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At 'Israel's Davos,' there to see and be seen By Anshel Pfeffer In the lobby of the Israel Convention Center (ICC) in Jerusalem, one of President Shimon Peres's assistants was running around urging participants in the President's Conference to enter the auditorium. On the dais sat a former U.S. under secretary of state, the chair of the Russian senate, a senior Chinese diplomat and the person who may well be the next U.S. secretary of state, about to begin a discussion about the global geopolitical situation. There were only about 20 people in the auditorium. The hundreds of conference participants preferred to rub shoulders outside the auditorium. Only 25 minutes after the scheduled time were there enough people inside for the discussion to begin. "What do they want?" complained a deputy editor of a daily newspaper. "What's important in an event like this is the mingling." And in fact, it seemed that most of the conference participants found it difficult to forgo face-to-face meetings with so many people from the top international league. The ability to bring together hundreds of key people in a variety of fields is Peres' greatest achievement. The heady atmosphere that the guests from abroad brought with them, the fine food, the wine that flowed like water and the discussions of major issues turned the ICC into a bubble divorced from the Israeli reality. Even the news that dozens of people had been wounded when a Grad rocket hit an Ashkelon mall Wednesday did not dampen the participants' mood. Advertisement Three hours before the beginning of the gala event that marked 60 years of friendship between Israel and the United States, the participants were informed of the news. But it did not diminish the sense of elation, which built up steadily until the arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush. Members of the American delegation to the conference and members of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's entourage both continued to broadcast satisfaction at the very fact that Bush was visiting Israel for the second time this year. There was no sense of urgency in the auditorium. At the start of the event, the moderator tried to remind the guests of the gloomy situation and reported the incident in Ashkelon "to anyone who hasn't heard yet." But the program, which included singers, dancers, pianists and five short films about the two countries' shared history, was not changed. Olmert, in his speech, noted that "only a few hours ago, I had the opportunity, with the defense minister, General Barak, to share with President Bush our concerns for the security of the residents of the south. The president arrived on a peace mission and has encountered the dangers confronting so many Israelis who live in the south." Peres also briefly mentioned the news. But none of the participants seemed to find it strange that at a conference designed to find solutions for the problems of tomorrow, no proposals were heard for dealing with the rockets that are launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. 5 minutes a premier The organizers and participants were much more excited by the rare opportunity to meet some of the world's most important leaders face to face. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who moderated one of the discussions, turned to the former leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, and said excitedly: "I don't know whether to shake your hand or to ask for your autograph. This may surprise people here, but we have never met before." The fact that two of the most prominent world leaders of the past two decades met for the first time under Peres' aegis said it all for the organizers. The panel moderated by Blair included Peres, Gorbachev and 11 presidents of various countries. Quite a number of presidents were circulating in the ICC's corridors, although it is somewhat difficult to compare Viktor Yushchenko, president of Ukraine, with Tommy Remengesau, the president of Palau, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean with a population of 21,000. To tell the truth, the gathering of so many heads of state created quite a serious problem for the organizers. Every president expected to speak at one of the conference sessions, but the conference topics did not lie within their areas of expertise. Therefore, it was decided to have a "presidents' panel" before the opening event, in which each of them was given five minutes to explain his view of the world's future. Most of them tried to squeeze in congratulations to the State of Israel on its 60th anniversary, praise for Peres' activity and a quick recipe for world peace. Peres originally planned the conference about eight years ago, when he ran for the presidency against Moshe Katsav. After he lost, the plan was shelved. But following his election last year, he announced at a conference of the Jewish People's Policy Planning Institute that in the coming year, the participants would be guests at his conference. Whatever interests Peres The original plan was to have a conference that would discuss the future of the Jewish people. Eventually, it was decided to broaden the definition to include the Israeli and global future as well - or in other words, any subject that interests Peres and his staff. Former director general of the Foreign Ministry Avi Gil, who was in charge of the conference's content, walked around in the days preceding it with a briefcase from the World Economic Forum in Davos. Many of the organizers described the event as "the Israeli Davos." Veterans of the international conference circuit, many of whom came to Jerusalem this week, actually compared the event to conferences organized by former U.S. president Bill Clinton's foundation, whose participants come to pay their respects to an esteemed personage. At the President's Conference, there was such a personage. But in addition to Peres, another man also walked the corridors like the father of the bride on her wedding day. Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who donated $3 million to the conference, received the title of honorary chairman and seat next to Peres at the gala events. This is the second time in less than a year that Adelson has subsidized an international conference that Bush attended. In July 2007, he funded an event to promote democracy, which was held in a palace in Prague. Leading that conference were Natan Sharansky, Vaclav Havel and Jose Maria Aznar. Bush, who was traveling to the G8 summit in Germany, made a pit stop at Adelson's conference. Havel, Aznar and Bush participated in an Adelson party this week as well. Bush came to Jerusalem, among other reasons, in order to express his gratitude to one of the Republican Party's biggest donors. Adelson is also the owner of the newspaper Israel Today, which attacks the government's behavior and endorses Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister. But this fact did not prevent him from sitting next to Peres at the conference. On opening night, only one seat separated him from Olmert. Several hours earlier, he had been answering questions about the prime minister to police interrogators. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Animated massacre Animated Israeli film at Cannes explores Sabra and Shatila massacre. Kowtowing to funders When papers are sponsored, can their reporting be truly independent?

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