 |
Israelis Congratulate China on Winning 2008 Olympics Games
Many Israelis have congratulated China on having won the bid for hosting the 2008 Olympics Games.
"We welcome the decision (of the International Olympic Committee to award Beijing the 2008 games)," Ra'anan Gissin, the foreign press advisor of the Prime Minister's Office, told Xinhua on Sunday.
"The Israeli delegation will actively participate in the games and we wish the Chinese government and the Chinese people a great success in their preparations for and holding of the event," he said.
Teddy Kaufman, president of Israel-China Friendship Society, hailed Beijing's win as "victory of justice" and wishes the 2008 Olympic Games will be the greatest one in the Olympics history.
He said China's successful bid "is the result of its opening and reform policy" in the past two decades.
The event will have big impact on China both politically and economically, he said, adding that it will further open China to the world and the world to China, and promote China's future development.
Yitzhak Shichov, professor from Harry S. Truman Research Institute of Jerusalem Hebrew University, said China should have been awarded the 2008 Olympics Games. "China, more than any other country in the world, symbolizes the beginning of the 21st century," he said.
He added that besides economic benefits, the chance to host the games in Beijing will help the outside world better understand China and bring about a lot of changes inside the country.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had expressed his best wishes for Beijing's efforts to win the Olympics Games even before the vote.
During an exclusive interview with Xinhua last Sunday, Peres said that he fully supported China's bid for the 2008 Olympics Games and firmly believed that China has the capacity to hold such an international sports event.
An Israeli youth who gave his name only as Eran said he does not know much about China except that China has a population of more than one billion. "Now I want to know more about China," he said.
Eran also said that he is crazy about Chinese gongfu, the traditional Chinese martial art, and hoped that someday he could come to Beijing to learn it.
In This Section
|