ISRAEL : Jerusalem ‘Lion’ Goes Out With His Usual Growl

Any day now, one of the best-known mayors in the world will pack his pictures, paperweights and collection of teddy bears and end a 28-year run as one of the great builders of this legendary city.

With the results of last week’s elections officially announced on Thursday, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek must now vacate his lived-in office in the Jaffa Road municipality building and march into the pages of history. He has been called Jerusalem’s greatest builder since the 1st-Century BC king Herod the Great.

Kollek does not go gracefully, but grace was never his strong point. His is a gruff, bluff, growling charm that earned him the nickname “The Lion of Jerusalem.”

He goes growling this time, as well, after a nasty campaign in which his spokesmen called his opponent, right-winger Ehud Olmert, a liar, and Olmert’s people harped mercilessly on Kollek’s fading vigor at age 82.

Although Israeli commentators complain that Kollek’s ugly final battle marred what could have been a retirement of great dignity, they acknowledge that his ungainly exit subtracts little from an amazing career.

“Teddy Kollek is a state asset,” wrote the daily Haaretz. “And even those who think that the old leader would have been better off if he left of his own will instead of waiting to be dumped in elections are worried by our loss of this asset.”

In 1965, old-timers recall, Jerusalem was a one-horse town, with only one traffic light and some 230,000 inhabitants. Now, at 550,000 people, it is technically Israel’s largest city and projected to swell to near 1 million residents by the year 2010.

Considered probably the best fund-raiser in all of Israel, Kollek collected an estimated $250 million for the Jerusalem Foundation he created to funnel money into the city independent of the government. He oversaw the creation of massive new Jewish neighborhoods, restored much of the Old City, planted parks right and left and helped bring arts, culture, academia and an industrial base to Jerusalem.

But when asked in a post-election interview what he saw as his greatest accomplishment, he said: “That it remained a comparatively quiet city.”

Jerusalem has been far from perfectly calm; it has been riven by protests by the haredim, as strictly Orthodox Jews are known. This city has seen frequent strikes by East Jerusalem’s Arabs. It was not immune from the intifada, or Palestinian uprising. But Jerusalem has never exploded, thanks in part to Kollek’s no-nonsense approach and to his careful attempts to balance the demands of Arabs and Jews, secular and religious.

“This is a very egocentric statement, but I think my policy was the only one that could lead to normal living in the city,” he said, seated behind his broad desk in a blue blazer spiffed up by a polka-dotted handkerchief in the breast pocket.

He was openly worried that when he is gone, Jerusalem will revert to its old violent habits. “The greatest danger is that tension will return to the city,” he said.

To some extent, Kollek blames himself for the current threat he sees to Jerusalem. Asked what has been his greatest mistake over these 28 years, he said, “The way I ran this campaign, no doubt.

“I don’t feel less capable today of doing things than five years ago,” Kollek maintained. But he acknowledged that he had made a major tactical error by not grooming a successor beginning more than a year ago and passing his authority to a younger leader. He has also been criticized for the level of corruption in his administration and accused by Jerusalem’s Arabs of neglecting them.

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Kollek is left with another deep worry: that the haredim who brought Olmert to victory with their votes, in exchange for control over education and city planning, will try to transform the schools. Jerusalem, already suffering from serious “youth flight” as the young leave by the thousands for places of less religion and more fun, could turn even more into a haredi fortress.

Residents will surely miss him, but, he said, “Jerusalem is bigger and more important than any individual.”