U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden on Tuesday laid a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl. He is the first world leader to do so, based on new regulations issued by the Knesset Committee for Symbols and Ceremonies, which decided to include the site as one of the places foreign dignitaries will be taken to on visits to Israel.
This year is the 150th anniversary of Herzl's birth.The Vice-President was accompanied by former MK Hagai Marom, acting chairman of the World Zionist Organization, and director for Mt. Herzl in the WZO, Yaakov Gispan. Marom gave Biden a copy of Herzl's book Altneuland. In response, Biden said that one did not have to be Jewish to be a Zionist, and that he considered himself one.
