May 5, 2006 7:00 pm US/Central
Daley Remembers Holocaust During Israel Visit
Mayor Also Briefed On Security Responses
by Jay Levine
(CBS)
As Mayor Daley moved onto his final stop in his trip to the Middle East, he paused to remember one of the worst events of the past century.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine is traveling with the mayor and reports from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
It was a study in contrasts Friday after the mayor started the day in ancient Jerusalem and ended up in modern Tel Aviv. Much like today's events, Daley began with history and ended with the future.
Why did the world wait so long? It was the question on the mayor's mind as he and wife Maggie placed a wreath at the memorial to the 6 million killed in the Holocaust. Why didn't the world act sooner to halt the massacre?
The mayor, who doesn't often venture into international politics, urged the world not to make the same mistake again.
"Maybe we've never learned the lessons because here you the president of Iran, the president today, seeking to eliminate all the Jews in the world," Daley said.
Israel's reaction? Life goes on. In Tel Aviv Friday, they sat at outdoor cafes and went to the beach. It was a beautiful spring day and people took advantage of it, even though settlers and off-duty soldiers carry their weapons wherever they go.
Israel is used to threats and violence, but its people refuse to surrender to them, as Chicago students spending a year here found out.
"It's just something that you just generally don't feel like is going on because just all the Israelis live their lives just like normal people," said a Chicagoan.
That doesn't mean they're not prepared. The mayor was briefed Friday afternoon by the man who wrote the book on disaster response. His presentation had the mayor transfixed and curious.
Daley also revealed his frustration with federal authorities.
"In Washington, you're dealing with a mentality. If it snows, the non-essential employees stay home. That's 85 percent of the federal government," Daley said.
For his part, Dr. Nati Laor, who gets most of his funding from Chicago's Irving Harris and Lester Crown Foundations, is sympathetic to the mayor's concerns.
"In the U.S., post 9/11, to have such a shameful event like Katrina is disheartening," the Israeli Emergency Response Chiefsaid.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
