NYDailyNews

Rev. Al Defends Arafat Meet

By DEBORAH BLACHOR Special to The News

JERUSALEM The Rev. Al Sharpton said his meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was the "correct thing to do" yesterday — and so did Israel's chief rabbi.

In the middle of a trip to show solidarity with victims of terror, Sharpton infuriated his guides Monday by detouring to Arafat's Gaza City offices.

Keenly aware of how pictures of him shaking hands with Arafat may play back home in Jewish neighborhoods, Sharpton went on the defensive.

"If I can do something to raise the plight of human suffering to public attention, the politics of my home city can wait," he said yesterday, spending part of the day giving cell phone interviews with reporters in New York to address the furor over the Arafat meeting.

Sharpton insisted he used his time with Arafat to press for peace and to condemn the terrorism many Jews believe Arafat could easily stop.

The meeting surprised and infuriated his hosts from the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, who had to cancel a meeting they set up for the same time with friends of 21 teens killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv.

Sharpton won tacit endorsement of his session with Arafat from chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau.

"With no dialogue, you can't prevent bloodshed," Lau said at a morning sit-down.

Sharpton used Lau's words all day like a shield. "Rabbi Lau says that even if I saved one human life by my efforts, then it is worthwhile," he told reporters.

He even sought approval from the widow of a man shot dead by Palestinian snipers on his way home from work in February. Shlomo Gillis' widow, Ruth, responded with a question, asking if Sharpton believes Arafat can become a peacemaker when he once openly endorsed hijackings.

Sharpton responded by telling the story of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, the rabid racist turned civil rights fighter.

"You've got to be a big enough person to at least try," Sharpton said. "But you can't be naive."

Later in the day, Sharpton ran into a reminder of the tension he says he wants to ease between him and some New York Jews when he encountered two Orthodox students from the city outside the Foreign Ministry building.

"We don't want you here. Go back to New York," they angrily told him.

Accompanying Sharpton was Rabbi Shmule Boteach, famous for writing his "Kosher Sex" guide for married couples and for his friendship with singer Michael Jackson.

"It doesn't befit anyone in the American Jewish community to harp on the meeting with Arafat when it was blessed by Peres and done for the purpose of supporting victims of terror," Boteach said.

Sharpton ended his visit with a tour of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Old City. As he overlooked the Wailing Wall, Sharpton was approached by visiting yeshiva students from Brooklyn who lined up to take pictures with him and get the autograph of the man who is considering a run for the presidency in 2004.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Answers

NYPost

FEDS DISPUTE SHARPTON ON YASSER VISIT

By URI DAN

October 31, 2001 -- JERUSALEM - The Rev. Al Sharpton told Israeli officials that Colin Powell had asked him to make his controversial visit to Yasser Arafat - but the State Department yesterday denied the claim.

Sharpton "is not a messenger or emissary," a spokeswoman for the secretary of state said.

Sharpton's just-revealed remarks on Monday to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres helped explain how the controversial, unscheduled trip to the Gaza Strip was added later that day to Sharpton's three-day Mideast tour.

According to official minutes, Sharpton told Peres that Powell "asked him to meet with Yasser Arafat and to encourage him to take steps against terrorism."

"Foreign Minister Peres joined in this stand and encouraged Sharpton" to see Arafat, the minutes said, according to a top Israeli official.

The State Department spokeswoman said Sharpton had called Powell and they spoke about U.S. policy in the Mideast, but Powell did not ask Sharpton to see Arafat.

Sharpton canceled a meeting with Israeli victims of terrorism to visit Arafat. He met later with some victims.

Officials close to the Sharpton visit said it was understood that his trip was meant to express solidarity with Israel - and would include no meetings with Arab leaders.

Sharpton told the Israeli Foreign Office he had changed his thinking about the Mideast after Sept. 11 and felt he should come to Israel to take a stand against terrorism.

After hectic internal debate, the Foreign Office decided a Sharpton trip was acceptable and on Monday Sharpton met with Peres in Tel Aviv.

An eyewitness to Sharpton's meetings with Peres and Arafat said Sharpton was "careful and formal" with Peres - but warm and friendly with Arafat, the two even walking arm in arm as they met with reporters.

A Jewish organizer of the Arafat visit called it "a disaster."

Sharpton wound up his trip yesterday with a tour of Jerusalem's Old City and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and met with terror victims' relatives.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

The State Department spokeswoman said Sharpton had called Powell and they spoke about U.S. policy in the Mideast, but Powell did not ask Sharpton to see Arafat.

[sharpton:] "I'm going to Israel to stop all this fighting and terrorism and bring love and friendship from the hood."

[Powell:] "Yeah, right. Visit Arafat while yer at it. LOL"

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Or, "Right, and I'm sure if you stop by to see Yassir he'll order his men to quit that silly suicide stuff."

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

LOL

much better. I plead no coffee when I wrote that.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001