Pataki rallies pro-Israeli crowd

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York Gov. George Pataki led hundreds of Jewish activists who rallied in favor of Israel in front of the Israeli Consulate in midtown Manhattan Thursday afternoon.

Pataki and the protesters had sharp criticism for Palestine Liberation Organization President Yasser Arafat, who is to meet Saturday with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"The documents that the Israeli troops have found in the PLO headquarters and throughout the West Bank show Yasser Arafat's signature paying terrorists to make bombs and to compensate them for their costs," Pataki said. "This is not renegade martyrs, this is state-supported murder and terror and it must stop."

Rabbi Avi Weiss, in introductory remarks, likened a meeting with Arafat to "sitting down with bin Laden himself."

Protesters chanted, "No double standard" and waved Israeli flags.