Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on U.S. Jews to
back a continued U.S.
presence in Iraq.
“When America
succeeds in Iraq, Israel is safer,” Olmert said late Monday in a
live satellite address from his Jerusalem home
to 6,000 delegates attending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s
annual policy conference in Washington.
“The friends of Israel know
it, the friends who care about Israel
know it. They will keep the Americans strong, powerful and convincing.”
Olmert’s plea was greeted with polite applause in a hall
packed with hundreds of representatives from the Democratic and Republican
Parties and at a time when the Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress
are pushing legislation that would roll back the U.S.
presence in Iraq.
Delegates greeted Olmert’s repeated entreaties,
delivered from the living room from his home at 4 a.m. Israel time, with polite applause; AIPAC is
striving to build bipartisan support for tightening sanctions on Iran.
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