Even the WJC distances itself from Wiesel

The World Jewish Congress said Wednesday that it had no idea Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel planned to take out a newspaper ad criticizing the Obama administration's approach to Israel just a day after Ronald Lauder, the Jewish world's body's president, did the same.

"For the record, we did not see or know about Mr. Weisel's ad until it appeared in the newspaper," the WJC said in a statement on Wednesday.

Wiesel wrote in a full page ad published last Friday the Washington Post that political pressure would not produce a solution to the issue of Jerusalem. The WJC emphasized on Wednesday that it had not coordinated its own ad with that of Wiesel.

"For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics," Wiesel wrote. "It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture - and not a single time in the Koran...the first song I heard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem."

Wiesel's message came only a day after World Jewish Congress President Lauder publicly questioned U.S. President Barack Obama's commitment to Israel's security in an open letter published in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

United States administration officials have voiced harsh criticism over advertisements in favor of Israel's position on Jerusalem that appeared in the U.S. press with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's encouragement.

"All these advertisements are not a wise move," one senior American official told Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1164431.html