Mixed Verdict for Ehud Olmert
July 10, 2012 19:06 by Pesach Benson
Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories:
1. Ehud Olmert was acquitted on corruption charges associated with the Rishon Tours and Talansky affairs, but convicted on a lesser charge in the Investment Center affair. The court will hand down its sentence at a later day. Corruption charges in the separate Holyland affair continue. Take your pick of JPost, Times of Israel, YNet, or Haaretz coverage.
The cumulative effect of these affairs makes my head hurt. But after seeing far more corrupt Arab leaders toppled, it’s worth remembering that Israeli Democracy’s Warts are A Selling Point Too. And anyone anticipating an Olmert political comeback should pause and take a deep breath, tweet Amir Mizroch and Chemi Shalev. ‘Nuff said.
2. More reactions to the Levy Report recommending that Israel legalize settlement outposts. I liked how AP handled this issue in a Q&A format. Meanwhile, James Taranto (Wall Street Journal) compares the Israel/West Bank status to US-administered “unincorporated territories” like Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa.
Most disturbing was a bizarre Time photo essay tying the Levy Report to Adam Golfer’s collection of unimpressive and unrelated images of Israel and the West Bank. This particular caption raises a tear gas libel against the IDF (been there, done that). It’s the 21st image in the slide show.
A tear gas canister lands next to a house in the village of Nabi Saleh during a protest. During demonstrations, the Israeli military frequently shoots gas canisters into densely populated village centers. In 2010, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiyeh, an 18-month-old Palestinian boy named Ahmed Abu Sarah died after inhaling large amounts of tear gas fired by Israeli police during a confrontation with demonstrators. Massive amounts of gas often drift into residential homes, harming and sometimes killing infant and elderly bystanders who are not mobile enough to escape.
3. Even when Israel drills for gas inside the Green Line (who knew?), the BBC‘s perturbed:
While this may seem uncontroversial on the face of it- the flare is, after all, within Israel proper - its proximity to the Green Line raises ethical questions.
“Geology doesn’t follow geography,” explains Dr Samer Naboulsi, a veteran petroleum engineer at a leading oil firm in Dubai.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Mahmoud Abbas refused an Israeli offer of a prisoner release in exchange for deigning to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu. Maan News reports:
Abbas insists that all 123 prisoners held since before the 1994 Oslo agreement be freed in a single release, Qaraqe said.
• AFP: Palestinians call local elections for October 20.The last time the PA held polls for municipal and district positions was in 2006. You can be sure this too will be postponed or cancelled according to the shifting sands of Fatah/Hamas relations.
• Hamas demolished a bunch of Gaza homes, and a story like this only gets urgent headlines when Israel does this. The Media Line was the only Western paper picking up on this story. Hamas even recycles the Israeli line buried by the Big Media:
Ibrahim Radwan, Chairman of the Land Authority, told The Media Line that his office was merely enforcing a law passed by the Hamas cabinet last January to stop illegal land-grabbing and squatting on government land.
• See the Evening Standard for veteran journalist Gerald Seymour’s gripping first person account of the Munich Massacre.
Dany
9:23 pm
Jul 10, 2012
Squatting on government land, Gaza style!!
Squatting is a national passtime of the Arabs
occupying Jewish land for the past 400 years.
History be the witness as to the squatting of
Arab nationals in all but one area designated
by the Creator, that is Arabia, the rest has been
quietly annexed and turned to legitimate
countries thanks to the imperialists of Europe.
Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lybia, Tunisia, Algeria,
To name a few.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
17 
1
Paul Tenenbaum
9:32 pm
Jul 10, 2012
Israel should have annexed all terrtories which they occupied in the wars. PERIOD.
Other countries have done so and the world accepted.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
24 
0
Barry
5:59 am
Jul 11, 2012
i fully agree with you, but, while its not fashionable to say in these politically correct days, we should also have “relocated” the local hostile population while the chance was there….as had been done many times before in other parts of the world in the creation and destruction of various countries. would the Arabs have done differently? only in that they would first have murdered their vanquished. only Israel’s actions are viewed under a microscope. those of Arab countries are forgiven or ignored outright. how many Jews will be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state? they say the # will be 0. penalty for selling land to a Jew? death. the # of Jews are allowed into Saudi Arabia? 0
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
9 
0
Moll
10:09 pm
Jul 10, 2012
IF
* the biblical report is true, that the G-d of Abraham Isaac & Jacob gave Abraham the land from the great river of egypt to the river euphrates; and if
* the biblical prophecies are true, that the G-d of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, having dispersed all the “children of Israel” will bring them back from where they have scattered;
THEN
* Every inch of land Israel has succeeded from, since 1948, in land-for-peace exchanges will have to be retaken at some point in time. That means the Sinai, that means the Gaza strip, that means any land in Judea & Samaria; that means the land east of the Jordan given to Manessah and Gad; that means portions of Lebanon — and who knows how much more!!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
14 
0
Josephine Bacon
10:16 am
Jul 11, 2012
Why has there been no report or protest on this forum of the BBC World Service permitting an interview with Ismail Haniyeh in the “Hrd Talk” series? I would have thought there would have been an outcry!
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0
Nigel
3:23 pm
Jul 11, 2012
“Almost one third of the [IDF] and 50% of its officers are female.” So, the IDF is very much gender-biased in favour of female advancement. There is a report stating that female combat soldiers are suffering significantly more physical injuries than their male counterparts, including injuries that have significant long-term impact. We also know that most instructors are female. And now we know that the officer corps is disproportionately female. Do women really believe such a situation is good for women, let alone good for the operational effectiveness of the IDF? Demonstrably, I would say that the answers are in the negative. Anyone would think traditional male roles were more fulfilling…
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0
Dany
9:09 pm
Jul 11, 2012
Right on Barry, imagine all that oil, all that water, imagine imagine imagine
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0
Barry
9:29 pm
Jul 11, 2012
lol, but what i’d really love to imagine, is the bright future of this world once a viable alternative to oil is found!!! those uncivilized Arab savages will be able to drink their oil in their tents once the world is no longer hostage to them..and hopefully then there will be a more honest discussion of the common and rampant Arab human rights transgressions as opposed to the fictional ones attributed to the Israelis.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
Mixed Verdict for Ehud Olmert | Blogs about Israel aggregation
5:34 pm
Jul 15, 2012
[...] Continued on Page 2 [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Leonard
9:38 pm
Jul 23, 2012
Israel acquired the West Bank in a defesive war and should for it’s safety keep all the land it obtained. Like all other victorious countries, for it’s grouth and safety, the loesers should be expelled.
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0