emotional speeches from US and Israeli politicians and Jewish activists.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, representing Bush, told the crowd the president "wants you to know that he stands in solidarity with you. We stand with you in this time of trial."
But Wolfowitz, a staunch advocate for Israel, also spoke sympathetically of the Palestinians' situation.
"Israelis are not the only victims of violence in the Middle East. Innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying in great numbers as well," he said to boos. "It is critical that we recognize and acknowledge that fact."
But he added that Palestinians "must also recognize another fact -- that suicide bombers are the single greatest obstacle to ending their suffering and to realizing the Palestinian state that the whole world is prepared to recognize."
He said since Sept. 11 the United States had one more thing in common with Israelis: Americans now know what it is like to be attacked by suicide bombers and why it is essential to fight terrorism.
Other speakers, including former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and members of Congress, also drew the link with the hijack airliner attacks on America.
Netanyahu, a hard-liner seen as a prospective challenger for the premiership in elections next year, declared: "Israel and the United States are today fighting the same battle, waging the same war, confronting the same evil."
To huge cheers, he said: "Like the United States, Israel did not seek this war. It was forced on us by a savage enemy that glorifies in a culture of death, a culture where murderers are called martyrs and suicide is sanctified."
(China Daily April 16, 2002)
