Sydney Jews rally for soldiers

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More than 300 Jews in Sydney rallied for the release of three kidnapped Israeli soldiers.

George Newhouse, a local mayor and candidate for higher office, told the crowd Sunday that the abductions of Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are crimes.

“It was an evil act perpetrated by evil men,” he said. “Their kidnapping is a crime against humanity and outside the rules of war. Make no mistake, the boys’ capture was nothing less than an act of terrorism. It was completely unprovoked and motivated by nothing other than hatred of the Jewish state.”

Shalit was kidnapped in June 2006 in the Gaza Strip. The abduction of Regev and Goldwasser a month later along the Israel-Lebanon border sparked last summer’s war with Hezbollah.

Ron Weiser, a former president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said Hamas and Hezbollah “flaunt every moral principle. They have only one aim: the destruction of the Jewish state, no matter the cost.”

More than 500 people rallied last month in Melbourne for the release of the three soldiers.

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