'Burg won't use our assembly to pitch his book'

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and Jewish Agency chairman, who has come under criticism for a new book that includes a condemnation of Israeli Zionism, has called on current Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski to debate him at the organization's upcoming assembly on Sunday. The call comes after Bielski harshly criticized sentiments Burg expressed in a long interview with Ha'aretz's Ari Shavit in which Burg condemned what he called Zionism's lack of spirituality, said Israel could not be both nationally Jewish and democratic and called for the reevaluation of the Law of Return. The interview itself came in the wake of the publication of Burg's new book Defeating Hitler. Sources in the Jewish Agency told the Post "the organization has no intention of allowing Burg to use the Jewish Agency's upcoming assembly as a platform to pitch his new book."