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 1. Police: Indict PM Olmertby Nissan Ratzlav-Katz  Following a meeting that lasted much of the day, the National Fraud Investigations Unit of the Police Department announced Sunday evening that they have decided to recommend that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted on multiple charges of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and other offenses. The recommendations were delivered to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who will have the final say as to whether or not to file charges against the Prime Minister. The recommended charges relate to two out of six corruption investigations Olmert has been the subject of - "the Talansky Envelopes Affair" and the "Olmert Tours Affair." In a third instance of suspected corruption, known as the "Investment Center Affair," the police have yet to finalize a decision in favor of indictment. The Envelopes Affair Talansky has billed himself as a supporter of Olmert who raised funds for him during Olmert's campaigns and tenures as mayor of Jerusalem. In testimony taken before a Jerusalem court, Talansky admitted to giving Olmert envelopes of cash amounting to at least $150,000 some ten years ago. He has denied any knowledge that his donations were illegal according to Israeli law. In July, the court also heard about unexplained money transfers of more than $200,000 from Talansky or Talansky-owned concerns to Olmert's lawyer, Uri Messer, in 1999. Meanwhile, the US government has launched its own investigation into Talansky's activities, based on his testimony before the Jerusalem District Court. A grand jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York has initiated inquiries. The Olmert Tours Affair Olmert is suspected of having received duplicate funding for trips abroad for himself and his family, with payments made from government coffers to Rishon Tours, a travel agency that Olmert and his family used to arrange trips abroad. Olmert then allegedly had Rishon Tours produce a separate receipt for each entity that he asked to finance the trips, as if that body were the sole sponsor. According to the details of the police investigation leaked to the media, Rishon Tours then deposited the money Olmert gained in this way into a private account the tour company established in his name. The Olmert Tours Affair, like the Talansky investigation, centers around the years that Olmert served as the mayor of Jerusalem, from 1993-2003, as well as his term as Minister of Industry and Trade, from 2003 to 2006. The Investment Center Affair "When Olmert served as Minister of Industry and Trade, he did not refrain from dealing with a case in which Uri Messer - his friend, former business partner and current lawyer - was involved. Messer represented an entrepreneur who requested economic benefits from the State via the Trade Ministry's Investment Center," Lindenstrauss wrote. The Comptroller recommended that Olmert be indicted. By October of the same year, Attorney General Mazuz ordered police to open two separate criminal investigations against Olmert - one relating to the Investment Center Affair and a second regarding illegal appointments in the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority, for which then-Minister Olmert also had responsibility. Olmert's Lawyers: 'Meaningless' "The only person authorized by law to decide whether or not to press charges against the Prime Minister is the Attorney General," the lawyers declared. "He has the authority and he bears the responsibility in this matter," they added. An Olmert media advisor commented, even before the formal announcement of the police reccommendations was made, that the police had no choice but to recommend indictment. Otherwise, the Olmert spokesman said, the police would not be able to justify before the public their "causing the fall of an incumbent Prime Minister."  2. Video: 235 Immigrants Arriveby IsraelNN TV  [video:123443] A chartered flight of new immigrants from North America arrived in Israel on Monday morning. The new arrivals were greeted with a festive welcome ceremony attended by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and MK's Gilad Ardan (Likud) and Yisrael Hason (Kadima). The flight was the fifth and final chartered planeload of new immigrants this summer organized by the Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN) organization which facilitates aliyah (Jews moving to Israel) in North America and England. Aboard the flight were 235 new immigrants from North America and the UK, and they received their Israeli citizenship upon landing. The oldest new immigrant is 86 years old, and the youngest is three months old. Over the course of the summer, more than 2,000 North American and British Jews immigrated to Israel through the Nefesh B’Nefesh organization, on five specially-chartered and eight group Aliyah flights. Other dignitaries at the welcoming ceremony included: Knesset Members Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Yoel Hasson (Kadima), Director-General of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption Erez Halfon, Director-General of the Jewish Agency's Department for Aliyah and Absorption Eli Cohen, and Nefesh B’Nefesh founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart.
91 Singles arrived on the NBN flight [Photo: Haim Zach]
3. Hamas On the Air at Temple Mountby Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Hamas's Al Aqsa television network has been exclusively broadcasting nightly Ramadan prayers from the Temple Mount the past week, according to Aaron Klein, who writes for WorldNetDaily. Police have not replied to questions whether the broadcasts are being coordinated with Israel, which officially controls the site but allows the Muslim Wafq to administer affairs there. The terrorist party's television network is the only one broadcasting the one-hour prayer service. Its Al Aqsa television station frequently airs programs calling for jihad against Israel. Hamas also broadcast from the Temple Mount on its radio network last December, when Israeli authorities said they would halt the programming. However, transmission continued for several weeks. A similar occurrence last year involving the Islamic Jihad also resulted in threats but no action to stop the broadcasts. The Arab world has mounted a massive public relations campaign in recent years to try to disprove a Jewish connection with the Temple Mount, which is the site of the destroyed First and Second Temples. Arab workers over the past several years have hauled away tons of debris from the area, containing priceless archaeological artifacts dating back to the Temple eras. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has insisted that the Temple Mount be included as part of a new Arab country it wants to establish. 4. 'Terror Victims Must Sue the PA'by Teneh Samuel, INNTV  Chairman of the Terror Victims Association Menashe Furr says that Israelis who are harmed in terrorist attacks can and should be suing the Palestinian Authority (PA) to demand damages. Speaking with IsraelNN TV, Furr pointed to last week's ruling in a U.S. court in which presiding Judge Aharon Farkash said that Israel should seize funds designated for the PA and pay damages to the family of Efrat and Yaron Ungar. The Ungars were murdered 12 years ago by Arab terrorists, and a U.S. federal court awarded the family damages to be paid by the PA.
[video:123439] "According to the American legal system, someone who is harmed may sue whoever harmed him anywhere, any time,” explains Furr. “There are assets of the terror organizations in the U.S. and the U.S. can seize the money from the Arab banks and transfer it to the terror victims. There are lawyers in the U.S. who filed a petition in the name of the terror victims, covering ten years retroactively, against the P.A.” Furr explains that there are two reasons why terror victims don’t tend to sue the P.A. In addition to the fact that they don’t know that they can sue, Furr says that Israeli courts don’t rush to rule against the P.A., claiming that it is not a state entity; rather, it is treated as an organization. "In 1996, there was a case in which a French citizen was injured in a terror attack,” says Furr. “He sued the P.A. and its leader, Yasser Arafat, and the court seized 5 million shekels from the P.A.'s money, but eventually the seizure was reversed, and he did not receive the money." The ruling regarding the Ungar family is considered ground-breaking because, in general, the authorities tend not to confront the Palestinian Authority in the legal arena. Menashe Furr explains why: "It’s connected to the foreign and defense policies of the government, they are afraid that P.A. Arabs will sue the state of Israel in return, and so the state doesn’t want to open up that possibility. In addition, the state is leaving issues like compensation open for negotiation in future peace talks." 5. Gov't Curtails High Court Powersby Hillel Fendel  The government, at its weekly Cabinet session on Sunday morning, narrowly approved Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's controversial proposal to curtail the Supreme Court's ability to revoke Knesset laws. The vote was 13-12. Supporting the proposal were several Kadima Party ministers, including Prime Minister Olmert, as well as the four Shas ministers and the two Pensioners Party members. Some Kadima ministers, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, voted against, as did the Cabinet members of the Labor Party. According to the approved proposal, the Supreme Court will be allowed to void only Knesset laws that negate a Basic Law. In addition, the revocation of the law must be passed by a two-thirds majority of the nine Court justices considering the matter. If a law is thus voided, the Knesset would then be able to re-pass the law with an absolute majority of the legislature, 61 MKs. In such a scenario, the Supreme Court would then be able to re-consider revoking the law only five years later. Friedmann: Important Turning Point The proposed bill also actually strengthens the Supreme Court, he said, "in that for the first time it will actually be authorized by a Basic Law of the Knesset to overturn Knesset laws."
6. Paris: Jewish Youth Attackedby Gil Ronen  Paris's mayor is being asked to protect the city's Jews following an attack on three Bnei Akiva Jewish youth group counselors Saturday on a street in Paris' 19th District, in the city's northeast end. The youths were outside a Bnei Akiva branch, and were about to go on an activity sponsored by the Bnei Akiva youth movement and the Jewish Agency. According to Rafi Zaush, who represents both organizations: "The attackers threw chestnuts at the boys. One of the boys asked: 'Why are you attacking us?' The attackers answered with anti-Semitic shouts in Arabic. The three attackers then brought a group of 10 to 12 youths with brass knuckles who attacked the Jewish youths until the police came. The attackers fled." 'Happens all the time' "I regret to say that this thing happens all of the time," Zaush said. Police have launched an investigation and have succeeded in identifying three of the attackers 'Protect the Jews' 7. Has Egypt Given Up on Shalit?by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) has stated that Egyptian mediators are out of the picture in Israeli efforts to gain the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit because Hamas leaders in Damascus feel that Egypt is acting according to American instructions. Hamas has denied the report, but it is not clear which faction of Hamas is in control of the hostage. Abdul al-Majid, leader of the Damascus-based PPSF, stated that Hamas thinks Egypt is putting more pressure on Hamas than on Israel. "It is believed that the internal dialogue being held in Egypt between Hamas and Fatah will not be fruitful because of the bias of the mediators in favor of the Palestinian Authority (Fatah)," he said in a report published by the International Middle East Media Center. Al-Majid said Shalit's fate is now in the hands of Norway and Switzerland after Egypt failed to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas. The PPSF is a small extremist group which split off first from Fatah and then from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1970's, believing its former leader, terrorist Yasser Arafat, to be too moderate. Eventually the organization split again, with half the group remaining with its founder, Dr. Samir Ghawshah in Judea and Samaria, and the other half opposing it from exile in Damascus, led by al-Majid. Gaza-based Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said in a written statement, "The reports on moving Shalit's case from Egypt to other Arab parties are inaccurate and untrue." He added that Egypt has halted its mediated talks until Israel is more compromising and that Hamas "is not in a hurry to finalize it." Hamas is demanding that Israel re-open all Gaza crossings on a full scale, and that Israel and Egypt agree to open the international crossing at the divided city of Rafiah. The terrorist group also has demanded that Israel free more than 1,000 terrorists, including known murderers with "blood on their hands" in return for Shalit, who is believed to be alive and well. Israel has said that the current Gaza ceasefire calls for the release of Shalit in return for opening the border crossing at Rafiah. Shalit was kidnapped in a cross-border raid at a Gaza crossing by Hamas and other terrorists on June 25, 2006. Two other soldiers died in the attack. 8. Black Rabbi in Obama's Familyby Aryeh Haffner  Barack Obama's wife’s cousin is a Rabbi, according to the Jewish magazine Forward. Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed, Capers Funnye, shepherds the flock at a mostly black Israelite synagogue on Chicago’s South Side, the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew synagogue. The Black Israelite congregations, often called Black Hebrews, are a very small and mostly separate stream from mainstream Judaism and are not recognized as Jews by the Chief Rabbanite of Israel. Although Rabbi Funnye's congregation refers to itself as Ethiopian Hebrew, it is not connected to the Ethiopian Jews who have immigrated to Israel en masse in past decades and are recognized as Jews by the Israel Chief Rabbanite. Forward reports that Rabbi Funnye’s mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY), and Mrs. Obama's paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were sister and brother. Rabbi Funnye converted to Judaism in a ceremony supervised by the Black Israelite rabbis. He later underwent another conversion procedure, reportedly supervised by Orthodox and Conservative rabbis. He has a Black Israelite ordination. 9. "Optica Halperin" Opening in USby Hillel Fendel  No end in sight for the "Wrestling Rabbi," aged 84. Rabbi Raphael Halperin's popular Optica Halperin optical store chain - boasting 93 stores throughout Israel - is expanding to the United States. Three stores will open in New York - Flatbush, Boro Park and Manhattan - and one in Los Angeles. In addition, Globes reports, the Halperin chain and Walmart have begun negotiations for the opening of Halperin glasses outlets in Walmart stores. The first American Optica Halperin store is scheduled to open next month in New York, at an initial investment of $300,000. Optica Halperin, founded in 1988, is known both for its low prices and for its trademark "smashing glass" radio jingle, in which the narrator announces, "We continue to break the market." Rabbi Halperin once said that he saw no need to expand his business abroad, because the "Divine help" he received was already helping him earn enough. Optica Halperin can offer its low prices to the U.S. market, as well as "within the hour" service. Market surveys show that many American Jews already buy their glasses at Optica Halperin during their visits to Israel. Rabbi Halperin has a rich history as a yeshiva boy in Bnei Brak, a close disciple of the renowned Chazon Ish (Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz), and a professional wrestler in New York who won 159 straight matches. He later returned to Torah study, publishing a multi-volume work on Jewish sages and study throughout history, as well as an encyclopedia geared towards traditional Jewish families. 10. In-Depth View of Jewish UKby Walter Bingham  Veteran British broadcaster Walter Bingham, now a show host on Israel National Radio, takes listeners on an in-depth tour of England's Jewish community in this week's edition of Walter's World. Below is a glimpse of his journey: Well, as you may already know, I had occasion to spend a week in London. It was the wedding of my grandson [audio:123444] For mp3 download Right click and choose "save target as" or "save link as."
11. Exploring Obama's Muslim Faithby Hana Levi Julian  Despite the best efforts of his aides to minimize his dual religious upbringing, the election campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama continues to be dogged by the issue.
Obama's childhood religious practice and its influence in his formative years is being repeatedly raised as an issue due to a question over whether he might buckle under pressure exerted by the Muslim and Arab world when it comes to foreign policy decisions relating to the State of Israel.
'My Muslim Faith' – Freudian Slip? Obama in fact slipped during a nationally-televised ABC interview on Sunday by referring to "my Muslim faith" while accusing the Republicans of suggesting he has Muslim connections.
Interviewer George Stephanopoulus, former senior political advisor and White House communications director to former Democratic president Bill Clinton, did what he could to gloss over what may have been a Freudian slip, but the damage was done.
The ABC transcript follows:
STEPHANOPOULOS: You mention your Christian faith. Yesterday you took off after the Republicans for suggesting you have Muslim connections. Just a few minutes ago, Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, said they've never done that. This is a false and cynical attempt to play victim.
OBAMA: You know what? I mean, these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand. The...
STEPHANOPOULOS: The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections.
OBAMA: No, no, no. But the -- I don't think that when you look at what is being promulgated on Fox News, let's say, and Republican commentators who are closely allied to these folks–
STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said that's wrong.
OBAMA: Now, well, look. Listen. You and I both know that the minute that Governor Palin was forced to talk about her daughter, I immediately said that's off limits. And–
STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said the same thing about questioning your faith.
OBAMA: And what was the first thing the McCain’s campaign went out and did? They said, look, these liberal blogs that support Obama are out there attacking Governor Palin.
Let's not play games. What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come–
STEPHANOPOULOS: Christian faith.
OBAMA: -- my Christian faith. Well, what I'm saying is that he hasn't suggested–
STEPHANOPOULOS: Has connections, right.
OBAMA: -- that I'm a Muslim. And I think that his campaign's upper echelons have not, either. What I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I'm not who I say I am when it comes to my faith -- something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time.
Praying to Saints, Bowing in Mosques In his childhood, Obama was registered as a Muslim and bowed toward a mosque on Fridays while praying to a Catholic saint on other days, according to a 2007 report in The Los Angeles Times.
Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, was careful in an earlier statement to emphasize that he was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother. Gibbs said, "To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim and is a committed Christian… "
However, the issue, which has dogged the Obama team throughout the campaign, is one that is being juggled as a hot potato, with statements by aides being adjusted as time goes on. A subsequent statement to The Times offered a little more careful wording, saying that "Obama has never been a practicing Muslim," but admitting that he had, as a child, spent time in his Chicago neighborhood's Islamic Center.
The article quoted his former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, and others who said that Senator Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended while in the third and fourth grades.
"We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played," The Times quoted Zulfin Adi, who described himself as among Obama’s closest childhood friends.
Obama has written in his autobiography, "In the Catholic school when it came time to pray, I would close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words."
As a first-grader in the Catholic school, Obama prayed as a Catholic, but was registered as a Muslim since that was his father's faith.
Questioning Obama's Sincerity on Support for Israel At least one well-known anti-Israel activist insists that the Democratic presidential hopeful is currently hiding his anti-Israel views in order to get elected. Activist Ali Abunimah claimed in a report earlier in the year to know Obama well and to have met him on numerous occasions at pro-Palestinian events in Chicago.
Jewish groups are also wondering whether Obama is reliable in his expressed support for Israel. The Democratic candidate told an AIPAC convention earlier this year that he backs an undivided Jerusalem.
Within 24 hours, however, in the face of a firestorm of Arab rage Obama quickly backtracked, qualifying his declaration of support with a "clarification" that he had simply meant he did not want to see the Jewish capital split asunder by barbed wire as it had been when captured by the Jordanians during the war in 1948. Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu contributed to this report. 12. 'Media Can Inspire Murder'by Yoni Kempinski, INNTV  Three children were murdered in Israel during the past few weeks. Criminologist Chief Superintendent (Ret.) Dr. Danny Gamishi says that intense media coverage of the first murder may have influenced other parents in similar difficult situations to copy the "solution." [video:123438] Media outlets in Israel have been reporting every step of the investigation since the revelation of suspicions of murder levied against the grandfather of Rose Pizem, the first child murdered out of the three. As the next murders took place, many questioned whether intense media coverage could have encouraged such acts. Dr. Gamishi believes that the media has played a significant role by giving ideas to people who are on the verge of committing a horrific crime. “Electronic and written communication has an impact on a potential murderer becoming a real murderer,” says Gamishi. “It’s a kind of fashion, people are seeing things on the news and, unfortunately, they might do the same thing that they saw on TV or read in the newspapers.” Dr. Gamishi agrees that it is hard to prevent these crimes, but he believes it is not impossible. The prevention will come, he says, from within the community. “Mobilize the community, mobilize the resources within the community so instead of having 30 thousand police officers, we can have six million people who are always looking out for suspicious events and behaviors, people who will be sensitive to the situation.” |
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