An impressive ceremony was held yesterday afternoon at the Hilton-Dorval Airport Hotel where some 400 people were on hand for the arrival of a torch from Israel symbolizing Israel’s 25th anniversary. For security reasons the presentation of the torch, which should have taken place on the airport tarmac, was switched to the Hilton Hotel where representatives of federal, provincial and municipal governments were in attendance.
Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, in a message read at the ceremony by Postmaster General Jean-Pierre Cote, expressed hope that peace will come soon to the Middle East. Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Dr. Theodore Meron said that the people of Israel can neither be frightened by terror nor driven away by stress. “We must do everything to insure our security. But let us create a just society and let there be peace,” he said.
Senator Therese-Casgrain, on behalf of the Premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, and Abraham Cohn, representing the Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau, presented wishes of happiness to the State of Israel. Dr. W. Gunther Plaut, chief rabbi of the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, said that the 25th anniversary of Israel is “the assurance of Jewish survival. Never again will Auschwitz stare us in the face.”
Hyman Bessin, president of the Canadian Zionist Federation and executive member of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told the gathering that “Canada and other nations must have the courage to sever ties with Arab countries abetting terrorists because it is not enough to merely condemn terrorism.” He also said that the CJC had been unsuccessful in its attempts to arrange a meeting with Trudeau to discuss terrorist activities.
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