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June 3, 2008

Israel Office

SHATIL

Weekly Message

Prime Minister Olmert arrived in Washington this week to address the AIPAC policy conference. As virtually all media has noted, this visit represents a welcome respite for Olmert from the ongoing investigation involving his alleged acceptance of cash from American businessman Morris Talansky. And while I appreciate that Olmert’s conduct may not involve criminal behavior, Talansky’s testimony suggests a degree of sleaze and stench that creates contempt for the political process and undermines government legitimacy.

I do not believe that it is not enough to suggest that Olmert was simply following prevailing Israeli norms. Israel is a proud democracy and should demand higher standards. Thus, I view eliminating the scourge of corruption as a high priority agenda for all those who care about the future of democracy in Israel.

But what about Olmert’s efforts to promote peace with the Palestinians and Syrians? As my friend MJ Rosenberg argued in his May 30 Its Friday column, Olmert has pursued these efforts “with some vigor since coming to office and long before his current problems materialized.” More important, MJ notes “Olmert has told his people some hard truths. Just this week he said, ‘Today we are faced with a cruel choice between the undivided Land of Israel and a Jewish state. These two cannot coexist, except in the delusions of the hallucinatory.’”.

Unlike MJ, I do not think that Olmert’s peace agenda should protect him from the rule of law. At the end of the day, peace will require, in addition to an Arab partner willing to make tough concessions, a courageous Israeli leader who has the credibility to convince a skeptical Israeli public that an agreement is in Israel’s best interests. It is doubtful that, under the current circumstances, Olmert can project such credibility.

Of course, this does not mean that Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Syrian negotiations should be brought to a halt. As a mature democracy with institutions that continue from one government to the next, Israel has the wherewithal to continue with the negotiations, even if they may not be brought to fruition until an election clarifies the internal political situation. And equally important, Israel should continue to ease conditions in the West Bank, so as to build upon the enthusiasm and sense of optimism that was evident at last week’s Palestinian Investment conference in Bethlehem [see Mara Rudman’s article Taking Steps Forward on Interlinked Economic and Political Fronts in the May 27 Middle East Progress].

In this week's NIF News, we report on government approval for a new park in Jerusalem following proposals from an NIF grantee. The park will be located in Gazelle Valley on land which had been slated for real estate development, until the intervention of a local NIF-backed environmental group fought successfully to save the valley. We also highlight statistics about Jerusalem and a report issued by an NIF grantee focusing on the discrimination and the dire poverty of Arab East Jerusalem. SHATIL features the first Alona Vardi Environmental Award ceremony today in Jerusalem and highlights the work of the Environmental Justice Project in light of World Environment Day.