KEAN BACKS STEM-CELL RESEARCH ON AN ‘INTIMATE’ TRIP TO ISRAEL
by Gil Hoffman
NJJN Israel Correspondent
New Jersey Jewish News, NJ
May 4 2006
JERUSALEM – State Sen. Tom Kean Jr., who is running for the Republican
nomination for the United States Senate, expressed support for
controversial embryonic stem-cell research on a visit to Hadassah
Hospital in Jerusalem last week.
Kean, visiting Hadassah at the culmination of a weeklong trip to
Israel, told hospital officials that he supports such research and
reported about problems obtaining approval for state initiatives in
New Jersey. He also spoke to Hadassah director-general Professor
Shlomo Mor-Yosef about the hospital’s collaboration with Robert
Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick in preparing for
mega-terrorist attacks.
Mor-Yosef said the hospital’s stem-cell research had cured mice
with Parkinson’s disease and that testing on monkeys and then humans
would soon follow. He said Hadassah was an international pioneer in
stem-cell research and had even secured funding for the research from
the U.S. government.
Kean was visiting Israel for the first time on what he termed an
educational visit. He was following in the footsteps of his father,
former NJ Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who visited Israel three times. The
younger Kean viewed a plaque at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
honoring his grandfather, Robert Winthrop Kean, one of the earliest
members of Congress to warn the United States about the impending
Holocaust.
The visit’s first day coincided with Holocaust Memorial Day,
during which a two-minute siren sounded nationwide to memorialize
the victims. As Kean approached the luggage carousel at Ben-Gurion
International Airport, the siren went off, and Kean joined Israelis
standing in painful reflection.
“The most moving experience on the trip for me was seeing everyone
stop and pray during the siren,” Kean told NJJN in an interview at
his Jerusalem hotel. “It was extraordinarily memorable for me to
experience Holocaust Day so intimately, to be part of such a special
moment in time and then go to Yad Vashem that afternoon.”
Kean came with a delegation of NJ Republican pro-Israel activists,
including Short Hills publisher Steven Klinghoffer; Livingston
resident and Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair Cheyl Halpern;
Lakewood attorney Sean Gertner and his wife, Marla; and Johnson &
Johnson company group chair Gerald Ostrov of East Brunswick.
Also along were Teaneck attorney Martin Fineberg; Mark Levenson,
president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Clifton-Passaic, and his
daughter, Hadassah; and Justin Richards, an assistant to the senator.
Kean, hoping to unseat Sen. Robert Menendez in November, said he came
to Israel to get a feel for its terrain and geography.
“Starting next year in the U.S. Senate, I will be very involved with
issues that relate to Israel and the Mideast in a direct fashion,”
Kean said. “I have been a strong supporter of Israel throughout my
career. I am glad I got to meet with many Israelis, from members
of parliament to ordinary citizens. Coming with people who have had
strong and varied experiences with Israel was also an important part
of the trip.”
When Menendez came to Israel last year, as a member of the House
International Relations Committee, he led the last congressional
mission that met with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his
career-ending stroke.
When Kean visited the Knesset, the highest-ranking official he met was
Meir Sheetrit of the Kadima Party, who was Education and Transportation
minister at the time and was named Construction and Housing minister
on Monday. He also met former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of Likud
and Labor Member of Knesset Colette Avital.
Kean met with victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks and with
Jews who had been evacuated from Gaza Strip settlements. He toured a
military base outside the Gaza Strip with IDF commanders and viewed
land where Israeli settlements stood until recently and that is now
being used by Palestinians to fire rockets at the southern Israeli
city of Ashkelon.
As Kean looked out over Gaza, he saw black smoke emanating from Deir
El-Balah, south of Gaza City. He later found out it was the result
of what the Israeli army said was an Israeli aircraft attack on two
cars packed with rockets. Israel said the attack killed one Islamic
Jihad militant and critically wounded another.
“Seeing this made it very real and enabled me to understand with a
real perspective the threats Israeli citizens live with each and every
day of their lives,” Kean said. “I felt it was imperative for me to
come to Israel so that as a U.S. senator I will have that real-life
experience.”
Kean said he had always supported foreign aid allocations and he is
sure he would continue in the Senate.
In Jerusalem’s Old City, Kean toured the Western Wall tunnels, visited
Christian holy sites, and met the Armenian Christian patriarch of
Jerusalem. He also visited several communities that have partnered
with United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, including the Sha’ar
Hanegev Regional Council and Kibbutz Erez outside the Gaza Strip,
the Gush Etzion bloc of West Bank settlements, and the low-income
Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood of Rishon Letzion. Klinghoffer is a former
president of UJC MetroWest, although organizers emphasized the trip
was privately sponsored and not an official mission of any federation.
In Rishon, Kean met with people involved with Project Atzmaut, UJC
MetroWest’s pioneering program to help improve the lives of Ethiopian
immigrants. Perhaps the saddest part of the trip was a meeting with
American immigrants Seth and Sherri Mandell, whose young son Koby was
murdered by terrorists near their home in the West Bank community of
Tekoa in 2001.
The Israel activists who accompanied Kean on the trip said that during
the visit with the Mandells, they watched his facial expressions and
saw that he was deeply moved. They said they were glad that he proved
himself able to relate to people on a human level and not merely as
a politician.
“He is a real mensch,” Klinghoffer said. “This guy is the real deal.
He came with the right background, and having this personal experience
reinforces the senses and the feelings that he already had. I’ve
dealt with many candidates and elected officials. Tom stands out in
the way he relates to Israel.”
Ostrov said he was glad to expose the senator to Hadassah Hospital,
where he and his wife are major donors.
“I have been impressed with him the whole trip,” Ostrov said. “He’s
gotten a knowledge base that he can use to govern. He has asked good
questions that show that he understands.”
Kean faces Bergen County financial data analyst John Ginty in the June
Republican primary. A Quinnipiac University poll last week predicted
that Kean would win the primary by a landslide but it found that he
trailed Menendez by six points.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
