Terrorist acts in Jerusalem will multiply if the Palestinians go through with plans to declare an independent state in May, the city’s mayor predicts.
“I’m not very optimistic,” Ehud Olmert acknowledged.
In fact, in some sense, the mayor of the holy city would prefer a conventional war over what he expects will actually happen.
“I’m not afraid of a war in the traditional definition of war,” he said before his Dec. 3 speech at San Francisco’s Concordia Argonaut Club.
“I’m concerned with a continuous attrition by terror that creates these very painful, very troublesome, very, very, very unpleasant [incidents] — that is what I’m afraid of more than a comprehensive military confrontation between two armies.”
Olmert spoke at an event sponsored by the American Friends of the Hebrew University. The university, which was Israel’s first major institute of higher learning, is based in Jerusalem. It’s also where Olmert earned his undergraduate and law degrees in the 1960s and it’s where he met his future wife.
The 53-year-old Israeli native, who became mayor in 1993 and was re-elected last month, expects to play a role in negotiations when Jerusalem comes up in final-status talks under the Oslo Accords. His position on the issue is clear.
He won’t accept any plan that “will fundamentally change the status of Jerusalem as capital of the state of Israel…For me, the most important thing is to prevent any change in the status of the city.”
He is referring in particular to Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives and the Old City — the latter two being sections of eastern Jerusalem that were united with western Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Likewise, Olmert has no intention of letting the Palestinians rule Jerusalem — regardless of leader Yasser Arafat’s stated intention of declaring an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
“Now, I promise you we will do everything in our power to make sure this dream of Arafat’s will never be realized,” Olmert told his audience of more than 200.
Some left-wing politicians have suggested the Palestinians could create a capital in Abu Dis, a village just east of Jerusalem. But Olmert said Arafat means to establish his capital in or near the Old City.
“I will do all in my power to make sure he never steps foot in that part of the city.”
The only change he can foresee is one in the administration of some holy sites. He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, plans to defend Jerusalem are in place, although Olmert would not go into detail.
“We hope the need will never arise. But we can’t just take chances, of course,” he told the Bulletin.
In his speech, Olmert noted that the international community still does not accept the idea of Jerusalem as Israel’s and only Israel’s capital. Only two countries — Costa Rica and El Salvador — have their embassies in Jerusalem.
“We can’t count on the sympathy and support of too many countries.”
Olmert has long been involved in Israeli politics. A Likudnik, he first joined the Knesset in 1973 at age 28 and served six consecutive terms until resigning last month. He also served as a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
But nothing has compared to running Israel’s capital.
“To lead the city of Jerusalem is different from any other job…any place,” he said. Olmert described himself as “aware continuously of the richness of history, of the memories underneath and the secrets still hidden beneath the stones.”
In his speech, Olmert focused on the emotional, spiritual and historic ties that Jews feel toward Jerusalem.
The city “touches the most sensitive nerves in all of us. It’s hard to explain, but we feel it — we know.”
One group with which Olmert believes he might find unlikely allies is the Palestinians in Jerusalem who have lived under Israeli rule for almost 32 years.
Olmert asserted that they are not anxious to be under Arafat’s rule. “That doesn’t mean they are Zionists or will join Likud in the next elections,” he joked. But the mayor pointed out that Arafat put a lot of pressure on Palestinians to keep them from voting in the November’s city elections. And Olmert noted that 50 percent of the Palestinians who voted chose him.
In fact, he contends the election shows the importance of building relationships between “us and the other residents of Jerusalem.
“Only those who will take care of all Jerusalem will be recognized as the true sovereigns of Jerusalem.”