Bradley Digs Into the Quips in Jerusalem

There were few stuffy formalities when two of the world’s best-known and longest-serving mayors met for breakfast Monday.

“We often joke that we have made so many visits to each other’s cities that the next time, we have to pay local taxes,” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley quipped.

“Why wait until next time?” Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek shot back, pretending to see potential profit in his turn as host.

For Bradley, who is leading a Los Angeles business delegation here, it was the fourth trip to Israel in 20 years, more than 12 of which he has spent as mayor of what has become America’s second-largest city.

Kollek had just been elected mayor when Bradley first came to Israel in 1965. He is also the more frequent traveler; he has been to Los Angeles about 20 times since his first trip in 1947.

“We met the last time at the Hollywood Bowl” in September, Kollek said. Danny Kaye was performing, he added, but “I had to run out in the middle to catch a plane to fly home and take care of the garbage.”

The only thing he found surprising about this meeting, Bradley said, was that the notoriously casual Kollek was wearing a necktie. Kollek quickly took it off to laughs all around.

The two mayors share more than longevity, Bradley said. Neither of their cities ever seems to have enough money, and both are ethnically and culturally diverse. However, Kollek said, there are important differences as well.

“Mayor Bradley was telling me about the problems of Los Angeles,” he said. “He said he just had to replace some 100-year-old sewage lines. I told him I just had to replace some that were 1,900 years old. That’s the difference in a nutshell.”

Also, Kollek said, while both cities may have diverse populations, Jerusalem’s has an added complication.

“Everybody who came to Los Angeles wants to become an American,” he said. “Here, other than the Jews, they want to remain separate.”

Besides “many different groups of Arabs” and Jews who have come from more than 100 cultural backgrounds, Jerusalem is home to 40 Christian denominations, each intent on preserving its identity, Kollek said. “Here, heterogeneity is inbred and permanent.

After breakfast, Bradley presented Kollek with a sterling silver canister as a memento--one, as the Jerusalem mayor said, “with the proper inscription on it so I can’t hock it.” Kollek gave Bradley a book on Jerusalem’s architecture. “It’s new, so I know I haven’t given you one before,” he told Bradley.

The Los Angeles mayor and his delegation arrived in Israel on Saturday. He said Monday that he would make a previously unannounced visit to Jordan on Wednesday, where he hopes to deliver a verbal message on a positive note to King Hussein from Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

Bradley discussed his expected meeting with Hussein during a private talk with Peres on Sunday.

“The prime minister indicated his desire to have me deliver a message of thanks and praise for King Hussein’s initiative in the effort to seek discussions and negotiations that could lead toward peace between Israel and Jordan,” Bradley said. Peres “emphasized his own personal commitment” to peace, the mayor added.

A senior Israeli official said last week that the latest round of Mideast contacts has entered an intensive stage of “quiet diplomacy” in which the United States is acting as intermediary to arrange peace talks.

The same official confirmed Monday that while Bradley is not carrying any substantive message concerning negotiations, Peres has asked him to reiterate Israel’s “good will” in seeking talks.