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ISRAEL BONDS
Olmert Could’ve Written
Bush’s Speech on Mideast
By Tim Boxer
 HUD
OLMERT canceled his date last month in Colorado for a meeting
with former President Gerald Ford, Vice President Dick
Cheney and other leaders. He told an Israel Bonds audience that
it was more important for the mayor of Jerusalem to stay home and
comfort the survivors of the recent wave of suicide attacks.
“I needed to be with the families who
suffered,” he said. “I stayed home to view the remains of a girl
torn apart, bodies blown up from a bus bombing. An Ethiopian woman
cried for her daughter, and I cried with her.”
But Olmert came for the Israel Bonds dinner at
the Sheraton New York, where he urged American Jews to buy more
Israel Bonds.
“It’s easier for you to do that than what
we have to bear in Israel,” he said.
In response, the event raised a whopping $25.8
million.
In appreciation, Olmert presented the
organizations Guardian of Jerusalem Awards to 10 supporters,
including New Yorkers Howard Jonas of IDT, Fredric Gould
of BRT Realty Trust, Leon Levy of Urban Substructures, Menno
Ratzker of Metallia USA, and Amy Goldberg Michel who’s
on the executive committee of Israel Bonds women’s campaign.
When President George W. Bush was about
to make his historic proposals for Mideast peace, Olmert told
friends, “I would really like to write his speech.”
After Bush’s announcement of peace without Arafat,
Olmert’s friends said, “So you really went to work and wrote his
speech!”
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