Mayor in Israel; Hears Call for Investment

In other times, the prime minister of Israel might have used a meeting with an American big-city mayor such as Richard Riordan simply to press for political backing for the Jewish state.

But business-minded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had another message for Riordan and his delegation of Los Angeles community leaders on Tuesday as well: Don’t just support the land of Israel--buy a piece of it.

“Ninety-three percent of the land of this country is government-owned,” Netanyahu said. “We are going to liberalize the land.”

Netanyahu plans a sweeping privatization of Israeli state companies as well, and he urged the Angelenos to invest in telecommunications and other businesses that will come on the block.

“We would like to see your business leaders be involved in what we are going to do here. . . . We would like to see more participation from California,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu, Riordan and the delegation of more than 20 met for more than half an hour in the prime minister’s Jerusalem office on the second day of the mayor’s eight-day trip to Israel.

The visit with Netanyahu, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert and a host of other Israeli leaders has provided Riordan an opportunity to demonstrate an interest in Jewish culture and political affairs seven months before the Los Angeles mayoral vote. Riordan is running for reelection--unchallenged, so far--in a city that has the second-largest Jewish population in the United States.

Netanyahu did not lose the opportunity to make his political case before the mayor. The conversation moved from issues of business and the economy to immigration, education and finally, the all-encompassing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Netanyahu, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is fluent in English, laid out his vision of a final settlement with the Palestinians: to grant them limited autonomy, but not statehood as the Palestinians demand.

Riordan listened intently as Netanyahu argued that even Israelis who say they support the formation of a Palestinian state do not really want it to have full rights--the rights to form an army, make military pacts or siphon water out of the ground.

The mayor nodded.

“I had never thought about it that clearly,” Riordan said after the meeting. “You have to define what your goals are in making a peace treaty with the Palestinians. One goal is to preserve Israel as a productive country with a good water supply and security. An independent Palestinian state as a separate country--that country would normally expect to be totally independent in terms of deciding to have an army.”

The delegation is scheduled to meet with Palestinian representatives today.

Riordan brought a culturally and ethnically diverse delegation with him to Israel, but it includes no Arab Americans. His spokesman, Steve Sugerman, said several were invited but declined to join the group, which was invited by the Israeli government and is marking Israel’s controversial Jerusalem 3000 celebration.

Palestinians see Jerusalem 3000--celebrating the supposed anniversary of the conquest of Jerusalem by King David--as a propaganda campaign for the Jewish claim to the Holy City. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as theirs and want it as the capital of an independent state.

Riordan and the delegation have toured Jerusalem’s Old City, met with leaders of the Knesset, or Israeli parliament, visited the grave of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and held a reception with expatriate Angelenos.

They are scheduled to meet with Israeli business leaders and U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk. Riordan and Tel Aviv Mayor Roni Milo are to launch a cultural and educational partnership sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

“The Jewish community of Los Angeles is an extremely important part of our city culturally, in community activities and economically,” Riordan said when asked the purpose of his trip. “It is so important that I and other leaders of Los Angeles share that culture. We can learn a lot.”