Shamir Vows to Work for Peace, Pledges to Keep Israel United : Mideast: Israeli prime minister says Jerusalem will remain one city. He is completing a four-day trip to the Southland today.

Speaking in Los Angeles during his first trip to the United States since the Madrid peace conference three weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir pledged Sunday to work for peace in the Middle East but said Israel’s annexation of Arab East Jerusalem and other occupied territory was not open to negotiation.

“Jerusalem is one city, united, never to be divided again,” Shamir said at the Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel-Air. “It was, and will always be, our national capital--the heart and soul of the entire Jewish people.”

Speaking Sunday night to several thousand people at the Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles, Shamir’s promise to preserve Israel’s borders was welcomed with cheers and applause. “We have returned to (Greater) Israel and will stay in our land forever and ever,” he said. “We cannot possibly agree to partition (Greater) Israel again. There is simply no room for two states in such a small area.”

Shamir likened Israel’s current struggle with its Arab neighbors to the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Maccabees in 165 BC, an event celebrated by Jews each year during the festival of Hanukkah.

“I must say that at Madrid, when we stood alone opposite the Arabs . . . we understood better how the Maccabees felt when they pleaded their case nearly 2,000 years ago,” Shamir told students at the Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles. “But we knew that, as in those days, ultimately good triumphs over evil, right over greed, and the justice of our cause will surely prevail.”

Shamir’s remarks came during the third day of a four-day visit to Los Angeles intended to promote economic ties and discuss the historic peace process in the Middle East. Shamir led the Israeli delegation to Madrid for the unprecedented three-day conference, which the Bush Administration and others hope will result in bilateral negotiations between Israel and each of the Arab parties.

But during his public appearances this weekend, Shamir also directed attention to the huge influx of Soviet Jews resettling in Israel--a message largely directed at President Bush and others in Washington. U.S.-Israeli relations plunged to their lowest level in years when Bush delayed action until early next year on an Israeli request for $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to help resettle the Soviet immigrants.

Although Shamir mentioned the loan-guarantee controversy in only one of his speeches, he repeatedly emphasized Israel’s obligation to encourage the “ingathering of Jewish exiles” from around the globe. He also stressed his country’s need for support from abroad.

“We need friends, and we need the help of many people,” Shamir told about 35 evangelical Christian leaders from across the United States during a meeting Saturday night. “I hope that your voices will be heard everywhere and will convince more and more people to stand with us.”

Shamir’s stay in Los Angeles has included appearances before a wide spectrum of Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel. He addressed Orthodox Jews at the Yeshiva University High Schools less than an hour after receiving an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, a liberal institution associated with Judaism’s Reform movement.

The varied itinerary and audiences, supporters of the prime minister said, have been meant to signal Washington and the world that Shamir enjoys broad support as his country enters the next phase of the peace process.

“As the world is hopeful that the Middle East is moving to a new peaceful era, there is a sense across the board, from right to left, that this is the right man to lead Israel into that time period,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

In a departure from previous visits to Los Angeles, Shamir was not greeted this weekend by protesters. The prime minister, however, did have his critics. In a letter to the college president, 32 graduates of Hebrew Union College denounced Shamir as a former terrorist and criticized the decision to award him an honorary degree.

“What we thought would be a simple event honoring the prime minister . . . has now been turned into a media controversy yet to be played out in full,” said Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin of the Stephen S. Wise Temple, a Shamir supporter.