Shoah survivor fights Palestinian state

Alexander Speizer, 85, urges world leaders to oppose PA's UN statehood bid, saying it will 'lead the people of Israel to an existential threat, just like before the Holocaust'

Itamar Eichner |Last update: 09.21.11 , 00:04

An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor has sent a personal letter to 60 world leaders, urging them to oppose the Palestinian UN statehood bid.

"You will lead the people of Israel to an existential threat, just like before the Holocaust," warned Alexander Speizer, who survived the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps.

To each letter he added a drawing of the Israeli flag and the sentence, "Holocaust survivor No. 79658."

He says he has already received responses from the Indian president and Irish prime minister.

Speizer added in the letter, "I survived the death camps miraculously. Six million people were not as lucky as me. They were victims of the Holocaust just because they were Jewish."

He told Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday, "A Palestinian state, once established, will have one goal – to destroy Israel.

"I want the world leaders' fingers to tremble before they vote for a Palestinian state. I want them to understand that any effort to infiltrate another people into Israel, which will destroy Israel, will never bring about peace but rather increase hatred."

Jewish leader urges 'no' on Palestinian state

A European Jewish leader said Tuesday that the continent must oppose any UN Security Council resolution that would recognize a Palestinian state and admit it as a member - not only for Israel's sake but also for Europe's own safety.

"There are a lot of radical elements in Europe, in every country, which can be like dynamite, and this recognition could be like a trigger for this dynamite," Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress told the Associated Press in Brussels.

He said he was referring primarily to Islamist radicals but also to others, including right-wing radicals.

Kantor said admitting a Palestinian state would violate U.N. law, which requires that any member have clearly defined borders and be at harmony with its neighbors.

He said his organization had exchanged letters with leaders in more than 15 European countries, including Britain, France and Germany. "And all the letters we received (were) absolutely united by one idea: No recognition without negotiations with Israel."