Insight
Profile
ERIC SILVER
Israel Correspondent
Jerusalem
T
1 1.
If Likud is td win in future elec-
tions, it must find a new identity for
the 21st century as well as a new
leader, Olmert said.
"It's a great failure of the Likud to
have lost so many votes to an ultra-
-Orthodox party like Shas," he contin-
ued. "We have to win most of those
votes back. They are the kind of peo-
ple who should vote Likud. Ultra-
Orthodox people don't go to shul on
Shabbat morning and to soccer in the
afternoon" as the Shas dissidents do.
"What I foresee is two major par-
ties, one center-left, one center-right,
one which is more like the
Democratic Party in America, one
he May elections were a hit
in the head with a 2-by-4
for Likud, the nationalist
party that governed Israel
for the last three years. It lost 13 of its
32 Knesset seats, and most Likud local
branches have ceased to function.
About 130,000 registered members,
60 percent of the total, have stopped
paying their dues, according to Likud
activists.
As a first step toward rehabilitation,
the faithful 40 percent will choose a
new chairman in the
next month. The interim
leader, Ariel Sharon, is
generally considered the
front-runner, but Ehud
Olmert, the 54-year-old
mayor of Jerusalem, is
emerging as his most
dangerous challenger.
In a brief interview
recently in his city hall
office six stories above
Jerusalem, Olmert fired
up a six-inch Havana
cigar with a pocket
flame-thrower and talked
about where he wanted
his party to go.
His Likud, he said,
would be more like
Barak's Labor than like
Binyamin Netanyahu's
Likud. It would be cen-
ter-right, but without
the ideological baggage.
The Oslo peace agree-
ment is a fact of life.
So, probably, is a
Palestinian stare. The
future of the Golan
Heights is open.
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert
Olmert's target will be
less Labor than it is
Shas, the Sephardi
Orthodox party that has captured
which is more like the Republicans.
many dissatisfied Likud voters.
And this is the Likud. It has to be a
He insisted Likud could be sal-
pluralistic party, but which has a more
vaged. "The fundamental require-
conservative position. It has to be real-
istic enough to adjust itself to our
ment," he argued, "is to elect a leader
who stands a chance of leading Likud
changing circumstances. It must con-
toward victory in the next election."
tinue to put enormous emphasis on
the security needs of the state of Israel,
Sharon, he said, fails that test. "Ask
while committing itself to continue
any person in the street, ask any per-
the peace process," Olmert said.
son in the parry. He certainly is a wor-
How would such a Likud differ
thy candidate — it's just that no one
will elect him."
from Barak's Labor?
"It's a matter of degree," Olmert
acknowledged, saying that it would
put more emphasis on Jewish tradi-
tion, education, quality of life and a
more equitable welfare policy. "And
we have to affirm that existing Israeli
settlements in the territories should
remain part of the state of Israel," he
said.
Does that mean this son of
Menachem Begin's "fighting family,"
whose father battled for Greater Israel,
accepts the principle of territory for
peace?
"I don't accept it as a matter of ide-
ology," Olmert said, "I accept the real-
ity of it. The fact is that we have
pulled out already from
the major part of the ter-
ritories."
And what about a
Palestinian state?
"It's not our historical
mission to establish a
state for them," he said.
We can argue about the
security parameters, the
political arrangements,
all kinds of constraints.
But what will be the
political arrangement in
the territories once they
are vacated by Israel, is
beyond our ability to
dictate."
What about the
Golan? Could Olmert
live with territory for
peace there, too?
He won't stick his
neck out. "I don't know
what the terms will be. I
don't know what conces-
sions will be made. I
don't know what security
arrangements will be
made — we'll have to
see.
One thing Olmert is
adamant about. If he is
elected party leader two
months hence, he will still serve out
his mayoral term rather than look for
a place in the Knesset.
"As mayor of Jerusalem, I'm heard
all over the world. In the near future,
Jerusalem will probably become the
most important and most sensitive
focus of political debate," he conclud-
ed. "The fact that I am mayor of
Jerusalem when I am also chairman of
the Likud may even give me an
advantage over my opponents.
The Other Ehud
Jerusalems mayor wants to be the leader
of the Likud and restore its luster.
"
°member
When
From the pages of the Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1989
Beverly and Irving Laker endowed a
library fund at Bar-Ilan University for
the purchase of books and journals.
Seventy thousand young
Palestinians returned to classes as the
civil administration reopened junior
high school in the West Bank.
Congregation Young Israel of
Southfield has doubled its member-
ship to 130 families over the past six
years. Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
attributes the growth in part to the
success of the Neighborhood Project
in providing loans for Jewish home
buyers in Southfield.
ar
.197
The biggest-ever European Maccabi
Games were held in Leicester,
England; Israel sent a team of 51.
Construction continued on the
100-unit addition to the Jewish
Federation Apartments in Oak Park
with occupancy expected in the fall.
1969
Alaska's only rabbi, Chaplain Azriel
Fellner, divides his time between
the 200 Jews in Anchorage and
Fairbanks and the 125 servicemen
he serves as chaplain.
Samuel Charfoos, Detroit attor-
ney, was named a trustee of the
American Trial Lawyers-Roscoe
Pound Foundation.
1959
A construction firm owned by the
Israel Federation of Labor has
received a contract to build a high-
way connecting a suburb to the city
of Istanbul, Turkey.
Max Osnos delivered a sermon
on the sedra of the week at the con-
cluding service in a series conduct-
ed by lay members at Temple Israel.
A 17-year-old Syrian confessed that
he and two others threw hand
grenades into a synagogue in
Damascus, Syria, killing 12 Jews
and wounding 20 others.
Transfer of the remains of Dr.
Theodor Herzl from Austria for
reburial in Israel has been post-
poned for a week.
8/13
1999
Detroit Jewish News
27