by Gil Hoffman
NJJN Israel Correspondent

JERUSALEM — To succeed in Israel, it helps to have good connections with the country’s movers and shakers. And lately, it apparently also helps to have ties with United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey.

First, two Israeli mayors who had partnered with MetroWest, Ra’anana’s Ze’ev Bielski and Sha’ar Hanegev’s Shai Hermesh, became the Jewish Agency for Israel’s chairman and treasurer, respectively.

Now, Hermesh and two other friends of UJC MetroWest have joined the Kadima Party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which is favored to win Israel’s March 28 election.

Hermesh, Rishon Letzion Mayor Meir Nitzan, and Mevaseret Zion Mayor Carmi Gilon have already joined and taken active roles in the party, and Bielski is expected to follow them soon.

Prior to his hospitalization, Sharon asked Hermesh to join Kadima’s list of Knesset candidates. Olmert placed him 30th on the list, a position that appears guaranteed for a seat in the legislature, according to the polls. Hermesh heads Kadima’s campaign in kibbutzim and moshavim, making him responsible for bringing veteran Labor members like himself to Kadima.

The relationship between UJC MetroWest and Hermesh began in 2001 when, as part of the Israel Emergency Campaign, UJC MetroWest adopted Kibbutz Erez, a community on the border with the Gaza Strip. The kibbutz was in Hermesh’s jurisdiction, and the politician was instrumental in building the partnership, which continues to this day.

“MetroWest is a warm community that I have gotten to know very well,” Hermesh told NJJN. “I guarantee the people of MetroWest any assistance that they need in the Knesset, and my office door will always be open to them if they want to visit me. MetroWest is a community that cares about the Negev, and Kadima is a party that cares about the Negev, so I am sure we will continue our relationship.”

Hermesh left his mark at JAFI by refocusing its efforts on developing the Negev and making the desert bloom. The projects he initiated have directly benefited the Negev communities that are partnered with UJC MetroWest in the agency’s Partnership 2000 program, Ofakim and Merchavim.

It was Kadima’s commitment to developing the Negev instead of the West Bank that convinced Hermesh to shift to the party after 40 years in the Labor Party. He said he liked being in a party that included representatives from once rival camps: those, like Olmert, who advocated a “Greater Israel” after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War, and former Peace Now activists, like himself, who early on advocated Israel’s striking a land-for-peace deal.

“I joined Kadima because the country has been stuck in a debate about its borders for almost 40 years,” Hermesh said. “Sharon succeeded, for the first time in Israel’s history, in bringing together a wide consensus on where Israel’s borders should be. Sharon said that with all his sentiments for Greater Israel, it’s more important that there be a Jewish democratic state in Israel, and that means keeping settlement blocs and giving up land where the Arabs have a demographic advantage.”

Hermesh and Sharon gradually became good friends after 1987, when Hermesh became mayor of the Sha’ar Hanegev region, which includes Sharon’s Sycamore Ranch. After Sharon’s wife, Lily, died in 2000, Hermesh helped Sharon obtain permission to bury her on a flowery hilltop on the ranch.

Asking Hermesh to join Kadima on Dec. 28 was one of Sharon’s last acts as prime minister before the series of strokes that have left him comatose since Jan. 4.

“When Sharon asked me to join Kadima, I said I would come unconditionally because I believed in him and because I decided he would be the best man to lead the country to a final-status agreement with the Palestinians,” Hermesh said.

Since then, Olmert has replaced Sharon, and talk of an agreement with the Palestinians stopped when the Palestinians elected Hamas to lead their legislature. Still, Hermesh said, he is committed to carrying Sharon’s vision forward.

Hermesh took a leave of absence from the Jewish Agency and now spends his days crisscrossing the country campaigning for Kadima. He said that in order for the party to enact the reforms necessary to change Israel’s political system and make it more stable and clean, it needed a landslide victory.

“The fact that without Sharon we still have the support of a third of Israelis will guarantee governmental stability and the prevention of the political blackmail that plagued other governments,” Hermesh said. “Kadima will take over the role of David Ben-Gurion’s dominant Mapai party. Its Knesset members will be able to vote according to their beliefs and their consciences without the influences of vote contractors and central committees that threaten and extort MKs in other parties.”

Amir Shacham, MetroWest’s representative in Israel, said he was sure that “the same way Hermesh cooperated with MetroWest as mayor and Jewish Agency treasurer, he will be open to working with us from his Knesset seat to promote the joint values of American Jewry and Israel.”

Leaving Labor

Rishon Letzion is the Israeli city that has had the longest relationship with UJC MetroWest. Nitzan was already mayor in 1980 when the first volunteers from MetroWest came to Rishon’s impoverished Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood. The relationship continues to this day with immigrant absorption and pluralism projects.

Nitzan was the first Israeli mayor to join Kadima. In a meeting at the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, he announced in a dramatic fashion that he was returning the membership card that he had received from David Ben-Gurion 55 years ago when Nitzan joined the Mapai, or Labor, movement.

“I decided to shift to Kadima after 55 years in Mapai, because someone took over the house and threw out the landlords,” Nitzan said, criticizing Labor chair Amir Peretz. “Peretz doesn’t realize that running the country requires experience and experienced people. Shimon Peres and more veteran Laborites left, so I wanted to leave before they threw me out too. The party has been left empty and full of strangers.”

As a sign of respect to Nitzan, Olmert offered him the symbolic 117th slot out of 120 candidates on the party’s Knesset list. He heads Kadima’s campaign in Rishon Letzion, which is among Israel’s five largest cities, and he is set to host a campaign event with Olmert next week.

Gilon became the latest mayor to join Kadima last week. His town, Mevaseret Zion, cooperates with UJC MetroWest in pluralism projects based in the Mevaseret Zion Reform Congregation. He is not a Knesset candidate for Kadima, but he will be involved in advancing educational projects on the party’s behalf.

When 72 mayors formerly affiliated with Likud, Labor, and other parties attended a festive dinner with Sharon in November, the prime minister asked the mayors for support in building Kadima into a permanent fixture on the Israeli political scene.

“The fact that you came is proof that that the steps we have taken have unprecedented public support from the entire country,” Sharon told the mayors. “You have helped me over the years with many challenges. You know more than anyone how difficult it is to make fateful decisions. Together, with our combined leadership, we can move Israel forward.”