- 29 januari 2008
Rabbi Meir Kahane debates Ehud Olmert on Nightline
(8:07) Rabbi Meir Kahane debates Ehud Olmert on Nightline 1 x viewed
More than twenty years ago, Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D, who was then a member of the Knesset, debated a young MK named Ehud Olmert on Nightline.
You will note that it is Kahane who worries about there being enough Arabs in Israel to create a demographic problem. Olmert dismisses the issue. What Kahane apparently did not anticipate was that the Arabs would be able to make the statistics lie and convince the world to believe them.
Other than that, Kahane - who was assassinated in November 1990 just a few blocks from my then-New York office - sounds like a prophet in this video. The issues he raises - that the Jewish Independence Day is considered a tragedy by the Arabs, the national anthem, the flag, the right of return etc. - are all issues raised by the Arabs today and were unanticipated by Olmert then. Whose views were correct? Kahane's or Olmert's?
The Jerusalem Post reports this morning that the Kahane - Olmert debate is the most viewed video by people searching for Olmert videos on YouTube. The video has been viewed by more than 33,700 people in the last year (that figure is updated from what the Post published this morning). What they don't mention is that the second most-viewed video has been viewed only 2600 times. Maybe people are smarter than Olmert thinks? Here are a couple of prescient comments from the Post: The Nightline video begins with then-MK Meir Kahane (Kach) answering questions from host Ted Koppel about his calls for limiting Israeli citizenship to Jews due to the demographic threat posed by the higher Arab birth rate. Koppel then interviewed Olmert, who was then a Likud MK and a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "This is entirely incorrect," Olmert said about Kahane's argument that Arabs could eventually outnumber Jews between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River. "There are 700,000 Arabs in a country of 4 million people [referring to Israel without the Gaza Strip and the West Bank]. The chance that they will become a majority any time in the future is such a remote possibility that it in no way justifies the philosophy he preaches." Probed further about the subject, Olmert said the solution was for Israeli Arabs to learn to live with Israel as a minority; he continued to deny that there was any demographic threat. "The probability that I attach to [Arabs becoming a majority] is so small that I don't think that at this stage we have to give any answers," Olmert said. When Kadima was founded in November 2005, Olmert and other Kadima leaders said the party would seek to create a Palestinian state due in part to studies predicting that there could soon be a majority of Arabs in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Olmert also sounded very different in speeches this week when he used the demographic threat as one of his main arguments for relaunching negotiations with the Palestinians at the Annapolis summit. "We need to [create a Palestinian state] or we can end up like South Africa," Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. "We need to maintain the Jewish majority and prevent the idea of two states for two peoples from being lost."
Maybe the time has come to stop listening to Olmert's ideas and to start listening to Kahane's? See more on Rabbi Kahane at http://www.kahane.hameir.org
31 oct 2008
Rabin's assassin says influenced by Sharon
In this file photo dated Nov. 1, 2007, Yigal Amir, the convicted assassin of late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is seen during a court hearing in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir, in his first interviews since the 1995 killing, said he shot the Israeli prime minister because Ariel Sharon and other hawkish ex-generals warned Rabin's land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians would bring disaster. Amir fatally shot Rabin at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv on Nov. 4, 1995.
Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, in his first interviews since the 1995 killing, said he shot the Israeli prime minister because Ariel Sharon and other hawkish ex-generals warned Rabin's land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians would bring disaster.
Yigal Amir fatally shot Rabin at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv on Nov. 4, 1995. He considered Rabin a traitor for signing the 1993 Oslo peace accord with the Palestinians, agreeing to return land Israel had captured in wars.
Amir told Israel's Channel 10 TV he was spurred into action by comments from Sharon, Rehavam Zeevi and Rafael Eitan. At the time of the killing, all three were leading right-wing politicians with long, distinguished military careers.
Asked who had an impact on his decision to kill Rabin, Amir replied: "Sharon, Raful, Gandhi, all of the people who understand the military and said this agreement would bring a disaster." He referred to Eitan and Zeevi by their respective nicknames, Raful and Gandhi.
Sharon went on to become prime minister from 2001 to 2006 and in 2005, ended Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip before he was rendered comatose by a stroke. Zeevi was assassinated by a Palestinian militant in 2001, and Eitan was killed when he was washed into a stormy Mediterranean in 2004.
Excerpts of Amir's interview were broadcast for the first time on Thursday and were to be aired in full on Friday. Later in the day, however, the station decided not to broadcast the full interview after the excerpts set off an uproar for giving exposure to Amir. The interview was a violation of a prisons service ban on Amir talking to the media. Channel 2, which also interviewed Amir, scrubbed its planned Friday broadcast as well.
After Rabin's assassination, many in Israel blamed hardline politicians as well as hawkish rabbis for creating a divisive political climate that encouraged the killer. But Amir said he paid little attention to the rabbis.
"You don't need a rabbi for that. It's not a matter of a rabbi," he said.
Amir, who is serving a life sentence, also said he realized that killing Rabin would be relatively simple when he attended the wedding of a friend who was marrying the daughter of a prominent rabbi. Amir was armed with a pistol, and Rabin was also there, protected only by one bodyguard.
"I saw that it was that simple. If I could shake his hand, I could have easily shot him," Amir said.
Amir gave telephone interviews to Channel 10 and Channel 2 under the guise of conversations with his wife from his cell.
As punishment for giving interviews without permission, the Prisons Authority moved Amir to solitary confinement in a different prison. He has been forbidden to use the telephone, receive visitors or hold conjugal visits with his wife, a statement said.
While in prison, Amir married an admirer, Larissa Trimbobler, and the two had a son last year.
Israeli lawmakers criticized the TV stations Friday for giving Amir a forum to express his views.
Zevulun Orlev of the settler-affiliated National Union Party told Israel Radio: "I think the interviews with this despicable murderer broke the quarantine and the social exclusion that have rightly been put on Yigal Amir."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert commended the stations for scrapping the interviews.
"The broadcast of the interviews would have offended many people, especially on the eve of the annual memorial day for Yitzhak Rabin," Olmert said in a statement. "I regret the outsized and uncalled-for interest in the slayer rather than the slain, Yitzhak Rabin, his memory and his legacy."
Israelis will mark the 13th anniversary of Rabin's assassination next week.
http://fwd4.me/17vr
6 dec 2008
Olmert - Jewish Settler Attacks On Innocent Arabs Are No Les
(2:39) Olmert - Jewish Settler Attacks On Innocent Arabs Are No Les
cabinet meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the attacks by Jewish settlers on innocent Arabs following the forced evacuation of the disputed Hebron house no less than a pogrom and declared the law enforcement would act swiftly and determinedly to bring those reponsible to justice.
29 sept 2009
Former PM Ehud Olmert in the dock
(2:57) Former PM Ehud Olmert in the dock 2 x viewed
16 oct 2009
Protestors shut down Ehud Olmert speech at University of Chicago
(7:32) Protestors shut down Ehud Olmert speech at University of Chicago.MP4 1 x viewed
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came to give the annual King Abdullah II Leadership Lecture at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Outraged that a man responsible for war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon that killed more than three thousand people during his term of office, community members confronted Olmert inside the lecture hall effectively preventing him from delivering his speech. The Goldstone report, examining Israel's attack on Gaza last winter, while Olmert was prime minister, called for Israeli leaders to be held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Recording and photography were officially banned at Olmert's request, but The Electronic Intifada had a camera anyway as protestor after protestor rose to make a statement before police forced them to leave. Watch this exclusive video.
31 dec 2010
Rabbi arrested on rape charges
Police say three minors complained of sexual assault by rabbi who heads schools in north.
A rabbi who runs a number of schools in northern Israel has been arrested on suspicion he sexually assaulted two minors, the court cleared for publication Friday.
Ynet has learned that the rabbi is suspected of raping a 14-year old girl and performing an indecent act on a 12-year old boy. He has denied the allegations, claiming they are the product of a conspiracy against him by the schools he runs.
The rabbi was arrested Thursday while preparing to go abroad for two weeks. Police are expected to ask the Nazareth Magistrates' Court to remand his arrest by ten days Friday.
His attorney claimed before the court that the rabbi fell victim to blackmail. He said the father of the girl allegedly raped was trying to extort NIS 100,000 ($28,100) and that he was now inciting against him in public.
A police representative said three minors had come forward so far, and the court ruled that sufficient evidence had been presented to keep the rabbi in custody.
But his attorney insisted on the rabbi's innocence following the court hearing. "This man has been an education figure for close to 40 years and he has recently fired a number of people from the schools he heads. They are subsequently conspiring against him. We have evidence to this effect, including tapes and text messages" Yehuda Freid said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4007182,00.html
6 sept 2010
Olmert's trial due resumes after summer break
Trial continues after prosecution was accused of coaching a witness; investigation is still under way.
The trial of former prime minister Ehud Olmert is due to resume in Jerusalem District Court on Monday following a two-month summer break.
The trial recessed on a shrill note, when the defense accused the state prosecution of having coached a witness, Hadar Saltzman-Shifoni, by giving her a document drafted by the prosecution that allegedly summarized the answers she had given to police during the investigation.
Saltzman-Shifoni works for Rishon Tours, the company whose services Olmert used when he allegedly double-billed the state and various public organizations and charities for trips he made abroad on their behalf.
Members of the former prime minister's defense team, attorneys Eli Zohar, Navit Negev and Nevot Tel-Tzur, said that the prosecution had used the document to introduce incriminating statements against Olmert that Saltzman- Shifoni did not make during police questioning.
Before her testimony, the prosecution informed the defense that it had held a number of refresher sessions with Saltzman-Shifoni to prepare her for testifying. It presented Olmert's lawyers with two pages of text that, according to the defense, indicated differences between what Saltzman- Shifoni had told police and what she was being told to say in court by the prosecution.
During her court testimony, it emerged that the document that had been prepared for her totaled 32 pages.
On June 23, Zohar filed a criminal complaint against the prosecutors, accusing them of obstructing justice, suborning a witness, harassing a witness, abusing their office, fraud and breach of faith, all violations of the Penal Code.
Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel said that the defense complaint was an attempt toward dramatic but empty moves in and out of court.
However, District Court President Moussia Arad did not see it that way.
If you wanted to prepare a document because the witness was unwilling to read the entire text, then quote accurately from the text, she told attorney Uri Korb, the main prosecutor.
You are permitted to do so. But why draw up a document like this? How do you come to such a thing? On the face of it, everything you have said [in defense of the document] fails to tally with the document itself.
A Justice Ministry spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post that the investigation, which had been handed over to Deputy Attorney-General for Criminal Affairs Rachel Gottlieb, was still under way.
Olmert is on trial for three major cases of corruption that allegedly took place during his years as mayor of Jerusalem and minister of Industry, Trade and Labor: the Talansky affair, in which he is accused of receiving money from a New York Jewish businessman without reporting it to the authorities; the Investment Center affair, in which he is charged with granting favors to his longtime friend and personal attorney, Uri Messer; and the Rishon Tours affair.
His trial started off with hearings on the Investment Center matter and several lesser charges.
Messer was said to have been involved in both the Investment Center and Talansky affairs, but under interrogation, he turned against his old friend. He was due to appear in court as a witness for the prosecution.
With the trial already under way, the Holyland affair exploded onto the public stage. It involved many suspects, including Olmert, who was suspected of having accepted bribes to enlarge the permitted size of the residential housing project in south Jerusalem, and Messer, who was suspected of having passed the bribes to Olmert.
At this point, the prosecution asked the court to suspend the hearings relating to the Investment Center, as well as to the Talansky charges, which were next in line, because both might have been linked to the Holyland affair.
The problem lay in the possibility that Messer might be indicted for the Holyland affair and, due to the linkage, indicted retroactively in the Investment Center and Talansky affairs, which would affect his status as a prosecution witness.
As a result, the trial shifted its focus to the Rishon Tours affair, in which Messer was not involved.
Last month, police recommended that charges be brought against Olmert, but not against Messer, in connection with the Holyland affair. If State Attorney Moshe Lador formally concurs, the state will be able to resume the Investment Center and Talansky trials, to run concurrently with the Rishon Tours hearings.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?ID=187218&t=t
Police chief: Holyland case new standard in corruption
The Holyland affair exposed a new standard in political corruption in Israel, Police chief Dudi Cohen said in a Rosh Hashana speech at Israeli Police national headquarters on Monday.
The Holyland affair was "the water line in public corruption," said Cohen.
He went on to praise the work of police investigators in the case and added the hope that an occurrence of such a level of corruption at high level would not occur again.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=187246
Cracks appear in Olmert's defense in Rishon Tours affair
Documents submitted by the prosecution to the Jerusalem District Court appeared to show that contrary to what he has claimed, the former PM was very involved in his overseas travel arrangements.
Cracks appeared Monday in former prime minister Ehud Olmert's defense strategy, when documents submitted by the prosecution to the Jerusalem District Court appeared to show that contrary to what he has claimed, he was very involved in his overseas travel arrangements.
The documents were submitted as part of the testimony of Olmert's former travel planner, Rachael Risby-Raz. She is the key witness for this portion of the trial, which centers on allegations that Olmert double-billed various nonprofit agencies for the same flights abroad and used the surplus to fund private trips for himself and his family.
Olmert, first as mayor of Jerusalem and then in various cabinet posts, was a sought-after speaker at overseas fund-raisers. But he has consistently claimed that his official responsibilities left him no time to deal with the financial arrangements for these trips.
The documents submitted Monday, however, include notes in Olmert's handwriting that do deal with the details of how these trips were paid for.
The most damning document, in the prosecution's view, is an itinerary for Olmert's June 2005 trip to New York, at which he was to address two different organizations. The document contains a note from Risby-Raz reading, "Ehud, please specify who needs to pay for what," along with an addendum that one group "can only pay $250."
Below is a response from Olmert: "Negative. I don't take tips."
But he did tell her not to take any money from a third group, Bnei Akiva.
In another document that seems to indicate his involvement in the details of his travel plans, he instructs Risby-Raz to use his frequent-flyer points to upgrade him to first class.
Prosecutor Uri Corb began by showing Risby-Raz a document detailing the surplus funds acquired on some of these trips and asking her what happened to the extra money.
"The money went to Rishon Tours," the travel agency, she answered, saying that was the order she had received from her predecessor.
It was this account at Rishon Tours that was then allegedly used to finance Olmert's private trips.
At another point, she admitted that "there's no connection between the bill and the actual flight. In my eyes, there was no connection between what the organization committed to pay and how much it [the flight] ended up costing."
Thus a given group would often pay more than the flight actually cost, with the balance going to Olmert's account at Rishon Tours.
But attorney Navit Negev-Ram, representing Olmert, retorted that had Olmert's goal been to milk these organizations of extra money for himself, he would not have ordered that some, like Bnei Akiva, be exempted from paying anything.
Moreover, she said, the Rishon Tours account ultimately had a deficit, not a surplus.
Risby-Raz also faces charges on this matter, and her attorneys had thus sought to get her testimony in Olmert's case delayed, arguing that it would hurt her ability to defend herself by revealing elements of her own defense strategy to the prosecution. But Olmert's three-judge panel rejected this request Monday, citing the great public interest in finishing the trial swiftly, so her testimony proceeded as scheduled.
Initially, Risby-Raz had troubled controlling her tears, and said she "regrets having moved to Israel."
http://fwd4.me/06P4
Former prime minister's coordinator bursts out crying while Olmert wishes world happy New Year
Foreign relations coordinator for former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert testified in matters related to his case Monday. During her testimony Rachel Risby-Raz said she was "sorry I immigrated to Israel" and immediately afterwards burst out crying.
Risby-Raz, who came to Israel in 2001, has been indicted in the 'Rishontours' double-billing case against Olmert. The prosecution says she helped cover up the filing of double receipts for Olmert's trips abroad for the sum of $92,000 on his orders.
Before her testimony the attorney representing Risby-Raz at her trial which is being carried out parallel to Olmert's asked that it be postponed. However, the court ruled that there had been no extenuating circumstances justifying a continuance.
Earlier the former prime minister took advantage of the press coverage of his case to carry a political speech on the newly launched direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
"I am hoping for great tidings, for us and our Palestinian neighbors, and wish the entire region, and maybe even the entire world, a happy New Year," he told reporters.
Olmert, who attended Risby-Raz's testimony, added that the people of Israel should be hopeful this Rosh Hashana.
"I believe there is a chance of achieving real gains that will lead us to a peace agreement. I want to praise the government, led by Netanyahu, who decided on this move," he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3950206,00.html
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Maria 7 sept 2010
Court denies Risby-Raz was hostile witness
Prosecution claimed testimony by ex-Olmert worker contradicted previous statement, after presenting document proving former PM approved billing of organizations.
Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday rejected a request from the prosecution to declare Rachel Risby-Raz a hostile witness.
The state's prosecutor, Uri Korb, charged that Risby-Raz, who formerly testified as a prosecution witness, presented a version of events in court which completely
Korb charged that in her testimony to the police, Risby-Raz repeated over and over again that she had received instructions from her superiors, former prime minister Ehud Olmert and his chief aide Shula Zaken, on how much to charge each of the organizations on whose behalf Olmert spoke abroad. She also told the police, Korb said, that Olmert and Zaken had instructed her to tell the former prime minister's travel agency, Rishontours, to issue false receipts to the organization that paid for the trips. These receipts described an itinerary, which was incomplete.
The lawyers representing Olmert and Zaken, opposed the request, arguing that she had not contributed her testimony to the police. The judges ruled that the court had failed to present a strong enough case to justify declaring Risby-Raz a hostile witness.
Risby-Raz headed Olmert's foreign liaison office while he was mayor of Jerusalem, minister of industry, trade and labor, and prime minister. She has also been indicted for her role in this affair, but is being tried separately.
The prosecution presented a document to the Jerusalem District Court on Monday it claims proves that Olmert had approved the full billing of two different organizations that had invited him to speak on their behalf in New York at the same time.
However, Micha Fetman, attorney defending Zaken, told reporters afterwards that what the document actually proved was that Olmert had not charged other organizations which wanted him to speak for them but could not afford the cost.
The document was presented during the first day of testimony by Rachel Risby-Raz, the key witness in the charges against Olmert and Zaken in what as known as the Rishontours Affair.
Olmert and Zaken are accused of charging all or most of the expenses involved in Olmert's trips abroad to raise money for philanthropic or pro-Israel organizations, to each of the groups involved, without informing the organizations that each was paying for everything. Groups for whom he appeared were also allegedly charged expenses even when Olmert had made the trip abroad on state business and thus had his expenses covered.
Risby-Raz explained that full expenses for the trip automatically included the cost of the airfare, the hotel, and the car and driver.
The document produced by the prosecution showed the schedule for June 8, 2005, when Olmert flew to New York to speak on behalf of the Israel Policy Forum and Friends of the IDF. He also appeared during the day before a group belonging to Bnei Akiva, the religious-Zionist youth group.
The schedule was typed up by Risby-Raz. On the margins of the page, she added details of how much each organization was supposed to pay for the trip.
According to her notes to Olmert, the Israel Policy Forum was to pay 100 percent of the cost of a round-trip, first-class ticket. Although the note did not state this explicitly, the costs most likely included the hotel, car and driver. Earlier, she had testified that this is what the expenses automatically entailed.
At the same time, the Friends of the IDF were charged for a first-class ticket, the costs of a first-class ticket for a bodyguard and half the hotel cost. Risby Raz added that they [FIDF] claim they usually pay first-class ticket for the minister, economy class for the bodyguard (plus hotel).
Risby-Raz had also set aside time for a meeting with Bnei Akiva. In the margin, she wrote, I don't think they have money. Olmert added a comment, Don't take anything from them.
Another organization was not as lucky. In her note in the margin for that group, Risby-Raz wrote, They have only $250 to give.Olmert replied, Negative. We don't accept tips.
At the bottom, Olmert wrote approve with his initials, and drew a circle around the words.
It was not certain when Monday's hearing began that Risby-Raz would be allowed to testify. The state had submitted the request only two weeks earlier, during the summer recess. Her lawyer, Asher Ohayon, asked the court to prohibit his client from testifying while her own trial was going on. He feared she might say things that would be used against her in her trial.
Olmert's lawyer, Navit Negev, and Fetman, who represents Zaken, were also opposed. But the court rejected their arguments.
While testifying, Risby-Raz told the court that there were times when Olmert and Zaken reduced the costs to a certain organization or even waived them, as in the case of Bnei Akiva.
According to Fetman, the sheets that Risby-Raz prepared, like the one she prepared for the New York trip, and submitted to Zaken and Olmert, were prepared so that they could decide where to cut costs for some organizations.
Risby-Raz said that from the beginning, she had always understood that all organizations that invited her boss to speak abroad, paid the full cost of the fare, no matter how many organizations invited him for the same trip. She added that she did not have to ask Olmert whether she should charge more than one organization for the trip because she understood it to be the policy at all times.
Olmert's intervention, therefore, was only necessary when he cut the cost for one or another organization.
The state's representative, attorney Uri Korb, asked Risby-Raz about another trip, on November 29-30, 2004, when Olmert flew to New York and Washington for ministry business and to speak on behalf of the American-Israel Friendship League.
This trip was paid for directly by the ministry. Rishontours was not involved in this transaction at all. Yet Risby-Raz instructed the American-Israel Friendship League to pay the money it owed, $9,633, to Rishontours.
Asked why she had involved Rishontours in a transaction it had nothing to do with, she replied that she had been told by the woman she replaced at the Jerusalem Municipality, that Rishontours was the address for everything having to do with Olmert's trips.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=187410
Rachel Raz-Risby declared as hostile witness in Olmert trial
The State Prosecutor declared Rachel Raz-Risby, Ehud Olmert's former coordinator of external matters, as a hostile witness in the Rishon Tours case.
State Attorney Uri Korb said that Raz-Risby changed her testimony, and was answering differently to police questioning vis-à-vis payments for Olmert;s flights.
http://bit.ly/az2RyV
19 nov 2010, 15:46 , Respect -
Maria 13 sept 2010
Austrian media play up Haaretz report on Schlaff's financial aid to Israeli pols
Martin Schlaff
The National Fraud Squad of the Israel Police has recommended that the Austrian-Jewish businessman be tried on suspicion of bribing former prime minister Ariel Sharon's sons, Gilad and Omri, through the transfer of $4.5 million to their bank accounts.
The Haaretz investigation into funds that Austrian-Jewish businessman Martin Schlaff transferred to highly placed Israeli officials has yielded reverberations in Austria. A day after the Rosh Hashanah eve report in Haaretz, the major details of the story have featured in most of the major Austrian dailies.
"Suspicions against billionaire Schlaff," proclaimed the widely circulated newspaper Kurier. Another popular daily, Der Standard, summed up the story as "Austrian Schlaff in the sights of the law" while Die Presse asked: "Did Schlaff pay a 4.5 million [dollar] bribe?"
All of the newspapers cited the Haaretz report, which disclosed that the National Fraud Squad of the Israel Police was recommending that Schlaff be tried on suspicion of bribing former prime minister Ariel Sharon's sons, Gilad and Omri, through the transfer of $4.5 million to their bank accounts. The investigation also disclosed several other public figures who received funds from Schlaff, including millions of shekels directed to a company that is believed to be controlled by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman; $50,000 for legal defense expenses of former prime minister Ehud Olmert in his successful fight against allegation of wrongdoing while he was Likud party treasurer; and hundreds of thousands of shekels for former Shas party head Aryeh Deri's legal defense against bribery charges for which he was ultimately convicted.
The Austrian media highlighted the investigation's findings related to Schlaff's connections to high-ranking Austrian government officials, who, it is suspected, paved the way for questionable transactions that generated funds for Schlaff personally. Schlaff, 57, is one of the most prominent personalities in Austria. He features regularly in the country's gossip columns and financial pages, in reportage on both his business activity and his personal life.
http://bit.ly/dndyNV
14 sept 2010
Olmert corruption trial put on recess after witness cries on stand
Rachael Risby-Raz in court
Ehud Olmert's former travel planner Rachael Risby-Raz breaks down crying on the witness stand; accuses prosecution of leaking documents to the media.
Proceedings at the corruption trial of former prime minister Ehud Olmert were temporarily halted on Tuesday after Olmert's travel planner, Rachael Risby-Raz, broke down crying on the witness stand.
The ongoing trial centers on allegations that Olmert double-billed various nonprofit agencies for the same flights abroad and used the surplus to fund private trips for himself and his family.
During the course of her testimony on Tuesday, Risby-Raz attacked the prosecutor Uri Corb for the distribution of documents to the media.
"If this is how things work, I don't have a chance for a fair trial," she said. "I see that there is not much justice and reason in this trial."
Corb said that the prosecution had not leaked documents to journalists, a statement that Risby-Raz dismissed.
"Something stinks here in this whole trial," she said.
On Tuesday morning, Olmert's lawyer Eli Zahar send a letter to deputy attorney general Rachel Gottlieb demanding that she expedite the examination of defense claims of obstruction of justice on the part of the prosecution for giving a briefing document to witness Hadar Saltzman.
On Monday, Risby-Raz testified that she received the guidelines for Olmert's trips abroad from Olmert himself or Olmert's aide Shula Zaken.
http://fwd4.me/06P6
Risby-Raz confirms Olmert told her how to book flights
Risby-Raz cries on the stand, reiterated her previous claims that she had no idea that the Olmert family's travels were funded by the Rishon Tours, but eventually confesses that Olmert and Zaken told her of the arrangement.
Rachel Risby-Raz broke under intense examination by Prosecutor Uri Korb in the Rishon Tours corruption trial on Monday, confirming statements she had made during the police investigation of the affair in which she stated that former prime minister Ehud Olmert and his bureau chief Shula Zaken were responsible for determining which organizations would provide funding for Olmert's flights abroad.
Risby-Raz, Olmert's former foreign relations coordinator, testified that Zaken was aware of overfunding from charity organizations for flights but said she could not testify as to Olmert's awareness of the discrepancies.
Throughout Monday's testimony at the Jerusalem District Court, Prosecutor Uri Korb focused on trying to make Risby-Raz admit that she knew that financing for Olmert's private travels was provided by spare funds accumulated by the company.
Korb hammered the witness by reading her transcripts of her police interrogation, in which she had said that both Zaken and the owners of Rishon Tours were aware of the arrangement.
Risby-Raz cried on the stand, but reiterated her previous claims that she had no idea that the Olmert family's travels were funded by the company, other than one trip to Greece.
My attorney referred me to that testimony, and I was in shock that I said that, said Risby-Raz, arguing that she had been confused under intense police interrogation when she said that she supposes that Olmert knew about the travel slush fund at Rishon Tours, which he allegedly amassed by doublebilling organizations for overseas flights.
Olmert's defense attorneys have argued that Olmert was completely unaware of any such scheme. While being questioned two years ago, Korb revealed, Risby-Raz had said that she supposed that Olmert knew of the practice after he examined tables that she had prepared regarding the flights in advance of meetings with Rishon Tours representatives.
Of course I received instructions, Risby-Raz had said under interrogation.
What do you think I decided by myself who funded what? But on the stand Monday, Risby-Raz argued that during the interrogation, the nearhomonym Hebrew words for instruction and discount had been confused..
Nevertheless, in the end, Risby-Raz said that both Olmert and Zaken had told her how to operate in booking the international flights.
Last week Risby-Raz was declared a hostile witness on grounds that testimony she had given in court contradicted statements she had made to police two years ago during her interrogation.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=188004
19 sept 2010
Palestinian source: Olmert's refugee claim not agreed with us
In response to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's claim that the US had agreed to take in 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a solution to the conflict, a Palestinian source said to Ynet that if such an agreement had been reached, it had been with the US alone.
The source said disagreement had remained on the subject of refugees right to the end. "We wanted Israel to absorb hundreds of thousands, while Israel talked about absorbing far fewer," the source said, but confirmed that various countries around the world had agreed to take in thousands.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3956710,00.html
Olmert: Bush offered to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees if peace deal reached
At Geneva Initiative conference, former PM says during his tenure Washington agreed to accept Palestinian refugees in framework of permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Palestinian source: We wanted Israel to absorb hundreds of thousands
Ehud Olmert said that during his tenure as prime minister he had reached an agreement with the Americans for them to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a peace deal, adding that he struck a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas according to which Israel would absorb "a minimal amount" of refugees.
"The numbers discussed were below 20,000, but this would require and end to the conflict and a Palestinian announcement that they would not make any more demands," Olmert told a Geneva Initiative conference Sunday evening.
"If we had reached an agreement, it would have changed the map of the world and the entire Middle East. We are not to blame. If there is no agreement, it's because the Palestinian side was not prepared to take the extra step that we made," Olmert said.
"I suggested that the refugee issue be resolved in the framework of the Arab peace initiative. I'm glad the current government is talking about the Road Map, which states that one of the cornerstone of peace is the Arab initiative" the former prime minister said.
Olmert claimed the Obama administration is not hostile towards Israel, saying, "There is no difference between (former US President George W.) Bush's positions and (Barack) Obama's positions.
"Obama would have been very pleased if the proposals presented by the current (Israeli) government would have been the same as those presented by us (Olmert's government)," he said.
According to the former prime minister, a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be based on the 1967 borders. "I don't want to address the issue of territorial exchanges. I hope it will be negotiated on soon," he said.
From Left: Beilin, Olmert, Oron at conference
Olmert insisted that following the path he had suggested as prime minister was the only way to achieve peace. "During my final meeting with Abbas, I presented a plan, including maps."
As for his plan to turn over some Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to Palestinian control, Olmert said, "The holy sites (in east Jerusalem) will be controlled by five different sides. If we reach such an agreement, the world will shake with excitement. If we do not follow the path I suggested there will be no chance for peace.
"I was mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years. No one fought for its unity more than I did," he said.
In response to Olmert's claim that the US had agreed to take in 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a solution to the conflict, a Palestinian source told Ynet that if such an agreement had been reached, it had been with the US alone.
The source said disagreement had remained on the subject of refugees right to the end. "We wanted Israel to absorb hundreds of thousands, while Israel talked about absorbing far fewer," the source said, but confirmed that various countries around the world, including the US, Canada and some Scandinavian countries, had agreed to take in thousands.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3956711,00.html
Olmert: Bush offered to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees if peace deal reached
Former prime minister hints Barak tried to thwart 'daring defense efforts', defends 'every word' of upcoming book.
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the Bush administration had assured him that the United States would be willing to absorb some 100,000 Palestinian refugees immediately as American citizens, should Israel reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinian Authority.
The former premier told a Geneva Initiative conference in Tel Aviv that during negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 he had offered a solution to the refugee problem that would have been in line with the Arab League peace plan and within a coordinated agreement.
Olmert emphasized that during his address to the Annapolis summit in 2007, he had become the first Israeli prime minister to publicly empathize with the plight the Palestinians had suffered during Israel's independence in 1948 and its capture of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.
Olmert also hinted during his speech on Sunday that Defense Minister Ehud Barak tried to stop Israel from embarking on "daring defense efforts" during their time in government together.
During his address, Olmert defended an excerpt in his upcoming book, dealing with his relationship with Barak. Aides to the defense minister had lambasted Olmert over certain claims made in the book, which they called an effort to "rewrite history".
Olmert disclosed with the conference tensions he had held with Barak regarding Israel's security, indicating that the defense minister had favored avoiding certain important security operations.
"It is possible not to write who tried to foil daring defense efforts," he said. "Every word I wrote in my book is documented, certified, true and correct. The truth wins and that is my picture."
Aides to the defense minister had earlier denied one particular claim made in the excerpt, which was published in Yedioth Aharonoth over the weekend. In the chapter, Olmert refers to Barak as "irresponsible" and "irresolute" and says the latter begged him to join Kadima prior to the 2006 elections.
"Ehud Olmert is rewriting history," Barak's aides said. "Barak never asked Olmert or anyone else to join the Kadima list. Any contacts made with that regard were always at the initiative of Olmert and his associates, and were never discussed in any practical terms."
But in his address to a Geneva Initiative conference on Sunday night, Olmert insisted that his version of the events were true.
"When public figures write memoirs, there is always some indecision regarding how much they want to write of things as they were and how much they want to cut corners to avoid riling up others," Olmert said. "I decided to write my memoirs exactly as they were, and I will not digress not when things are ill at ease and not when they are comfortable."
Barak refused to comment directly on Olmert's allegations on Sunday, saying only that they were: "pathetic remarks undeserving of response."
http://bit.ly/cVUc6u
Olmert says he wrote things 'as they are' in his memoirs
Former prime minister says he couldn't write about Kadima without saying who wanted to be in Kadima and who later called it a party of refugees.
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that "when you write memoirs, there is contemplation about whether to write what really happened or cut corners in order to not anger," in reaction to controversy caused by the release of portions of a book that he is writing in which he fiercely attacked Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Olmert said "over the past two days, stormy winds have been caused over what I wrote in my memoirs that will come out soon."
"I decided to write things exactly as they were without skewing it in one way or another," Olmert continued.
Olmert is still angry at Barak, whose May 2008 press conference in which he demanded Olmert's resignation due to corruption allegations led to the apparent end of his political career.
Barak begged me to put him on Kadima's Knesset list in 2006, Olmert wrote, according to a source who has seen the book. He was even willing to be number 21 on the list.
Olmert also revealed in the book that when he was forming his government, Barak begged him to appoint him defense minister instead of then-Labor leader Amir Peretz, even though Barak was not in politics at the time.
Olmert stressed that he "couldn't write about Kadima without saying who wanted to be in Kadima and who later called it a party of refugees in part because he wasn't accepted in the party."
"I can write about security issues and say who wanted to undertake them and who tried to prevent them using undermining ways. I believe that the truth will win in the end," Olmert added.
Quotes from the book were published Thursday in Yediot Aharonot, whose publishing house is publishing it.
According to the newspaper, Olmert called Barak a disappointing defense minister, an obsessive talker, insulting, blunt, and rude, and lacking decision- making capability.
Olmert also said Barak made recommendations on sensitive issues that were irresponsible and accused him of falling asleep in meetings.
A source close to Barak responded by saying that the defense minister pitied Olmert because of the multiple corruption charges he is facing and saw his criticism and frustration in that context.
In relation to diplomatic issues Olmert said that "Netanyahu should do exactly what I did. The talks happened at our initiative, from pressure we put on the Palestinians directly and indirectly."
"If we can reach a framework today for peace with the Palestinians, no issue is more urgent than this. The fact that the current government is starting direct talks with the Palestinians today is something we must welcome and do everything possible to help. I believe the prime minister honestly wants to reach a deal," Olmert added.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=188575...Read more 1 feb 2011, 23:12 , Respect -
Maria 20 sept 2010
Kadima MK slams Olmert over 'radical left' plan
Former PM's remarks during Geneva Initiative conference stir controversy within his party. MK Schneller calls on Chairwoman Livni to 'denounce' statements, while MK Itzik says without initiative 'situation could be thousand times worse'
Member of Knesset Otniel Schneller (Kadima) on Monday slammed former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comment on the Geneva Initiative, and urged his party members to stand firmly at the center of the political map, and not align with supporters of the initiative.
Olmert, who participated in a Geneva Initiative conference on Sunday, spoke about the two state solution based on '67 borders and the division of Jerusalem.
Schneller, who lives in the settlement of Ma'ale Mikhmas called on Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni to convene the party's institutions and determine the party's political policy.
"Olmert's suggestion to divide Jerusalem, relinquish the sovereignty over the Holy City and Temple Mount, return to the 1967 borders and allow tens of thousands of refugees to live in Jaffa, Haifa and Beersheba is a radical leftists plan," He said.
"Kadima is a center party and its leaders must denounce Olmert's statements," he concluded.
MK Dalia Itzik, the chairwoman of Kadima faction in the Knesset, addressed Schneller's call to convene the party's institutions and said, "Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was compelled to initiate a political process in order to secure Israel's interests.
"The core idea behind the Initiative is also accepted by the current prime minister and its essence is two states for two nations that will guarantee a Jewish democratic majority in Israel."
Itzik added that "Olmert has proven that without an Israeli initiative, the situation could be a thousand times worse. Israel might pay a full price in the international arena. Olmert's initiative is welcomed, and must not be slandered."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3957034,00.html
Olmert: Barak undermined security ops
The Defense Ministry releases a statement calling Olmert's latest attacks on Barak pathetic and unworthy of a response.
The battle between former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak continued to escalate on Sunday when Olmert accused Barak of undermining military operations for political reasons.
The two men engaged in a war of words over the weekend, when portions of Olmert's autobiography were published in which he accused Barak of begging to be put on Kadima's Knesset candidates list and then to replace Amir Peretz as defense minister even though Barak officially was out of politics.
Barak responded by accusing Olmert of being vengeful for having ended his premiership in 2008 over allegations of corruption.
Over the past two days, stormy winds blew over what I wrote in my memoirs, Olmert said in a speech at north Tel Aviv's Eretz Israel Museum, which was sponsored by the Geneva Initiative. When you write memoirs, you contemplate about whether to write what really happened or cut corners in order to not anger [others]. I decided to write things exactly as they were without skewing them in one way or another.
Olmert then began to attack Barak even more fiercely than he did in his book.
I couldn't write about Kadima without saying who wanted to be in Kadima, who begged to join Kadima, and who later called it a party of refugees in part because he didn't get to be one of those refugees, Olmert said. I can't write about security issues and not say who initiated daring steps, who tried to prevent the government from undertaking them by undermining [the efforts]. Every word is documented and authorized.
Channel 1 reported on Sunday night that Olmert was referring the alleged Israeli attack in 2007 on a Syrian nuclear installation.
Later on in his speech, Olmert mocked Barak again, saying that even the defense minister supported the security guarantees I requested from the Palestinians.
When an audience member questioned him, Olmert said with a cynical tone, I am sure the defense minister wants Israel to be secure.
Yediot Aharonot, whose publishing house is putting out Olmert'' s book, printed portions on Friday in which Olmert called Barak a disappointing defense minister, an obsessive talker, insulting, blunt and rude, and lacking decisionmaking capability.
Olmert also accused Barak of making recommendations on sensitive issues that were irresponsible and accused him of falling asleep in meetings.
Barak, who is in New York, responded by saying that he did not ask to join Kadima.
He said the party turned to him but an agreement could not be reached.
The Defense Ministry released a statement on Sunday night calling Olmert's latest attacks on Barak pathetic and unworthy of a response.
Peretz said Olmert's statements substantiated what he said during his campaign against Barak for the Labor leadership that Barak did not even vote for Labor and was therefore unworthy of the party's support.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=188613
Yossi Verter / Hell hath no fury like an ousted prime minister
An excerpt of Olmert's autobiography is apparently may just the opening shot in his campaign of vengeance against Ehud Barak, the man who ousted him from the Prime Minister's Office.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, British author William Congreve once wrote. He apparently never encountered the fury of an ousted prime minister. And he clearly didn't know Ehud Olmert.
The brief section of Olmert's autobiography that was excerpted in Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth, and which was devoted to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is apparently just the opening shot in Olmert's campaign of vengeance against the man who stabbed him the back and ousted him from the Prime Minister's Office.
"Wait for the next installments," said one person close to the former premier. "Barak will be raked over the coals. All the pistols that Olmert put on the table in the first act will be fired in the coming acts."
One thing is clear: Ehud O. has decided to pay Ehud B. back in kind, by destroying his political career - and not just his career as a politician, but his career as a security expert. In this war, all is fair.
Even Tzipi Livni, who was Olmert's chief rival within the Kadima party, got off easy by comparison, despite the terrible things he said about her performance as foreign minister in his government. Or at least, she has so far. We'll wait for the next installment.
Olmert is exacting his revenge drop by drop, like Chinese water torture. Who knows what document, testimony or tape recording Olmert will pull out of his hat in the future?
Substantively, none of what was said is new.
People close to Barak's predecessor, Amir Peretz - whom Olmert fired by fax mere days after Barak defeated Peretz in the Labor Party leadership primary - have been saying for years what Olmert has thus far only hinted: Barak wanted sole credit for the strike, without having to share it with the premier.
The Winograd Committee's investigation into the Second Lebanon War was due to conclude soon, and Barak - so claim Peretz's cronies - hoped Olmert would be ousted, leaving him with all the glory of the operation.
Barak was in New York last night, and his office issued only a laconic statement that termed Olmert's comments "pathetic and unworthy of response." But that can't be his last word. A former prime minister has made a ringing accusation that he says he can document. Barak will have to respond, and soon. He can't wait for his own tell-all.
http://bit.ly/9hw3F9
21 sept 2010
'Barak tried to stop Gaza war early on his own,' Olmert says in memoirs
In draft of former prime minister's yet-to-be-published autobiography, he claims the defense minister spoke with other countries' foreign ministers about a ceasefire behind Olmert's back.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak went behind the government's back to try to forge a cease-fire during last year's war in Gaza, former prime minister Ehud Olmert's new autobiography claims, according to people who have seen a draft.
The book is still being written with editing help from journalist Yair Lapid, and publisher Yedioth Ahronoth has yet to set a publication date.
"What Barak did was inconceivable," one person who saw the draft told Haaretz. "He held talks with other countries' foreign ministers about a cease-fire, without the knowledge of Olmert or the cabinet."
Excerpts of two completed chapters were published in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday, and media reports since then have focused on Olmert's criticisms of Barak's conduct regarding a different military operation.
"But the truth is that Olmert wasn't referring to a single operation or isolated conduct," the source said. "Barak was a serial offender. That's the way he acted time after time, and the book reflects this."
But overall, the work will focus less on politics than on diplomatic issues, said people who have seen the book. Olmert will focus on the peace process, his ties with foreign leaders and efforts to recover three soldiers kidnapped during his term.
Olmert's comments in the excerpts published this weekend - which the former premier reiterated at an event organized by the Geneva Initiative on Monday - continued to make waves in the political world on Monday.
Weizman Shiri, secretary general of Barak's Labor Party and thus far the most senior politician to come to Barak's defense, accused Olmert of endangering national security through his remarks that related to Barak's handling of a specific classified military operation.
"I've gotten calls from people who know Olmert and say he's gone off the rails. He's talking about the most top-secret meetings, and it seems to me that Anat Kamm is now under house arrest for much less than this," Shiri said, referring to a soldier on trial for passing classified army documents to a Haaretz journalist.
"How can a former prime minister endanger Israel's security?" Shiri demanded. "Everything is personal. I prefer a hesitant, deliberative and measured minister, as he describes [Barak], to a man who shoots from the hip like Olmert."
But Shiri also insisted that from his knowledge of Barak, the minister is "100 percent different from the image Olmert tried to paint. And anyway, which Olmert are we supposed to believe - the one who's now lashing out at Barak, or the one who lauded his excellent cooperation with Barak during Cast Lead [last year's war in Gaza]?"
Finally, he accused Olmert of deliberately publishing the chapters now because Barak is on an official visit to the United States and cannot respond effectively.
Maj. Gen. (res. ) Uzi Dayan, a former chairman of the National Security Council now with the Likud party, also attacked Olmert as "serially irresponsible. He's using hints about events he knows of due to his [former] position to promote his book."
And the Ometz organization, which seeks to promote good government, filed complaints against Olmert yesterday to both the attorney general and the police, accusing him of revealing state secrets about a military operation that occurred while he was prime minister - including the fact that Barak opposed the operation. Among other legal problems, Olmert thereby violated the military censorship laws, Ometz charged.
But Olmert's spokesman, Yaakov Galanti, insisted that Olmert had done no such thing. "The military censor confirmed that Olmert was not even close to committing a censorship violation," Galanti told Army Radio yesterday.
And in another twist to the affair, it turns out that Barak might have the power to bar publication of certain sections of the autobiography - and thereby excise some of Olmert's most scathing criticisms of himself.
Barak is one of three ministers who sits on the committee that vets books by former public officials. Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman chairs the panel; the third member is Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
The panel's decisions have the same binding power as a cabinet ruling, and it has a broad mandate: It need not adduce security grounds to bar publication of certain material. By law, a civil servant cannot publish anything he learned on the job without the committee's approval, as well as that of the military censor.
Thus Barak, as one of the panel's three members, would have various means of impeding the book's publication. For instance, as one person familiar with the panel's work noted yesterday, "this is not a committee that meets regularly; it meets ad hoc, based on the books and publications submitted to it."
But thus far, the committee has not been asked to review the book, since Olmert is still writing it.
http://bit.ly/a9B5nA
22 sept 2010
'Top US figures raised idea of taking 100,000 refugees'
Sources close to Olmert tell 'Post' that Americans originated plan; Hadley: General idea was discussed, but not specific number.
The idea of the US accepting 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a Middle East peace agreement was suggested by extremely senior figures in the Bush administration, not by Israel, sources close to former prime minister Ehud Olmert told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
The reference to extremely senior figures is assumed to relate either to president George W. Bush himself or to his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
The sources spoke to the Post after Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said that the administration envisioned that the US would participate in refugee resettlement activities, but could not have known in advance how many refugees the US might have been able to take in.
In a speech in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Olmert said he had reached an agreement with the US on accepting 100,000 refugees. Hadley's former deputy, Elliott Abrams, denied this on Monday.
According to Hadley, the Bush administration discussed with Israel how the international community could assist in implementing a peace agreement, including how it could help the Palestinian refugees. Ideas discussed included compensation to refugees or to countries such as Jordan and Lebanon that would take them in, and aid in resettling refugees outside the Middle East who wanted to leave the region.
In that connection, we envisioned that the US would participate in any refugee resettlement activities, along with others in the international community, but that anything the US would do would be done through our normal immigrations process, Hadley said.
Therefore, there is no way to know in advance the number of refugees that the US might have been able to take, should any refugees have wanted to come to the US.
When he spoke, Hadley was unaware of Abrams's flat denial.
President Bush did not, I am sure, promise or pledge to take 100,000 Palestinian refugees, Abrams said. The president knew, as everyone in the White House knew, that no president has the power to make such a commitment.
We have immigration laws and they don't allow that kind of move by a president. He would have had to ask Congress to change our laws.
Moreover, we would never have committed to a specific number anyway, nor did Olmert ask us to or raise that number.
Olmert's office reacted to Hadley's comments the same way it reacted to Abrams's by saying that the commitment was made at a higher level.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday defended Defense Minister Ehud Barak from Olmert's attacks on him that the former premier delivered in a speech Sunday and in a book he is writing.
Olmert had accused Barak of undermining military operations for political reason, and said Barak had begged to join Kadima and replace Amir Peretz as defense minister, even though he was officially out of politics.
Such regrettable statements are uncalled for, Netanyahu said. I suggest lowering the flames.
After a few days in which no Labor MK defended Barak, Labor MK Shelly Yacimovich, who is herself very critical of Barak, issued a strongly-worded attack on Olmert.
I think it's unbelievable chutzpah that a man who was removed from politics in shame because he was corrupt and is now on trial on serious charges, allows himself during his trial, while his fate is up in the air, to sit and write his memoirs, she said.
Labor Party director-general Weizmann Shiri called Labor ministers who refused to defend Barak cowards.
Barak s deputy at the Defense Ministry, MK Matan Vilna'i, questioned why Olmert did not do anything about his criticism of Barak when the defense minister served under him.
Vilna'i, meanwhile, raised eyebrows when he suggested at a parlor meeting that running jointly with Kadima was one of the options Labor could consider. Kadima officials immediately responded that their party would not be a fallback plan for Laborites looking for jobs.
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni met with her nemesis, MK Shaul Mofaz, at her initiative, at a Jerusalem humous restaurant following Tuesday's Knesset Foreign and Affairs and Defense Committee meeting.
Spokesmen for both politicians said that after years of animosity between the two, the meeting went very well.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=188889
(1:46) Olmert faces new corruption charge 1 x viewed
24 sept 2010
Olmert urges int'l trusteeship for Holy Basin
In op-ed article for Post, former PM sets out terms Israel should present to transform talks with PA which would involve relinquishing sovereignty over Western Wall, Temple Mt.
Israel should agree to an international trusteeship in Jerusalem's Holy Basin, should allow non-Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a Palestinian state, and should offer to solve the Palestinian refugee problem within the framework of the Arab peace initiative, former prime minister Ehud Olmert urges in an op-ed article in today's Jerusalem Post.
If [Israel] takes a clear stance on these issues and presents them as its position for the negotiations, Olmert writes, it would transform the atmosphere surrounding the direct talks with the Palestinian Authority.
A source close to Olmert told the Post that the positions he sets out in the article reflect the terms he offered to PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of their two years of negotiations terms which Abbas now regrets not responding to, the source said.
The source confirmed that Olmert's reference to an international trusteeship in the Holy Basin, which will not be a sovereign part of either the State of Israel or the state of Palestine, would involve Israel relinquishing sovereignty at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. There would be complete and unlimited access for all believers of course, for Jews to these sites. Basically, the source said, this would represent a maintenance of the status quo, but under international trusteeship.
This was part of his proposal for a permanent accord with the Palestinians, the source said. The trusteeship proposed to Abbas constituted Israel, the Palestinian state, the US, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The source added that the terms Olmert sets out are known to be acceptable to the United States and the Europeans.
In his article, Olmert laments the fact that the settlement freeze, due to expire on Sunday, has become a central issue threatening the talks. It should not be allowed to derail them, he writes. Instead, Israel can and must re-focus discussion on the core issues of dispute between us and the Palestinians.
He cites five such core issues, including the question of borders, where he asks whether the Israeli withdrawal will include parts of Jerusalem. On the issue of the status of the non-Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, he asks whether those neighborhoods, including Sheikh Jarrah, will ultimately be the Palestinian capital.
Regarding the status of the Holy Basin, Olmert asks whether the sides will be prepared to decide that the Holy Basin will be overseen by an international trusteeship and will not be a sovereign part of either the State of Israel or the state of Palestine.
On the refugee problem, he writes: Will the Palestinian leadership and that of the government of Israel agree that the framework for discussion of this sensitive issue is the Arab peace initiative, which is in any case part of the road map that is accepted by both sides? And finally, he asks whether the Palestinians will be prepared to respect Israel's security needs according to eight points that were drafted in the past by the Israeli government with the agreement of the American administration all this based on the assumption that there will be agreement on borders based on the 1967 lines.
He urges Israel to takes a clear stance on these issues and to present them as its position for the negotiations.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=189074
26 sept 2010
PM's associates: He'll never give up Western Wall
Netanyahu not bound by Olmert's offer to Abbas, hopes to make peace on his terms, aides say.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is under no obligation to honor any of the commitments that former prime minister Ehud Olmert made to the Palestinians, Netanyahu's associates said on Saturday night, reiterating statements Netanyahu made throughout his campaign for the premiership a year and a half ago.
Olmert wrote an opinion piece for Friday's Jerusalem Post in which he called on Netanyahu to offer the Palestinians what he did, which he first revealed to the public in a June 2009 interview with Newsweek's Kevin Peraino.
Olmert told me he met with Palestinian [Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas in September 2008 and unfurled a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories, Peraino wrote. He says he offered Abbas 93.5 to 93.7 percent of the Palestinian territories, along with a land swap of 5.8% and a safe-passage corridor from Gaza to the West Bank that he says would make up the rest. The Holy Basin of Jerusalem would be under no sovereignty at all and administered by a consortium of Saudis, Jordanians, Israelis, Palestinians and Americans.
Regarding refugees, Olmert says he rejected the right of return and instead offered, as a humanitarian gesture, a small number of returnees, although smaller than the Palestinians wanted a very, very limited number.
In a Tel Aviv speech sponsored by the Geneva Initiative last Sunday, Olmert revealed that the very, very limited number of refugees Israel was willing to accept was 20,000. He also claimed that the United States had offered to accept 100,000.
When top Bush administration officials denied that an offer of such a large number could have been made, sources close to Olmert hinted that it came from either George W. Bush himself or his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. Olmert did not reveal who made the offer in the article.
Olmert said all along that the terms of his negotiations were that there would be no deal on anything until there was a deal on everything, so not only would Netanyahu not have to accept anything Olmert offered, but even Olmert wouldn't, a Netanyahu associate said.
What Olmert told the Post has no impact on us.
MKs close to Netanyahu went further and specifically ruled out Netanyahu accepting a single Palestinian refugee or giving the Palestinians or any foreign entity control over Jerusalem's Holy Basin, singling out the Temple Mount and Western Wall.
When asked whether they thought they could make peace without paying the price that Olmert was willing to pay, Netanyahu's confidants would only say that this was what the current negotiations were intended to determine.
There is no situation in which Netanyahu or any Likud leader could offer the Palestinians what Olmert offered, especially regarding Jerusalem, said Likud faction chairman Ze'ev Elkin, who is close to Netanyahu. I don t think any Likud MK would vote for it, and the public would be overwhelmingly against it as well.
Likud hawk MK Danny Danon said the problem was not with Netanyahu but with the president of the United States, Barack Obama.
I don't believe Netanyahu would have considered Olmert's conditions but there is no doubt that Obama sees them as obligatory, Danon said. They don't understand that we had an election that changed the reality in Israel.
Meanwhile, Labor officials denied a report in Friday's Yediot Aharonot that quoted an international businessman who tried to mediate a deal for Barak to join Kadima following 2006's Second Lebanon War, when he was out of the Knesset.
The report said that Barak offered to break up the Labor faction and take a third of it with him in return for the Defense portfolio.
Olmert is once again rewriting history and distorting reality in order to distract the public from the envelopes of bribes he received, a Labor spokesman said. The initiatives and strange ideas portrayed in the newspaper have come from Olmert's wild imagination.
Any offers made to Barak were politely declined.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=189241
29 sept 2010
2 fingers - Uri Avnery
Ehud Olmert raised his hands before his face, two fingertips almost touching: We were that close!
He was talking about the negotiation he had conducted personally with Mahmoud Abbas, just before he himself was forced to vacate the Prime Minister's office.
That was the climax of the speech he made last week at a meeting of the Geneva Initiative. Before analyzing it, a few words about the host and about the speaker.
The Geneva Initiative rose like a meteor and fell like a meteor in the early 2000s.
At its center was a serious effort to draft a full and final peace agreement with the Palestinian people. It came after a draft prepared by Gush Shalom and resembled it in many ways. But there were two big differences: the Geneva Initiative had an identified Palestinian partner, and it was far more detailed. While the Gush Shalom draft only laid out the principles, the Geneva draft went into detail and covered 423 pages, plus maps.
When this draft was unveiled in an impressive ceremony in Geneva, in the presence of senior international personalities (and in the absence of the radical Israeli peace camp, which had been boycotted by the initiators in order to stress their mainstream character), it was an international event.
For some months, the initiative was at the center of world attention. Many governments found it interesting. I, too, was active on its behalf, in spite of the fact that I had not been involved. I spoke about it with several statesmen, including the president of Germany and the German foreign minister. Everywhere I found a very positive attitude. Everybody appreciated the initiative and was eager to help.
And then it disappeared, as rapidly as it had risen. The coup de grace was delivered by Ariel Sharon, then prime minister, who drew from his hat the rabbit called separation. Its implementation was accompanied with much drama and melodrama, and the world forgot about Geneva.
What remains is a group of supporters, one peace association among many, who publish ads from time to time and convene the occasional meeting. Olmert's speech was made at such a meeting.
In the meantime, something strange has happened to the Initiative. Its spiritual father was Yossi Beilin, a person with a fertile some say, over-fertile mind. Beilin started his chequered career in the Labor Party, as an assistant to Shimon Peres. When he did not make their Knesset list, he joined Meretz, became its leader and led it to disastrous election results.
Recently, a bizarre situation has arisen. Beilin is still the chairman of the Geneva Initiative, but now he opposes the idea of a full peace agreement that would put an end to the conflict. He claims that such an agreement is impossible, and that the aim should therefore be an interim agreement - the very opposite of the Geneva Initiative.
The Oslo agreement has shown that an interim agreement is but the continuation of the conflict by other means not a precursor to a final agreement, but a mechanism for its prevention. The initiator of the initiative has become its undertaker.
From the host to the speaker. Olmert is the most unpopular politician in Israel today (quite an achievement, given the competition).
Right from the beginning of his political career, a cloud of suspicions has hovered over his head, and in the course of time it has become thicker and thicker. As of now, half a dozen criminal trials and police investigation are in progress against him, concerning bribes, fraud, forgery and more. Quite possibly he may end up in prison, to be greeted by several of his colleagues, including his finance minister.
As if this were not enough, Olmert is conducting a bitter campaign against his former ministers, and especially Ehud Barak, hurling at them a barrage of accusations. One of the most serious (in his eyes): that Barak had tried to shorten the Cast Lead operation.
Amid all this clamor, Olmert has found the time and the energy for the speech at the Geneva Initiative meeting, in which he described in detail his efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians. With the help of his two forefingers, he asserted that peace had been very close, and that a full and final agreement could be achieved now. Thus he adopted a position that is far to the left of that renowned leftist, Yossi Beilin.
From the practical political point of view, the speech carries little weight. The public is much more interested in his forged accounts and the dollar-stuffed envelopes that he received. The part of his speech in which he belabored Barak (Ehud vs. Ehud) completely overshadowed the part devoted to peace.
Yet it is worth taking notice of what he had to say. Especially since it comes from a person who grew up in a right-wing home and who has spent his whole career in right-wing parties.
For half an hour, speaking fluently without recourse to notes, Olmert dealt with the core issues of the negotiations with the Palestinians.
As far as the borders are concerned, Olmert argued, agreement had been almost reached. The border would be based on the (pre-1967) Green Line, with exchanges of territory that would leave the large settlement blocs in Israel.
In this matter, it seems, a consensus has gradually come into being. But only in principle, because two large boulders block the way to an agreement.
The settlements hard on the border should not pose too much difficulty. The Etzion Bloc, Modi'in-Illit and Alfei Menashe are located almost on the border, and can be exchanged for Israeli land.
But two settlements that are located deep in Palestinian territory -- Ariel and Ma'aleh Adummim -- pose quite different problems. Ariel is located 20 km from the Green Line, near the spine of the West Bank (the Nablus-Jerusalem road). Together with the road that connects it to Israel proper, Ariel cuts up the Palestinian territory.
If Ma'aleh Adumim were to be connected with Jerusalem by an extension of Israeli territory, this, too, would almost cut the West Bank into two. Traffic between Nablus and Hebron would be forced to take a wide detour.
The evacuation of these two big settlements would pose a huge problem. Their continued existence would pose an even bigger one. Perhaps creative solutions can be found: staying there under Palestinian sovereignty, or remaining as small enclaves inside the Palestinian state. Some think of connections such as tunnels, bridges or special roads, like the one that once connected West Berlin with West Germany.
The solution will largely depend on the nature of the border between Israel and Palestine. If it is an open border, with the free movement of people, everything will be easier. Much as traffic will move freely between Gaza and Hebron through Israeli territory, it may move from Ariel to Kfar Sava through Palestinian territory. However, it is uncertain whether the Palestinians would agree.
According to Olmert, the Jerusalem problem can be solved along the lines laid down by President Bill Clinton: what is Jewish will go to Israel, what is Arab will go to Palestine.
This will necessitate a further big concession on the part of the Palestinians, since some Jewish neighborhoods have been built as settlements beyond the Green Line. For their readiness to allow them to be joined to Israel, the Palestinians would have to receive very large compensation.
But the main thing is that Olmert has finally laid to rest Jerusalem reunited, the eternal capital of Israel. He has put the partition of Jerusalem squarely on the table, without subterfuges like Barak at Camp David and without Beilin-style creative tricks.
But the most important breakthrough in Olmert's speech was on the refugee front.
Olmert agreed that Israel should admit its part in the creation of the problem, and proposed to Abbas a comprehensive plan for the re-settlement of all refugees, including the return of some tens of thousands to Israel.
The importance of this point cannot be exaggerated. The refugee problem has profound emotional ramifications. It touches the very roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Until now, all Israeli governments have denied our responsibility and refused to discuss the return of even one refugee (except some miserly family reunion cases).
To my mind, the number proposed by Olmert is less important than his agreement to allow the return of refugees at all. As the joke goes, after the respectable lady agreed to sleep with the gentleman for a million dollars, now that we have agreed on the principle, we must discus the price.
If the negotiations are no longer about whether refugees will come back, but about "how many," no doubt agreement can be reached. (Gush Shalom proposed 50,000 a year for ten years. The Geneva Initiative proposes a complicated formula which boils down to the return of some tens of thousands.)
Why is this important? With Olmert's popularity approaching zero, does it really matter what he says at all?
Olmert is an optimist and has a lot of self-confidence. He believes that he will get out of his troubles somehow and return to the political arena. He really believes that he can become prime minister again.
No one denies that he has very sharp political instincts. If a person with such ambitions proposes an agreement, it means that he is convinced that these positions are now accepted by the great majority.
That's the reason I suggest taking a good look at Olmert's fingertips.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=319215 22 mar 2011, 10:59 , Respect -
Maria 5 oct 2010
- Witness in corruption case claims US businessman rejoiced when former PM fell into a coma, said "I bet on the right guy!" after giving Olmert money.
David Friedland, a business partner of Morris Talansky, said in court on Tuesday for former prime minister Ehud Olmert's corruption trial that Talansky celebrated when former prime minister Ariel Sharon fell into a coma.
"I bet on the right guy," Friedland claimed Talansky said, when Olmert replaced Sharon. "The country is mine."
Talansky, an New York businessman, has testified that he gave Olmert and his former aide Shula Zaken money, but contradicted himself in describing how much money and how many envelopes he transferred to them.
Friedland said that the two were in the office, reading Israeli news sites. He said he was sad to hear the news, but Talansky began to dance from joy.
"I told him to get out of here, that it's inappropriate," Friedland said. "His wife told him to 'get the hell out of here.' It was weird." Friedland added that the next day, Talansky told him that he'd been funding Olmert for years, and would buy him ties and cigars.
Friedland also said that "Talansky opened doors for us. He knew the whole world. He had a phone book that no one could compete with."
"He said that these politicians are corrupt," Friedland explained. "He said that he's connected to Olmert thorugh money. We weren't friends - there's a 40 year age difference between us. He just wanted to explain why he behaved the way he did."
Friedland also recalled that Talansky sent an envelope with $10,000 in cash to Olmert.
In reaction, Olmert's advisor Amir Dan said: "This is not backed up by any proof. It's strange that the prosecution brought a witness that is saying that the central withness, Talansky, is odd, a liar and not trustworthy."
http://www.jpost
Talansky gave Olmert's brother $30,000, police tell court
Talansky's business partner David Friedland testifies in Jerusalem over suspicions American Jewish businessman made illicit payments to former PM, says he believes funds were sent to Olmert.
American-Jewish businessman Morris Talansky gave $30,000 to former minister Ehud Olmert's brother, the Jerusalem District Court heard on Tuesday.
Olmert is on trial for a series of charges, including accepting illegal campaign funds. According to police suspicions, his brother Yossi served as an intermediary for Talansky to transfer the illicit money.
Meanwhile, Talanksy's business partner David Friedland told the court on Tuesday that he had seen in his office a cash-stuffed envelope destined for Olmert.
Friedland told the court about an envelope once sent to his office, which staffers told him contained cash. He later found a receipt detailing a sum sent from their business account to Olmert via FedEx, he said.
He was later told that Talansky had brought a wad of cash to the office, and asked staffers to count it and put it into an envelope.
Friedland told the court that on the night Ariel Sharon fell ill and learned that Olmert was to assume position of premier, he called on his partner Talansky to share the news. Talansky was ecstatic, said Friedland, and shouted into the phone that he had bet on the right guy.
In his testimony, Friedland said he had been unsettled by Talansky's enthusiasm and that his partner had tried to explain why he was so excited.
According to Friedland, Talansky told him that over the years he had bought Olmert cigars and ties, and described their other personal connections. Talansky then explained that he was in the process of raising money to cover Olmert's legal funds.
Friedland said he told Talansky not to get the office involved and that his partner promised he would not do it again.
Olmert's lawyer Navot Tel-Tsur interjected at this point, claiming that particular piece of testimony was hearsay and should be ignored by the court.
Friedland and Talansky were partners in the Kooltech company, a business that supplied minibars to hotels.
Friedland spoke at length about Talansky's connections and Talansky's ability "to open doors."
"There was no one with more than $100 in their pocket that [Talansky] did not know," Friedland said. "I was with him at an event one time and he was like a floating ballerina."
Friedland spoke of two instances in which Talansky contacted hotel owners. In the first, Talansky called Jewish tycoon Sheldon Adelson in order to be put in touch with managers of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. In the second, Talansky called billionaire Yitzhak Tshuvah regarding the Plaza hotel in New York. In both cases, the contacts did not ripen into deals.
Olmert's media adviser said on Tuesday that the prosecution had turned the trial into a "circus."
During cross-examination, Friedland denied claims Talansky made to police that Friedland was bankrupt and escaped from the U.S. to avoid creditors.
Talansky testified the same court in May 2008 gave a deposition that over a 15-year period, he transferred $150,000 to Olmert.
Talansky described his custom of delivering cash to either Olmert or Shula Zaken, Olmert's bureau chief at the time.
In addition to the cash deliveries, he recalled about 10 occasions on which he used his credit card to pay Olmert's expenses. In some cases, Talansky said, he went to his bank specifically to draw out tens of thousands of dollars after Olmert asked him for cash.
During Olmert's mayoral campaign in Jerusalem, Talansky said, Olmert had asked for his help, and he responded that he would do all he could to get him elected instead of Teddy Kollek. He said he wanted to give Olmert a check, but Olmert said he would only take cash.
Talansky also said that back when Olmert was a Likud member, Olmert phoned him and said he needed a lot of money for the Likud leadership primary. When Talansky asked him how much, Olmert said $70,000. Talansky said he was in shock, and decided that would be the last contribution he made. However, he continued, he went to the bank and withdrew between $68,000 and $70,000 and gave it to Olmert. He said he believes that was the last time he contributed to a campaign.
Talansky said the envelopes in which he brought contributions from American donors in later years, when Olmert was industry and trade minister, contained between $3,000 and $8,000 each. He would not bring more, he said, because it was prohibited to bring more in cash on a flight from the United States. Usually, he brought the envelopes to Jerusalem and give them to Zaken.
http://bit.ly/ci1aci
6 oct 2010
'I bet on the right horse, the country is in my hands'
More details of the so-called Talansky affair emerged yesterday at former prime minister Ehud Olmert's trial, including the fact that $30,000 was transferred from the account of American Jewish businessman Morris Talansky to that of Olmert's brother, Yossi.
Taking the witness stand at the Jerusalem District Court yesterday was David Friedland, a business partner of Talansky's and a key witness in the case of the cash-filled envelopes Olmert allegedly received from Talansky - one of three cases for which the former premier is currently standing trial.
During his testimony, it emerged that Talansky - whose 2008 deposition to the court ultimately forced Olmert to resign as prime minister - was questioned again by police four months ago during a visit to Israel.
Police showed Talansky a bank record of a $30,000 transfer from his account to that of Yossi Olmert. The transfer was apparently made a day after Olmert himself had met Talansky in New York, and police suspect it was at his behest.
Police said Talansky had responded that he does not remember the transfer, but had added, "perhaps Olmert transferred the money to me so I would pass it on ... Olmert is an honorable man, and I'm sure that if I loaned him money, he would return it."
Friedland told the court about the evening when prime minister Ariel Sharon had a stroke and Olmert took over. "It was a very sad moment. And then something very strange happened. He [Talansky] began to dance around and shout with joy. He began to shout, 'I bet on the right horse, the country is in my hands.' He was ecstatic, and it was very unpleasant."
Two days later, Friedland said, Talansky tried to explain his behavior to him. "He told me I had to understand that
http://bit.ly/cNCMdX
12 oct 2010
Likud slams Olmert: One could think it was heaven under Kadima government
'Under Olmert leadership, there were two wars, one Goldstone report, and thousands of missiles fired into Israel; Netanyahu government returned the calm and security to the Israeli people.'
The Likud party condemned former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday for criticizing the Netanyahu government, outlining all the hardships that Israel endured during Olmert's leadership.
Speaking at an Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry conference, Olmert said that the government's refusal to accept the United States request that Israel extend a freeze on West Bank settlement construction for two months could lead to Israel's political isolation in the world and damage Israel's economy.
Following Olmert's speech, Netanyahu's Likud party issued a statement attacking the previous Kadima government.
"Following Tzipi Livni's speech on Monday and Ehud Olmert's speech on Tuesday, one could think Israel was in heaven under the Kadima government," the statement read.
"But the Israeli public remembers the truth. Three years, two wars, thousands of missiles fired into Israeli territory, one Goldstone report, enormous political sacrifices that led nowhere, and deep economic recession. That's the country that Livni and Olmert left.
"The Netanyahu government achieved economic prosperity, returned the calm and security to the Israeli people, and is currently engaged in the peace process while still standing up for Israel's national security interests, and maintaining strong relations with the United States."
In his speech, Olmert continued to criticize Netanyahu's policies.
"There are people who think it is possible to separate the political situation from the economic situation and they use the phrase 'economic peace'," Olmert said, alluding to Netanyahu. "This is a lovely phrase but in reality it doesn%u2019t exist."
Olmert told the audience that Israel could not expect to receive continued support from the U.S. and Europe if it continues to "insult the whole world."
http://bit.ly/aBdpHz
Olmert: Netanyahu leading Israel to political isolation
Former prime minister criticizes Netanyahu and Lieberman, saying that the refusal to extend the settlement freeze could lead to political isolation and damage the Israeli economy.
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on the stalled peace process with the Palestinians.
Speaking at an Industry, Trade and Labor ministry conference, Olmert said that the government's refusal to accept the United States request that Israel extend a freeze on West Bank settlement construction for two months could lead to Israel's political isolation in the world and damage Israel's economy.
"There are people who think it is possible to separate the political situation from the economic situation and they use the phrase 'economic peace'," Olmert said, alluding to Netanyahu. "This is a lovely phrase but it reality doesn%u2019t exist."
Olmert told the audience that Israel could not expect to receive continued support from the U.S. and Europe if it continues to "insult the whole world."
Olmert said that it was necessary to have an internal discussion within Israeli society on the issue of the settlements. He added that the lack of a genuine political process with the Palestinians since the formation of Netanyahu's government had led the world to focus on the settlements.
"When we raise doubts about if we support a two-state agreement, everyone will talk about the settlements," Olmert said.
Olmert condemned Netanyahu's decision to not respond positively to Barack Obama's request that Israel declare a two-month extension of the West Bank settlement freeze, saying that Netanyahu's refusal hurt Israel's strategic interests.
"[Obama] is the president of the country with which have signed an agreement to receive advanced fighter aircraft and which provides us a grant of billions of dollars annually," Olmert said. "We are an independent and strong country that is determined to protect our interests - but is it logical, responsible and forward looking to not condone what [the U.S.] is saying?"
http://bit.ly/amHHd2