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   2002-01-18 Shai Hermesh-political turnabout
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Rightward march

Why peace is a casualty 
for Mayor Shai Hermesh,
 neighbor of B-G & Sharon

San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, Jan. 18, 2002
 
By Donald H. Harrison
Shai Hermesh, a Kfar Aza resident who serves as mayor of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, used to consider himself quite a left-winger as far as Israeli politics went. He once told Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that he liked the Oslo peace process, and believed that the sooner agreements leading to an independent Palestine were implemented the better.

After Rabin was assassinated, his sister Rahel told Hermesh that the slain prime minister had drawn comfort from the fact that people "living right on the border" were behind the peace process.

But Hermesh decided to switch sides on Sept. 13, 2000— the day when mortars were fired from Gaza at the Sha'ar Hanegev region, which includes a string of kibbutzim, a moshav, the Ibim-San Diego student village, and a 1,250-acre ranch owned by Israel's current prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

In a Jan. 9 interview with Heritage, Hermesh recalled his bitterness over coming under attack from Gaza. For six years, he had been in the forefront of programs to create economic and cultural cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. He had championed a program in which 500 students from Gaza studied at the college in Sha'ar Hanegev. He was one of the chief
cheerleaders for an industrial zone to be created right on the border, which would attract capital investment from the Israeli side and plentiful labor from the Palestinian side. With the Palestinians, he had drawn up plans for a massive water reclamation project to benefit both Sha'ar Hanegev and the Gaza Strip.

But when the current intifada began on Sept. 13, 2000, with "shooting at farmers in the fields of Sha'ar Hanegev and firing mortars at us, the question came up, 'What was going on here?' We who were trying to construct a new relationship were the first to be attacked."

Hermesh moved politically to the right. He voted for his neighbor and old friend, Ariel Sharon, in the last election for prime minister. He said he likes the fact that Sharon is far more moderate than many members of his Likud party. "I appreciate very much the way he is behaving, showing strong self-control. He is under extreme criticism from the right wing of his own government," some of whom want Sharon to take far harsher steps against the Palestinians, including the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and the banishment of Yassir Arafat.

Although Hermesh is crestfallen over the plans for regional cooperation that now lie in the ruins of the intifada, he said he takes solace in other projects in his region, most especially the joint programs of Sha'ar Hanegev and the Jewish community of San Diego County.

Among these programs are the two communities' ongoing partnership in the administration of the Ibim-San Diego Student Village, where students immigrating to Israel receive intensive schooling. The communities also cooperate on various cultural exchange programs as well as a new project to help absorb Jewish refugees from Argentina, where the economy is now in
shambles.

Forty years ago, some of the earliest settlers in Sha'ar Hanegev were immigrants from Argentina, who kept in contact with their families and former neighbors in Buenos Aires. Now that Argentine refugees are streaming to Israel, Sha'ar Hanegev is seen as a logical place for many of them to
settle.

Hermesh was in San Diego to attend the annual United Jewish Federation's Men's Event, where at a private reception preceding the dinner he presented a special coin dating back to 70 CE to the main speaker, former U.S. Middle East Envoy Dennis Ross.

At the dinner itself, the mayor read a letter from Prime Minister Sharon,
which sad in part:

"Israel is facing today a campaign of terror launched by the Palestinian Authority. Our unity and your solidarity with the people of Israel are critical to defeat this campaign and achieve lasting and durable peace. Therefore I wish to commend you on your significant and important efforts on
behalf of the State of Israel.

"The United Jewish Federation of San Diego supports important projects in Israel," Sharon¹s letter added. "In particular, your support of programs in Sha'ar Hanegev, under the leadership of my friend Shai Hermesh, help develop a region vital to the State of Israel, the Negev."

In his Heritage interview, Hermesh saluted Sharon for helping to implement the dream of Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in bringing settlement to the Negev. Ben-Gurion lies buried in the Negev community of Sde Boker.

Ranches the size of Sharon's are quite rare in Israel. It includes a family compound, where there are quarters for Sharon's son Omri — who serves as a personal aide to his father— and for his other son Gilad and daughter-in-law Inbal, who have three children, including twins.

When, recently, U.S. Middle East Envoy Anthony Zinni met with Sharon and other Israeli leaders at the ranch, discussions were held in an informal setting, Hermesh said

"He accepts official guests and private guests in the same salon," the mayor said. "In it there is a very big, wide chair which belongs only to Arik (Sharon¹s nickname), but the people sit very close to him. When Lilly was alive, she was the one who always brought to the guests her self-made strudels, which were very famous.

"You know, his first wife was Lilly's sister; she was killed in an accident. His first child was killed in an accident with a hunting rifle, so that family has overcome some difficult tragedies. When people talk to Arik on these issues, they can see tears in his eyes. They are a warm family."

Even during the time when he was an unabashed left-winger, Hermesh said, he always had a friendly relationship with the Sharon family. "His two children are graduates of the kibbutzim's original high school," Hermesh said. "His grandchildren go to a kindergarden in one of the kibbutzim. In spite of many political conflicts with Arik in the past, always we remember that we are neighbors and try to be friends."