Facts, News, Trends, Analysis
Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat praised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decision to release 250 Fatah prisoners for the Eid-Al-Adha Muslim holiday. The Israeli Cabinet voted 13-4 in favor of the release, enabling Olmert to keep a promose made recently to Palestinian Authority President Muhammad Abbas.
This much anticipated release was also appreciated by a Hamas official, [...]
Israel’s Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, announced Wednesday that he was preparing to charge Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with crimes including fraud and breach of trust over accusations of double-billing for plane tickets. The Prime Minister will be granted a judicial hearing before Mazuz makes a decision about an indictment.
Olmert is accused of fraudulently billing multiple [...]
Israel’s domestic security agency is “very concerned” that extremists in the country might attempt to assassinate an Israeli leader to disrupt peace talks with the Palestinians. Yuval Diskin, head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, released the news to the Israeli Cabinet, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. His comments came just two days before [...]
Outgoing Israeli PM Olmert has expressed his desire to continue indirect talks with Syria before he leaves office. He has stated that he is interested in talks, not necessarily in reaching an agreement by the time he leaves. How much good the talks will do is in serious question, however: he was already supposed to [...]
Amid further deteriorating relations between his government and Russia, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert flew to Moscow to press for the cancellation of the proposed sale of a new Russian surface-to-air missile system to Iran. The S-300 missile system is “considered at least as sophisticated as the American Patriot” and would greatly increase Iran’s defensive [...]
The New York Times reports Ehud Olmert’s announcement that in order to foster peace with the Palestinian people, Israel has to withdraw from land in the West Bank. If Israel chooses otherwise, then it is only fair that Palestine will have to get the same size land granted.
Olmert also announced that in no way [...]
Tzipi Livni has been invited by Ehud Olmert to form a new government. The request came after Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister and leader of the Kadima Party, asked to resign from office. It is claimed that he had been involved in several financial scandals. Livni is now the leader of the Kadima Party, the largest [...]
With Ehud Olmert’s resignation finalized, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni began forming her new government immediately in hopes of becoming Israel’s second female prime minister. Mark Lavie writing in in the Washington Post, mentions that Olmert was suffering from terrible approval ratings that almost reached single digits and Israelis did not want him representing their [...]
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won a vote to become the leader of the Kadima party and is on her way to becoming the next Israeli prime minister. She won the vote by 1.1%. Voter turnout for this primary was very low. Before Livni can be named prime minister, she must get a governing [...]
