Giuliani Spends Morning at Synagogue
BOCA RATON, FLA. -- Rudy Giuliani expressed his support for members of Florida's Jewish community and the state of Israel during a synagogue visit this morning.
Appearing before Modern Orthodox worshippers with a black yarmulkah, Giuliani spoke from the pulpit about his first trip to Israel, where he was witness to the reunification of Ethiopian Jews as they returned to the region in the 1980's.
"It stayed in my mind forever because it established for me a picture and a reality of what the reason for being is for the state of Israel," said Giuliani.
"It's a place that all Jewish people -- however separate, however far removed -- can come home and can have a home and can be reunited even when separated, in this case for thousands of years."
Giuliani explained that his scope of the Holocaust became a much more powerful to him during his early career as a federal prosecutor, when he had helped deport former Nazis from the United States.
"Anti-semitism is a disease that we must have zero-tolerance for," he said to applause.
Reminding the crowd how he had once removed Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat from a United Nations concert, Giuliani maintained that tangible results should be demanded to end the conflict between the people of Palestine and Israel.
"We should make peace based on realistic things, not based on sentiments," he said.
"We had too long a period of time where we tried to pursue peace based on sentiments. Now it has to be based on realistic things that we can see, that we can touch, that we can feel, and that actually happen."
It was the first event of a day long bus tour of Florida, which the Giuliani campaign has named "The Florida Counts Tour".
They are now counting on Florida's early voters, who they have courted since early voting began three weeks ago, to give their candidate headway and revive his popularity.