Sharpton Nixed Terror Victims for Arafat Lunch

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NewsMax.com

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001 10:25 a.m. EST

What was billed as a fence-mending trip to Israel turned divisive on Monday, when presidential hopeful the Rev. Al Sharpton canceled a meeting with Jewish terrorism victims to have lunch instead with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The Sharpton-Arafat sitdown outraged trip organizers.

"I worked on his intinerary with the Israeli consul general, and he was supposed to meet with the students who survived the Tel Aviv bombing attack," Rabbi Marc Schneier told the New York Daily News.

Schneier heads up the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which has worked to repair damaged relations between blacks and Jews.

"The purpose of the [Sharpton] trip was to demonstrate solidarity with Jewish victims of terror," he added. "If I was going to reconcile with the Jewish communtiy, I would not be meeting with Yasser Arafat."

Sharpton's decison to dis Jewish terror victims conjured up memories of his last visit to Israel in 1992, when he tried to serve papers on a Hasidic driver involved in the car accident that sparked the Crown Heights riots.

Encountering shouts of "Go to Hell" at the Tel Aviv airport, Sharpton shot back, "I already am in hell."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Middle East
War on Terrorism

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SHARPTON: ARAFAT VISIT CERTIFIED AS KOSHER

November 1, 2001
By ANDY SOLTIS

The Rev. Al Sharpton, calling his controversial Mideast trip "an absolute success," yesterday insisted Israel officials encouraged him to visit Yasser Arafat.

He also denied he claimed he was sent to Arafat by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Sharpton's three-day visit ended amid questions about how he ended up arm and arm with Arafat at the PLO chairman's Gaza Strip headquarters on Monday.

Later yesterday, the outspoken minister said he wanted to go next to Afghanistan to visit eight Christians held by the government.

New York Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who helped organize the Israel trip, said he accompanied Sharpton to Gaza - but refused to attend the Arafat meeting.

Israeli officials said it was understood that Sharpton, as a guest of their Foreign Ministry, would make his visit exclusively "in solidarity with Israel" - and would not meet Arab leaders.

Sharpton, though, said his visit to Arafat was not confirmed until Sunday night, after he had discussed his trip with Yoram Ben Zeev, the Israel Foreign Ministry official responsible for North America.

In that conversation, Sharpton said, Ben Zeev urged him to talk to all sides.

Boteach said Sharpton "received the blessing" of both Ben Zeev and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the Arafat visit.

According to the ministry's minutes of the meeting, Sharpton told Peres Monday that Powell had "asked him to meet with Yasser Arafat."

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