Olmert wins friends abroad by not being Sharon

LONDON, June 21: It says a lot about Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the only Arab protest to mark his first European summits was a pure coincidence.

The 30-odd demonstrators picketing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office as he met Olmert on June 12 were not Palestinians, but Libyan exiles opposed to Western rapprochement with Tripoli.

To judge by their puzzled looks when queried, few if any knew that inside 10 Downing Street at the time was the ideological heir to Israel's Ariel Sharon, the ex-general reviled in much of the West Asia for his battlefield exploits.

Olmert's lack of a military pedigree can be a liability in a Jewish state born of war. But the warmth with which the suave career politician was received in London and Paris, and earlier in Washington, suggests he has assets the flinty Sharon lacked.

And that, diplomats say, could go a long way towards helping Olmert win foreign support if only tacit for his vision of selective Israeli withdrawals in the occupied West Bank in the absence of peace talks with the Palestinians.

''In the end, high politics are about personal relations, so I think the personality of the prime minister will affect how he markets the 'hitkansut','' said Simon McDonald, Britain's ambassador to Israel, using the Hebrew for Olmert's ''realignment plan''.

Under that plan, dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be removed and others eventually annexed behind a fortified border on land the Palestinians want for a state.

''He (Olmert) has the sort of personality that senior Western figures respond to,'' McDonald told Reuters. ''He is an old-fashioned retail politician -- the kind who presses the flesh and looks you in the eye. Sharon was a general.'' While sticking to the European Union's opposition to any Israeli border-setting on land captured in the 1967 West Asia war, neither Blair nor French President Jacques Chirac openly took issue with Olmert's proposed unilateral moves.

Blair even voiced empathy for seeking ''other ways'' to end more than five years of fighting given the new Hamas-led Palestinian government's refusal to recognise Israel.

Though Blair's remarks might have seemed tame compared to US President George W Bush's praise for Olmert's ''bold ideas'', they were still a departure from the more strictly even-handed European rhetoric of decades past.

Alain Dieckhoff, West Asia analyst at the Paris-based Centre for International Studies and Research, said the Europeans felt stymied by the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate but may also have been won over by Olmert's statesmanship.

''Olmert creates less controversy than Ariel Sharon. He doesn't have the same past,'' Dieckhoff said. ''He is a party man, a politician with a civilian background. That makes his task easier here, even if ideologically he is very close to Sharon.''

SHARON'S SHADOW

It took time for Olmert, a former Jerusalem mayor and businessman, to emerge from Sharon's shadow. He assumed power when 78-year-old Sharon suffered a stroke in January, casting himself as loyal executor of his predecessor's legacy even after winning a March vote. Those close to Olmert, 60, say he long planned to reach top office.

Palestinians saw Olmert simply as an apparatchik of Sharon, whom many despise for his crackdowns on their revolt.

Olmert's goals include repairing foreign relations frayed by Sharon's reputation for military adventurism, although this has already been partly achieved by the former premier's withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip last year -- a move hailed internationally as a possible spur to peace.

When Olmert visited Washington last month, he was not only hosted by Bush at the White House but had the rare distinction of addressing, in fluent English, both chambers of Congress.

Sharon, hailed by the president as ''a man of peace'' and invited to the White House a dozen times, was more comfortable poring over maps than speaking at blue-ribbon ceremonies.

Along with maintaining key US ties, Olmert has put an emphasis on rapprochement with Europe, Israel's biggest trading partner but remembered by many Israelis as the site of the Nazi Holocaust and suspected of being a hotbed of pro-Arab sympathy given its growing Muslim minorities.

''To the older generation of Sharon et al, Europe was tainted with guilt,'' said Shimon Shiffer, a leading Israeli political columnist who has followed Olmert's career for three decades.

''This prime minister sees Europe as a place of opportunity and partnership. It is a significant shift,'' Shiffer said.

Even to Arab nations suspicious of Israel, Olmert might offer a welcome change of style.

Sharon was notorious in the region for cross-border actions culminating in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, during which an allied Christian militia slaughtered Palestinian refugees.

''Whereas Sharon was universally reviled among Arabs, Olmert is by comparison somewhat colourless, less known. That makes it easier for him,'' said Mouin Rabbani, a Jordan-based analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank.

But he predicted that while Arab leaders may find it easier to deal with Olmert, they will long for Sharon's domestic derring-do, especially given speculation that the current Israeli government is not strong enough to push through a wide West Bank pullout.

''One thing that Sharon's Arab counterparts really liked about him was that he was a powerful leader who could make decisions and implement them,'' Rabbani said. ''To some extent, that's what they loved about him. That is now missed.''

REUTERS