Mayor Olmert
To Greet Mission

His topics included the violence in Jerusalem, the
off-track peace process, Palestinian Authority leader
Yasser Arafat and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Olmert said he would be playing a major role in
the next election for Israel prime minister, but hasn't
decided whether he wants to play challenger or sup-
porter.
"Whether I want to be a senior minister in the
cabinet or the prime minister, or to do what I do
now, which I consider almost as important as being
prime minister — I have to make up my mind," he
said.
If Likud Party leaders Binyamin Netanyahu, the
former prime minister, and Ariel Sharon deadlock
for supporters, Olmert believes the right-wing party
could turn to him as a compromise choice. Olmert,
who has made no secret of his willingness to be con-
sidered for national office, has always stopped short
of a full-fledged campaign for the top job.
"I will go back and meet with everyone who wants
to be a candidate," he said, "then I will decide.
What we have to think about is to align behind a
candidate who has the best chance of winning."

Explosive Jerusalem

Olmert said he proposed that Jerusalem be the first,
not the last, issue discussed after the Oslo peace
talks in 1993, but the late Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin "attacked me for suggesting something that
would explode the entire process.
If the issue of Jerusalem is going to explode,
Olmert said he told Rabin, why do it "when every-
thing else will already be possessed by the
Palestinians and then we'll be left without?
"Let's check it out right away," Olmert said at the
time.
In the current climate, Barak thought a final-sta-
tus agreement with the Palestinians could be reached
easier with President Bill Clinton, Olmert said. But
with time running out, Barak's strategy of trying to
build up the process, according to the political
timetable in America, proved to be a terrible mis-
take, according to Olmert.
Putting the blame for the violence in Israel square-
ly on Arafat, Olmert said no easy answers exist to
quell it, especially in Jerusalem. The Palestinian
Authority must not administer Jerusalem, he added,
because doing so will inevitably create a confronta-
tion that may lead to hostilities.
"What we have in Gilo," a target for terrorists
shooting from the adjacent Palestinian neighbor-
hood of Beit Jala, he said, "is a very good example of
what may happen if Israel would pull out of certain
neighborhoods that are now administered by us as
part of Jerusalem."
"Beit Jala is a very friendly neighbor. We are not
enemies of them and they are not of us. But once
Beit Jala is administered by the PA, there is free
access for Palestinian policemen to come and shoot
and go," he said. "By and large, we don't have any
hostile reactions by the Arab population of

"

Jerusalem, and the other neighborhoods are peace-
ful, friendly and cooperative.
"People will live in the same places. No one is
going to evacuate people from one place to another.
Populations are mixed together, and they will con-
tinue to live together," he said. "The challenge is
whether we can be tolerant and patient, and under-
stand each other."
Currently Jerusalem's population is estimated at
600,000, with 70 percent Jewish.
The region could benefit from a proposed rapid-
transit system. David Roet, Israel's deputy consul
general in Chicago, said Jerusalem would be linked
to Tel Aviv by a high-speed rail line and a commuter
train. Approved in a first reading by the Knesset, the
proposal still has a long way to go for approval.

The Other Ehud

Calling Barak "almost childish, but in a way very
inspiring," Olmert said Israel's prime minister gen-
uinely believed that if he sat with Arafat and
Clinton in a closed room, they would reach an
agreement.
Barak forced Clinton to meet with the late Syrian
President Hafez Assad in Geneva, Switzerland, then
forced him to meet with Arafat at Camp David.
Both meetings failed to produce gains in the peace
process, but Olmert still called it "a very honorable
strategy."
"You can't just despise him [Barak], you can't just
underestimate him, for wanting to do it. Because he
said, 'Let's just make a gigantic effort to try to
achieve peace,'"' Olmert said. "Had it succeeded, he
would have been a hero — but it failed."
Barak had the Palestinians figured wrong, especial-
ly when it came to their leader Arafat, said Olmert.
"He is not, at this point of life, capable of changing
his state of mind. You're talking of a man who looks
at himself as a very rare combination of
Mohammed, Christ and Moshe Rabenu [Rabbi
Moses].
"Someone else will come and deal with the practi-
cal day-to-day aspects of dealing with the social and
economics of creating a state, but it's not for Arafat,"
Olmert said. "As long as he's in charge, there will
not be an agreement that we can live with."
The peace process was doomed to fail, said the
mayor. Had Barak permitted a different timetable,
maybe time would have been a positive factor.
The famous image of Clinton, Barak and Arafat
walking through the doors of Camp David last fall
sticks in Olmert's mind. Barak opens the door for
Arafat but he won't go in first. All three men are
laughing, but Barak has to push him through the
door.
"In a way, you can look at it in retrospect and say
Arafat didn't want to go. In a sense, Barak wanted to
push him into the corridor of peace," Olmert said.
"Arafat doesn't want it. It's not his corridor, it's not
his strategy. Barak forced him, and he stood at the
head of this corridor and never moved on." ❑

s.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, in
metro Detroit for a speaking engage-
ment, issued a personal invitation to
participants on the Michigan Unity
Mission to Israel, Jan. 14-19, to make
their first stop in Israel be his office in
the Jerusalem City Hall.
"I promise you, it is very beautiful,"
lie said of the municipal building.
On Dec. 1, Olmert told his breakfast
audience at the Max M. Fisher
Federation Building in Bloomfield
Township that the unity mission will
give a morale boost to Israelis who are
saddened by a dramatic decline in
tourism.
Olmert noted that Jerusalem has been
largely free of the violence seen in a
number of West Bank towns since
September. The mission will not be vis-
iting those areas.
The Michigan Unity Mission is spon-
sored by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and the Jewish
Dews in cooperation with congregations,
organizations and Jewish communal
agencies both here and outstate.
The mission cost of $999 per person
(double occupancy) includes round-trip
airfare direct from Detroit via El Al, as
well as hotel accommodation, all meals
and ground transportation in Israel.
There will be no solicitation of funds.
Trip participants will spend three days
in Jerusalem and one day in the central
Galilee, where residents of Michigan's
Partnership 2000 region will host them.
The mission goers will get Israel's per-
spective of the issues from government
and military- officials, but also from peo-
ple with different viewpoints on the
peace process.
Mission goers will have "family time,"
an opportunity to visit with relatives
who live in Israel — part of the people-
to-people connection that will be
emphasized on the trip. The itinerary
also will include time to shop, which is
important tc Israel's tourism industry.
Extensions to the trip also can be
arranged. CI

cOpn forms are available

W eiss of the Federation:

.

5,1485 ,
2030, Bloomfield

t.hisisfederation.org ;

~os end tr ips

8 X44 -0724

etss@jfmd.org
rSo.ri:, 6 735 Telearaph, Suite 330,

oWnship

15

