Staff Writer

Three world leaders pledged their commitment to Israel's security last week, as they helped to mark the American Jewish Committee's 100th anniversary.

President George W. Bush, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared the dais at the National Building Museum on Thursday in front of more than 2,000 people at the AJCommittee's annual dinner, the climax of a week of events celebrating the organization's centennial.

"America's commitment to Israel's security is strong, enduring and unshakable," Bush said, reiterating that the U.S. would have "no contact with the leaders of Hamas" as long as they do not acknowledge the right of Israel to exist.

"Democratically [elected] leaders cannot have one foot in the camp of democracy and one foot in the camp of terror," he said.

Bush also said he would continue to rally the world community to stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The president received his biggest applause of the evening discussing an issue for which some in the crowd had rallied the previous Sunday: the situation in Sudan.

The African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur, Bush said, must be augmented "with a blue-helmeted U.N. force, with a NATO overlay, so that we can send a clear message to the leaders of Sudan: We will not tolerate the genocide taking place in that country."

The call for NATO involvement in Darfur was the president's strongest statement on that issue to date.

In his speech, Annan did not directly address his organization's long unbalanced and unsavory treatment of Jews and Israel, but implicitly acknowledged it by talking about the United Nations' new Human Rights Council. That will replace the old Commission on Human Rights, "which in recent times discredited itself by focusing selectively on violations in a few states, while ignoring those in others."

The new council, he said, is "meant to eliminate double standards" because it will regularly review the human rights record of all countries.

The United States and Israel had opposed the resolution creating the new council, complaining that the reforms didn't go far enough.

"The United Nations is, I hope and believe, what it always should be ‹ a place where Jews can feel at home," he said. "We need the Jewish people ... to make its full contribution, on every item on the global agenda."

He voiced hope that "within my lifetime, just as in this country, where Jews are accepted without question as full citizens, by all their fellow citizens, so Israel will be accepted without question as a member by the whole family of nations."

He added that "we all know what that means: a peaceful Middle East, at the heart of which will be two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side, within secure borders, in peace and with mutual respect."

Merkel, giving much of her speech in her German mother tongue, said that her country "will do everything it can" to bring a "just and lasting peace" to the Middle East, and also emphasized the importance of the security of Israel and the Jewish state's right to "live in secure borders."

"The right of the existence of the state of Israel must never be questioned," she said, adding that the threats to the Jewish state from Iran were "intolerable."

She expressed regret over the election of Hamas, saying the terrorist group "will be answerable for the consequences of its policies [on] the Palestinian people."

Merkel also noted the historic nature of the leader of Germany helping to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a major Jewish organization.

(The American Jewish Committee was the first American Jewish organization to open an office in post-World War II Germany in 1998.)

"I know that it is anything but a matter of course for a chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany to be invited to address you here tonight," Merkel said. She lamented the loss of so much Jewish history in Germany because of the Nazis, which is why it is "all the more important to cherish what is left."

She noted that rabbis would soon be ordained in Germany for the first time since 1945.

One delegate to the conference noted how significant it was to see a German chancellor address a major Jewish organization on such an important occasion.

"It speaks volumes about how Germany feels about its relationship" with the AJCommittee and the Jewish community, said Susan Sklar, 56, of Boynton Beach, Fla., adding that nobody "could have thought something like this would happen 50 years ago."

As to whether Annan's speech indicated an evolution in U.N. treatment of Israel, Hannah Douglas, 38, of Seattle said that it certainly might indicate "a shift from previous policies," but that she was "still suspect" about whether the world body's actions would truly change.

Douglas also said that she was pleased to hear the president talk about Darfur, since his call for NATO involvement was "a [policy] shift we haven't heard before."

Thursday night's dinner also featured taped messages congratulating AJCommittee on its milestone from three other world leaders ‹ new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

During the week, the festivities also included visits from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and the chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties, Howard Dean and Ken Mehlman.

AJCommittee also announced that it had completed its five-year Centennial Campaign: A Fund for the Future, exceeding its goal and raising $105 million.