TEL AVIV (WJC)–Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and as such the highest military official in the United States, met in Tel Aviv with members of the IDF’s humanitarian delegation to Haiti.
He told the Israeli soldiers: “The important work you did with your delegation will not be forgotten, not by us and not by the residents of Haiti.” Mullen had requested the meeting during his three-day visit to Israel.
“I want to express my admiration for you. You represent the hope within the heavy tragedy the residents of Haiti had to live through. You created hope and a future for those people, and humanity is proud of you,” Mullen said.
His Israeli counterpart, IDF Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said that Israel’s rescue effort “would not have succeeded as [it] did without the preparations by the US Army in Haiti. We know who will continue to assist in the long-term rehabilitation of Haiti. Now all we can do is to finish the treatment and prepare for the next operation.”
Later on Monday, Mullen and Ashkenazi visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. “We, all of us, must make sure that such terrible events will never happen again,” Mullen said there, adding: “We ask for hope, a better future for coming generations.”
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress