Knesset Speaker Invites Arab Counterparts to Israel
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein told U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon he believes people who say they want to destroy Israel.
"As a son of the Jewish people who experienced the Holocaust, I believe someone when he says he wants to destroy us," Edelstein, in New York to attend the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, told the secretary general.
Ban said while the deal's not perfect, it's the best possible for now.
During his address to conference attendees Sunday, Edelstein invited his Arab counterparts to come to Jerusalem to talk "people to people, parliament to parliament."
"Come to Jerusalem. Come to the Knesset. Meet with me. Sit with me. Talk with me," he urged his "friends and neighbors in the Middle East," the Jerusalem Post reported.
Edelstein told his fellow parliamentary speakers, "We can lay the foundations for any future peace by fostering international and regional cooperation on issues that transcend national borders."
"Let's talk water. Let's talk clean air. Let's talk prosperity. Let's talk partnerships," he urged conference participants, saying talks on peace and borders would follow suit.
Quoting Genesis 1, Edelstein said "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Our task is to honor and protect the creation, he said.
"Let us partner with our Creator and with all our fellow men to make this a healthier, saner and safer world for future generations," he said.
Born and educated in the former Soviet Union, Edelstein spent three years in jail as a "prisoner of Zion" before immigrating to Israel in 1987.
He began serving in the government in 1996 when he was first elected to the Knesset. Since then he's held a number of ministerial and deputy ministerial positions before being appointed Knesset speaker.
Following July's arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication, Edelstein initiated a fundraising campaign that raised 50,000 shekels (about $12,710) in one month to help repair the Galilee church, believed to be the site where Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.
