Jewish leaders back Sharon

Extract from Ynetnews ...
Prime minister addresses 1,200 Jewish group leaders in New York; says a million Jews must be brought to Israel in next 15 years; earlier, Sharon's speech disrupted by anti-disengagement protesters.

By Yitzhak Benhorin and Efrat Weiss

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delivered a speech before about 1,200 American Jewish leaders in New York's Baruch College, receiving a strong show of support over the upcoming pullout plan.

Those in attendance included major donors and Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox leaders, who praised Sharon and stressed their support for his policies.

The six speakers who addressed the audience before the prime minister were senior Jewish education figures, who said the American Jewish community stands united behind the Israeli government.

In his speech, Sharon addressed the disengagement plan, spoke of the danger of assimilation, and stressed the need to bring another million Jews to Israel in the next 15 years. The future of the Jewish people also depends on Israel’s character as a Jewish, democratic state, the prime minister said, and added this was the spirit behind the disengagement plan.

The upcoming Gaza Strip and northern West Bank pullout would boost Israel’s security and serve as an opportunity to initiate talks with the Palestinians, he said. The withdrawal would also serve to ensure a Jewish majority in Israel and allow Israelis to keep important Jews sites forever, he said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was met Sunday evening with curses from anti-disengagement protesters, many of them of Lubavitch Hasidim, while speaking to New York Jewish leaders in Baruch College. ...part of the audience stood up, cursed the prime minister and chanted anti-disengagement slogans.

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, a member of Land of Israel Forum maintaining contact with Chabad Hasidim in New York, told Ynet, “Every Jew can help in the struggle against the uprooting and expulsion plan.”