OPRAH GOING TO ISRAEL

Oprah Winfrey to Visit Israel on Solidarity Trip (AIPAC)
At a Monday event in Manhattan, American talk show icon Oprah Winfrey announced that she will accept Nobel laureate and author Elie Wiesel's invitation to travel to Israel and will be arriving in the Jewish state for a solidarity visit in the near future, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, called on Winfrey to visit Israel, where "the major war on terror is currently taking place." In her speech, Winfrey said she sympathized with the suffering of the people of Israel. Winfrey's upcoming visit to Israel, said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman, could help bring an end to international indifference toward the terror threat faced by Israelis.

WIESEL ATTACKER ARRESTED IN N.J.

THE HOLOCAUST DENIER WHO ASSAULTED AND TRIED TO KIDNAP ELIE WIESEL TWO WEEKS AGO IN SAN FRANCISCO HAS BEEN ARRESTED IN NEW JERSEY.

Man, 22, arrested in N.J. in Wiesel attack (SF Chronicle)
(02-17) 13:09 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The man accused of trying to kidnap Holocaust author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel outside a San Francisco hotel earlier this month was arrested today in New Jersey.

Montgomery Township police confirmed that 22-year-old Eric Hunt was arrested at 10:30 a.m. PST. He faces charges of attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the commission of a hate crime.

San Francisco police say Hunt confronted Wiesel, 78, in an elevator at the Argent Hotel on Feb. 1 during an interfaith conference and pulled him out on the sixth floor. Wiesel began screaming and his assailant fled. Police said they found Hunt’s car in the hotel’s parking garage, and Wiesel told The Chronicle that his assailant fled so quickly that the assailant left his wallet and driver’s license in the car.

On Feb. 6, a man identifying himself as Hunt posted a detailed account of the attack on several anti-Semitic and anti-Israel Web sites. That account matched a description of the attack police provided a few days later. In that post, Hunt said he cornered Wiesel, the author of more than 40 books based on his Holocaust experiences, in order to force him into admitting that the Holocaust never occurred.

Hunt’s father, Frank Hunt, 49, said his son called Feb. 9 and asked to be picked up at a bus station in Scranton, Pa., explaining that his car was in the shop. The elder Hunt said his son, whom he had not seen in 11 years, acted strangely, appeared disheveled and did not carry luggage.

ELIE WIESEL ATTACKED, ALMOST KIDNAPPED BY HOLOCAUST DENIER IN SAN FRANCISCO

Author attacked in S.F. hotel. (SFExaminer)
SAN FRANCISCO - In a bizarre attack, a well-known author and Holocaust scholar was dragged out of a San Francisco hotel elevator by an apparent Holocaust denier who reportedly had been trailing him for weeks.

Police escorted Elie Wiesel to San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 1 after a man accosted Wiesel in the elevator at the Argent Hotel, at 50 Third St., after Wiesel participated in a panel discussion at a peace conference and before Wiesel was scheduled to catch a flight back to New York.

Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and author of more than 40 books, including the memoir “Night,” about his experiences at Auschwitz, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Last fall, the Boston University professor was suggested as a possible replacement for Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who faces sexual assault charges.

Police confirmed this week that the attack took place and that officers escorted Wiesel to the airport following the attack. According to police, the suspect accosted Wiesel in the hotel elevator at around 6:30 p.m., saying he wanted to interview him. Wiesel said he would do the interview in the lobby. That’s when the attacker pulled him out of the elevator, police reported.

In a posting Tuesday on the anti-Zionist Web site ZioPedia, a writer using the name Eric Hunt takes credit for the attack: “After ensuring no women would be traumatized by what I had to do (I had been trailing Wiesel for weeks), I stopped the elevator at the sixth floor. I pulled Wiesel out of the elevator. I said I wanted to interview him.”

Wiesel grabbed at his chest and yelled for help, according to the posting. “I told him, ‘Why don’t you want people to know the truth?’ His expression changed, and he began screaming again. ...” the posting reads.Police reported that the suspect tried to force Wiesel into one of the rooms, but ran away when Wiesel started yelling.

The online posting states that the writer intended to “bring Wiesel to my hotel room where he would truthfully answer my questions regarding the fact that his non-fiction Holocaust memoir, Night, is almost entirely fictitious.” Later in the posting, the Holocaust is portrayed as a “myth.”