Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Our charming mayor

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 | 8:48 a.m.

LAST WEEK I CAUGHT A TAXI for a ride to St. Peter's Church in Yafo. It was the usual conversation with a cabby. "Where are you from?"

"Las Vegas."

"You have a very nice and smart mayor."

Oh, I thought, that darn Oscar Goodman has caught the same cab and he's been campaigning for the next city election.

"Your mayor is not only smart but very good looking."

The cabby must have met somebody from another city or he's conning me. Oscar, good looking? The guy might have bad eyes but he seemed to be driving in the right lane. Maybe it's my eyes and Oscar is good looking, I thought.

"Yes," the cabby said, "She is very charming."

Ah, now I knew he had the wrong city and wrong mayor.

"Oscar Goodman is a man and is very smart but not really good looking or always charming," I remarked.

"No, this woman's name was Jan Jones. I met her in Eilat to talk about gambling. I represented the taxicab drivers. She told us how gambling would help pay the taxes and the Mafia and prostitution could be kept out of the city."

I breathed a sigh of relief and now had confidence he could get through the traffic and to church on time. Then I explained to him that Mayor Jones is no longer in office but in private business. He gave me his card to pass on to her.

Sorry about that, Oscar, but I thought you were making inroads in Israel for the election next year. Right now it looks like the former mayor still has the attention of at least one Israeli cabby.

Among the small group of peaceniks who rushed into Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity to join the militant gunmen were at least two or three Americans. During the night they would yell taunts at the Israeli soldiers surrounding the church.

I asked one of the soldiers if that wasn't a dangerous activity on the part of the peace activists. "No," he answered, "they were briefed and knew we wouldn't shoot them because they were unarmed."

Our country had Jane Fonda during the Vietnam War and Israelis have their Yaffa Yarkoni. The singer, before the Jenin "massacre" was exposed as the big lie, compared Israeli soldiers in that town with Nazis. A ceremony to honor her lifetime achievements was canceled, but this hasn't kept her from singing at protest gatherings. She has a good voice.

It took almost three decades for Fonda to realize the damage she had done to the morale of our POWs in the hands of the Viet Cong. Israelis hope the deaths of 23 Israeli soldiers in Jenin may bring Yarkoni to her senses in less time. They shouldn't hold their breath for this to happen.

Some days are better than others when a guy is traveling. My most exhaustive security experience didn't take place in Los Angeles, Toronto or Tel Aviv. No, they were during the early morning hours leaving McCarran International Airport.

I had my suitcase unpacked, when checking in at the UAL gate, shoes removed and hand-held metal check at the X-ray stop, and when entering the aircraft was pulled off to the side for a body check and handbag opening. It was a relief to reach my seat and have the plane pull away from the gate before another examination took place.

The El Al security checks in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv were thorough but weren't extreme. Of course, the Israeli airline security people have had years of experience and their methods are refined with little wasted time.

Am I complaining about my experience at McCarran? Not one bit. The local people were polite and, as they gain experience, will become more efficient. A little extra time spent on the ground can prevent a lot of terror in the air.