 |
 |
 |
|
|
Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Jerusalem's Western Wall on Monday, and slipped a personal note between the stones. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff and partners November 15, 2005 |
|
| |
Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Jerusalem's Western Wall on Monday, and slipped a personal note between the stones, before heading to a memorial service for the assassinated former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Clinton posed with women celebrating their sons' Bar Mitzvahs at the Western Wall while children threw candy at them playfully.
A blue shawl draped around her shoulders, Clinton spent a few solitary moments before the massive structure, while her male security detail stood on the sidelines, barred from the exclusively women's portion of the holy site.
Clinton did not reveal the content of the note she slipped in the wall. Many Jews believe that God will answer pleas placed between the stones of the holy site.
A well-known site in Jerusalem's Old City, the Western Wall is revered by Jews because it is the retaining wall of the second biblical temple. The Western Wall is adjacent to the Temple Mount, now home to the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques, revered by Muslims. The holy sites, and who will exercise sovereignty over them, are some of the thorniest disputes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Later, Clinton toured an Israeli fire station and ambulance service. At the Jerusalem station of the Magen David Adom rescue service, Clinton bent over a computerized CPR model to compress its chest.
Clinton also met the parents of a rescue service volunteer killed three years ago while doing reserve duty in the Israeli army. The parents of the volunteer, Yochai Porat, presented Clinton with a framed picture of the former first lady and their son, whom she had met just two weeks before he was killed.
Clinton also met Amir Peretz, the new leader of Shimon Peres' Labor leader, and attended the service for Rabin, who was assassinated 10 years ago.
Clinton did not go to Palestinian areas or meet any Palestinian officials during her three-day visit to the region.
"This is a very short trip and it has focused on two issues, one the Rabin commemoration, and the other U.S.-Israeli security arrangements," Clinton said.
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, traveled to Amman for a few hours late Sunday to pay their respects to Jordan's King Abdullah II after 57 people were killed in a triple bombing last week.
The AP contributed to this report.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
