By Shmuel Rosner
Tags: Ehud Olmert, Annapolis 
WASHINGTON - Representatives from Orthodox Jewish organizations and Christian organizations met with President Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley along with other senior White House officials Monday, and raised concerns regarding the diplomatic meetings in Annapolis.
The members of the group oppose future Israeli concessions in Jerusalem. According to some participants, Hadley told them that Jerusalem is not on the negotiating table now. He also told them that no American pressure was applied before Israel decided to attend Annapolis. The participants got the impression that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was the enthusiastic partner behind this process. 
The group was led by Nathan Diament, public policy director of the Orthodox Union, and included representatives from Agudath Israel, the National Council of Young Israel, Christians United for Israel represented by David Brog, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Coordinating Council for Jerusalem, headed by Jeff Ballabon. It also included Christian leader and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer. Following the meeting with Hadley, Diament issued a statement that "we had a constructive and meaningful conversation with Mr. Hadley and other White House senior officials. On the eve of the Annapolis meetings, we were happy to share with them the perspective of Americans who in their synagogues and church pews regularly pray for the peace of Israel and the rebuilding of Jerusalem."
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday categorically rejected assertions by American Jewish leaders that Jerusalem is not an Israeli issue but "a Jewish one."
The Jewish leaders are demanding that American Jews should have a say in any discussion about dividing Jerusalem.
Speaking at a news briefing Monday, Olmert said that the Jerusalem issue had "been determined long ago" and that "the government of Israel has a sovereign right to negotiate anything on behalf of Israel."
He said that at this stage, the matter was a theoretical rather than practical one, as the subject of Jerusalem was not yet on the negotiating table.
In recent weeks, as the Annapolis summit approached and rumors and leaks of future compromises in Jerusalem increased, several Jewish American figures, mainly from the Orthodox community, coalesced to present a hard line against the possibility of the capital's division.
Among other things they set up the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem, an umbrella organization identified with Jewish Republican circles, to resist any compromise regarding the city. The Orthodox Union (OU), the umbrella organization of Orthodox communities in the U.S., set up a Web site intended to mobilize people "to protect Jerusalem from being divided."
The OU adopted a resolution after the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, breaking with its tradition of refraining from intervention in controversial political issues in Israel. It announced that it would no longer desist from expressing positions opposed to those of Israel's government when it believed this was called for.
A number of Jewish leaders have been saying lately, mostly off the record, that they do not believe Olmert's government would make what one of them called "irreversible decisions" concerning Jerusalem without consulting world Jewry.
Commenting on Olmert's statement Monday, the OU issued a statement saying that the organization's activity for Jerusalem was not intended to "dictate" moves to Israel, but to express the OU's "resolute stand" that all the Jews in the world had a share in "the holy city of Jerusalem" and that its partition was a move the Israeli government should not agree to
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