Salute! Obama Lays MLK Memorial Stone on Israeli Leader's Grave for Peace

Ends Israel visit with symbolic stop

In an effort to promote peace, President Obama on Friday placed a stone from the grounds of the Martin Luther King memorial on the grave of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin while at Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery. In 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist enraged by his efforts to make peace with Palestinians. And in a televised speech on Thursday, President Obama encouraged Israelis to put pressure on their leaders to make a peace deal with the Palestinians. He urged Israelis to put themselves in Palestinians' shoes and recognize their right to "self-determination, their right to justice." Obama laid another stone on the grave of the man after which it was named, Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism who died in 1904. Obama wrote in the Mt. Herzl guestbook, "May our two countries possess the same vision and will to secure peace and prosperity for future generations." (NBC News)

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