Davis Tackles Middle East Politics

GAZA CITY — Making his first foray into Middle East diplomacy, Gov. Gray Davis spent an extraordinary day meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday, promising stronger economic ties with California if Middle East peace talks produce an accord.

The U.S. State Department encouraged Davis to visit Arafat. He is the first California governor to meet with the Palestinian Authority president. The two conferred in private for about 30 minutes at the authority’s headquarters here.

Later in the day, Davis met privately with Barak, a fellow Stanford University graduate, at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem. Although Davis noted several times that he has no role in Middle East peace talks, the first-year governor delivered the same message at both meetings: Peace brings prosperity, and California businesses are eager to capitalize on it.

“Business likes stability,” Davis said after his meeting with Barak. “A wider peace will bring more prosperity.”

Davis is heading a delegation of about a dozen California business leaders and political donors on a two-week tour of Europe and the Middle East. The main goal is to boost California exports, which are estimated to account for a fourth of the state’s economy, and to encourage more investments in California.

This is Davis’ fourth trip to Israel, and his first as governor. He had never ventured into impoverished Gaza.

“It is essential to receive all the officials, so they can see with their eyes what is going on, how we are suffering,” said Khaled H. Yazji, Arafat’s chief of protocol.

As the governor and Palestinian leader emerged from their meeting, Davis introduced Arafat to each member of his delegation. The Californians asked Arafat several times what he needs to improve the lot of the 900,000 Palestinians on the tiny Gaza Strip.

“We are starting from below zero,” Arafat replied, saying there have been no schools or hospitals built here in 30 years. “Nothing, nothing, nothing. We started below zero.”

Davis offered California’s expertise in an array of areas, from crop irrigation and sewage treatment to environmental cleanup. “Our high-tech economy can play a role in the peace,” he told Arafat.

Davis’ aides noted that although Gaza is among the world’s most densely populated and poverty-racked areas, the Palestinians receive significant foreign aid, and stand to receive much more if peace talks succeed. They are betting that Davis’ visit will give California firms a chance to compete for the business of developing the land.

“It makes a difference who is in there first,” said one of Davis’ trade officials.

From the poverty of the Palestinian territory, Davis drove to prosperous Tel Aviv, where he spoke to the Israeli-American Chamber of Commerce, and on to Jerusalem to meet with Barak. Davis said he lobbied on behalf of Boeing, which hopes to sell commercial jets to El Al Airlines, and on behalf of environmental cleanup firms seeking business in Israel.

“This is where it’s at for California [businesses],” said Zenith National Insurance Chairman Stanley Zax, part of Davis’ delegation and a longtime political donor, giving $678,000 to state politics last year.

“It’s not bad to have credentials in the Jewish community; it helps you raise money,” Zax added, offering one reason that Davis is spending the better part of a week in Israel.

Davis long has drawn support from Los Angeles’ Jewish community, and is making a point of his support for Israel, citing his efforts to help Holocaust victims and their heirs gain compensation from corporations with links to the Third Reich.

Davis and his wife, Sharon, began their visit to Israel by meeting with Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, placing a wreath at Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s tomb and touring the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.

Davis leaves today for Cairo, where he will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He will return to Tel Aviv tonight to meet with more Israeli business leaders before returning to California on Saturday.