In Israel, Gov. Touts California

Praising the Israeli people for their “genius,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened a brief swing through the Middle East on Saturday with a broad call to eliminate bigotry and a salesman’s message about California.

The state is toppling obstacles to job growth and hoping to become a magnet for foreign trade, he said. “Come on over. Come on over, OK?” he repeated as he mixed with hundreds of Israeli businesspeople at a Hilton hotel here Saturday night.

Schwarzenegger pointed to what he called the inclusive spirit of the bodybuilding world in urging an end to racial prejudice. As an award-winning bodybuilder, he said Israeli peers who might have been dubious about his Austrian heritage instead encouraged him to train in their gyms.

“In the sport of bodybuilding, we never have seen that anyone is different than the next,” he told a group of U.S. Embassy staff members invited to meet him later in a hotel ballroom. “No one said, ‘Wait a minute. He comes from a country, Austria -- they had the Holocaust and all those kinds of things.’ Nothing. Everyone is equal.... Strip away all the prejudices and be inclusive. That’s what we have to do.”

Schwarzenegger plans to visit three countries in as many days in his first foreign trip as governor. Beginning with a weekend flurry of official meetings and appearances in Israel, he is planning to fly to Jordan on Monday to meet King Abdullah II for lunch, then to a German air base to visit injured troops. The Jordan trip was mentioned by his staff for the first time Saturday -- following criticism that the governor was snubbing the Arab world.

Schwarzenegger announced five separate ventures on the part of Israeli firms that are expected to create 800 jobs in California. The deals include the relocation of the Sanrad computer company from Tel Aviv to Alameda. Schwarzenegger said a special nonprofit jobs commission he set up in March would work to speed up such moves. The co-chairman of the commission is San Francisco financier Warren Hellman, a donor to the governor’s campaign fund.

“California has not done well in the last few years when it comes to business and economics because our Legislature decided to put more roadblocks up for the businesses,” Schwarzenegger told the embassy employees. “They damaged our businesses and economy in California. Now I want to ... create some action. Because I’m the action hero, right?”

The group cheered.

Schwarzenegger pressed for greater ties between Israel and California. He said “there are so many brilliant people in this country and they’re so innovative that -- working together with California -- I think we can really create ... jobs, businesses and revenues.”

As proof that he is creating a brighter climate for job growth, Schwarzenegger mentioned his recent overhaul of the workers’ compensation insurance system.

“We reformed it,” he said. “It’s all done. It’s all done. Thirty percent less [in premium costs] for businesses.”

For a governor who has faced charges of hostility toward Jews, Saturday offered a contrasting image. Israeli officials praised Schwarzenegger, and Schwarzenegger praised Israel. Crowds swarmed him for pictures.

“Everyone pull in their stomach,” Schwarzenegger said at one point, mid-pose.

During the recall campaign, the governor faced accusations that he had spoken admiringly of Adolf Hitler during the 1970s. He denied that was the case. He also has faced inquiries into his late father’s past as a member of the Nazi Party.

“He’s a great friend of Israel and an exciting person and a great friend of the Jewish people,” Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said of Schwarzenegger. “And it’s very flattering, to be honest, that he comes in his first trip overseas after being elected governor to the state of Israel.”

The governor arrived at the Hilton hotel about 5 p.m. local time in a big convoy of Israeli SUVs and police cars. He had flown in on a private jet, accompanied by friend and financial advisor Paul Wachter.

Schwarzenegger walked in quickly through a secure entrance at the front of the building, just as some tall, sweat-suited players competing in the European basketball league title game that night made their way to team buses.

“Is he coming to the game?” Maceo Baston, a 6-foot-10 forward with the Maccabi Tel Aviv team said earlier in the day.

Asked if there was much talk of the governor in Israel, Baston, who is from Dallas, mentioned that when “Terminator III” came to DVD he and his friends “got it, talked about it. It was cool.”

Security at the hotel was tight. Armed guards were posted on roofs and at the entrance. People entering the building were asked for identification.

Most of the governor’s itinerary was known, but his staff sprang a surprise Saturday, announcing that he would make a trip to Jordan to lunch with a friend, King Abdullah II.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger will fly from Tel Aviv in a helicopter provided by the king, and return later to Israel. The governor’s wife, Maria Shriver, counts Queen Noor, who was married to the Jordanian king’s late father, as part of her “kitchen cabinet.”

In a schedule dominated by meetings with Israeli leaders, the governor’s lunch with King Abdullah appears to signal that he is not ignoring the Arab world. But critics may not be entirely satisfied

Sabiha Khan, a spokeswoman for the Southern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said she would like the governor to also meet with everyday Palestinians to see firsthand the conditions in which they live.

Last month, King Abdullah postponed a White House meeting with President Bush after the president’s announcement that he would back Israel in disputes over the refugees’ “right of return” to former homes and the status of certain West Bank settlements.

Today, the governor’s schedule is packed with ceremonial visits and meetings in Jerusalem with top Israeli leaders.

He is booked for about 45 minutes with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- on a day when Sharon is awaiting the outcome of a party vote over his plan to withdraw from military facilities and settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The governor also is meeting with Israeli President Moshe Kastav and Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom. He will lay a wreath at the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial.

The day’s centerpiece will be a speech at the site of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s planned Museum of Tolerance. Schwarzenegger is a longtime friend and financial supporter of the center, which is headquartered in Los Angeles. The center has investigated Schwarzenegger’s past at his request, concluding that his late father, Gustav, a member of the Nazi Party, did not commit war crimes.

With an entourage that includes California Highway Patrol officers, advance staff and senior aides, Schwarzenegger is leading an expensive trip. Half a dozen gubernatorial aides attended a press briefing Saturday morning.

The governor’s office said it could not provide an exact number of state employees who are on the trip, which is costing more than $5,000 per person.

Expenses are being covered through three sources: the governor’s campaign funds, taxpayer money and the Wiesenthal Center, said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson.