Los Angeles Jewish leaders don't usually follow Hebrew papers, but a weekend spread in the Tel Aviv daily Yediot Aharonot on Israeli consul general Ran Ronen has them furious. The article portrayed the diplomat's just-completed tour of duty in the city as an unmitigated success, the stuff "which dreams are made of."
"A nightmare is more like it," said one ranking local Jewish leader. "The guy just wasn't an effective diplomat," said another. Ronen, they wailed, seemed singularly unable to fit his message to his audience. Sophisticated Jewish officials with access to State Department background papers were treated to cheerleading speeches. In a debate with the local Lebanese consul general before an audience of Arab-American Republicans, Ronen implored his listeners to "imagine the possibilities inherent in a Middle East governed by Arab brawn, Saudi petrodollars and Jewish brains." And after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, sources say, he gathered Jewish leaders in his spacious office to discuss ways to push the administration into military action. Jewish officials were appalled he would meddle so blatantly in a domestic issue - and that he had invited the local Israeli press corps to sit in.
However, Ronen, a former air force brigadier general appointed consul general by the Likud's Moshe Arens, was liked by the 160,000 Israelis in the L.A. area, who welcomed his efforts to bring their community back into the Zionist fold.
Advance word on Ronen's replacement, Uri Oren, a lame-duck appointment by former foreign minister David Levy, does not offer much consolation for the Jewish leaders. Said one community fundraiser, who recently returned from Jerusalem, "People at the Foreign Ministry were telling me, Boy, if you thought the last three years were something, now you're really in for it.'"
Graphic
Sheli Teitelbaum/Los Angeles