Olmert: Jerusalem as capital forever

After meeting this past weekend with MK Avigdor Lieberman regarding the possibility of the Israel Our Home party joining the government coalition, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday once again appealed to the nationalist front. In a video address broadcast Sunday night to thousands of Christian tourists who came to Israel via the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ), he emphasized the holiness of the "City of God" and said that he was committed that Jerusalem "remain the united and undivided the capital for the Jewish people." "This is the city that God has chosen to be the capital of the Jewish people and it will remain the capital of the Jewish people. There is no power in the world that can change it," he declared. He emphasized that the city would remain open to believers of all faiths. Olmert's speech was broadcast during a ceremony in the Jerusalem convention center, attended by Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog. Olmert thanked the visitors for their support of Israel and stated that, although he had met them in the past, he was unable to do so this year because of scheduling conflicts. Olmert spoke of the war in Lebanon, saying that it had not been an easy year for Israel, but rather one in which Israel had been forced to go to war with the religious extremists of Hizbullah and over a million people in the north had suffered. However, he presented the war as a good decision. "Unlike in the past we said, we will not allow (Hizbullah aggression) to continue without a strong response from the state of Israel," the PM explained. "It's been tough…but the end of it is that, now there is an international army in the south of Lebanon, there is the Lebanese army deployed in the south of Lebanon and the Hizbullah do not dare surface with a gun because they know that if they will do it, they will be shot at immediately." The ICEJ was founded in 1980 in order to support Israel. The embassy serves as an advocacy center for Israel for Christians around the world, and it runs projects and special programs to strengthen the ties between Israel and Christians, as well as to help Israeli residents.

Olmert: Jerusalem as capital forever

In Sunday speech to Christian tourists, promises to maintain an undivided Jerusalem, talks of positive outcomes of war in Lebanon