Published April 15, 2002
Los Angeles Times
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WASHINGTON - Likening the U.S. war on terror to Israel's offensive in the Middle East, tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on the Capitol yesterday in what organizers proclaimed the largest pro-Israel rally in U.S. history.
Speakers and demonstrators alike praised President Bush for standing with Israel in the Middle East conflict, but also raised pressure on his administration to avoid making deals with Palestinian leaders until terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians cease.
Bush sent his deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, to the rally as a sign of support.
But Wolfowitz, while reiterating Bush's commitment to support Israel and stamp out global terrorism, drew scattered boos when he declared: "Innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying in great numbers as well," he said.
"It is critical that we recognize and acknowledge that fact," Wolfowitz added.
Congressional leaders from both parties also addressed the crowd from a podium decked with U.S. and Israeli flags.
One demonstrator even planted a blue and white Israeli banner atop a Civil War monument on the National Mall.
"This is a message to the American government and to the world that the support for Israel in the American Jewish community and among friends of Israel in the non-Jewish community is wall-to-wall, from left to right," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Organizers claimed that more than 100,000 people came to the event on less than a week's notice.
Federal and District of Columbia authorities do not give crowd estimates, in an effort to avoid political controversy. But yesterday's gathering was clearly substantial.
The crowd spilled from the front of the Capitol toward the reflecting pool on the mall, packing the area between Constitution and Independence avenues.
It was the largest demonstration in Washington, D.C., by the American Jewish community and supporters since a 1987 rally for Soviet Jewry.
Hier and others said it was the largest in this country specifically aimed at supporting Israel.
