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1. Olmert Seeks to Part With Golan by Hillel Fendel  In light of reports that outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to reach an agreement with Syria before he leaves office, a party colleague, MK David Tal, says: "Hands off the Golan." MK Tal, who heads the Knesset House Committee, is a leader of the campaign demanding a popular referendum to approve or reject any agreement to give away the Golan Heights. These efforts are taking on added urgency in light of reports from Russia and Mahmoud Abbas [see below] that a Golan giveaway may be agreed upon sooner than expected. Syria has refused any form of direct contacts with Israel unless Israel relinquishes all rights to the Golan. It is thus considered axiomatic that no peace agreement can be reached with Syria unless the Golan Heights are given up - something that most of the Israeli populace has consistently objected to for years. Olmert Seeking Agreement MK Tal, capitalizing on the grassroots love and support for the Golan, continues to promote his idea of a referendum. "The referendum law has passed its first reading in the Knesset," Tal said on Monday. "I have agreed to delay its progress in the House Committee [which must prepare it for final-readings presentation in the Knesset], at the request of government representatives so that they can 'study it.' I agreed to postpone it for a month, but it would be appropriate for the government to express its official position as soon as possible." Tal: Let the Nation Decide! Israeli Public Objects News from Russia and the PA Lame-Duck Olmert Forging Ahead Another indication that a Golan giveaway may be near comes from Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The successor to Yasser Arafat told reporters in Ramallah on Sunday night that Syria is interested in renewing direct talks with Israel. Abbas, however, denied Kuwaiti newspaper reports that said he had delivered a hand-written message from U.S. President Bush to Syrian President Assad. The message purportedly said that Bush would ensure that Israel gives over the Golan Heights if Syria breaks ties with Iran. Israeli sources also denied any knowledge of such a message from Bush to Assad. Syria Used Golan to Attack Israel  2. Livni to Ask for 14 More Daysby Gil Ronen  Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads the ruling Kadima party, will ask President Shimon Peres Monday for 14 extra days to finish assembling a new government coalition. The meeting betweeen them is to take place at 11:30 A.M. in the President's residence. Livni has used up the first 28 days that she was given for the task of putting together a coalition, but thus far has only managed to seal deals with Labor and the splintered Pensioners' faction. Courting Shas Shas's chairman, Minister Eli Yishai, said Sunday that there are still "meaningful disputes" between Kadima and Shas. The main disagreement, he said, is on "the social issues," in what is taken as a reference to Shas's demands for NIS 1.5 billion in aid for families with numerous children. "We need a social government," he said, "that will take care of unemployment, senior citizens, single mothers and the disabled. The government needs to change direction completely, not in words but in deeds." According to Ha'aretz, Shas refuses to compromise on less than NIS 1 billion in payments to needy families in the course of 2009. Representatives from both parties met Sunday afternoon and reported achieving some progress. They will meet again after the Simchat Torah holiday, either Tuesday evening or Wednesday. 3. Akko Mayor: Compensate or Courtby Ernie Singer  Akko Mayor Shimon Lancry said on Sunday that he will petition the High Court of Justice if the national government does not make the city's residents eligible for compensation for damage suffered in the Yom Kippur riots. Lancry told a news conference that he has been able to raise a total of NIS 200,000 on his own as partial compensation to residents whose property was destroyed during the disturbances. The mayor told reporters, "The Finance Ministry has not yet decided to recognize the events as unusual, as needed to qualify for special attention from the Property Tax Bureau, and the insurance companies are dragging their feet and making it hard for the adversely-affected residents." He said that if need be, the city will help the residents file a class-action suit against the insurance companies. Relating to criticism of the police's response to the riots, Lancry said that the time had come to stop using the force as the public's punching bag. "We definitely demand that the police examine how the events of Yom Kippur Eve developed as they did," he said, "but it must be noted that the next day, the police operated at the risk of their lives and, together with us, prevented things from getting worse, and I want to commend them." Lancry defended his cancellation of the Akko Alternative Theater Festival as a calming factor. He said, "These are days of introspection, not celebration, and I'm sure that Akko will come out of this stronger." Lancry concluded by saying that leadership is judged by its ability to make decisions and control events. He said "There was nothing that I could do and didn't do." 4. Security for Israel off Agendaby Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  The United States and European Union (EU) have blamed Israel for the lack of progress in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and insist on more "goodwill" measures while omitting concerns about terrorist attacks.
Previous statements always have included the condition of security for Israel which has been directed to make more concessions to the PA, such as removing checkpoints intended to stop terrorists before they can attack.
However, the latest statement by European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering ignores the issue of security and lays the blame squarely on Israel for failure to conclude negotiations.
He said that the expansion of Jewish communities and the IDF's maintaining checkpoints in Judea and Samaria "are the two outstanding issues to be resolved in the Middle East conflict." In a recent speech to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly in Jordan , Poettering said expanding Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria "is undermining the Palestinians' confidence."
He also charged that the checkpoints' "extremely restricted freedom of movement of the Palestinians prevents investment in and recovery of the Palestinian economy." In the past week, soldiers manning the checkpoints have caught several terrorists brandishing weapons and trying to smuggle bombs.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to show some kind of achievement after more than 20 trips to Israel and the PA. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the question of who is leading the Israeli government is holding up negotiations.
"Once you do get an Israeli government that is fully up and running and ready to actively push forward on that front, we'll see where those discussions lead," he told reporters. 5. Vatican Halts 'Saint Pius' Ideaby Hana Levi Julian  A spokesman for Pope Benedict XVI announced over the weekend that the Catholic leader had stopped the beatification of Pope Pius XII, an issue that has heightened tensions between the Vatican and Israel .
Pope Pius, who served during World War II, has been criticized by Jews the world over for his silence in the face of the Nazi genocide during the Holocaust.
Numerous Jewish groups as well as a leading Israeli rabbi expressed their opposition to recent steps toward beatification, which means making him a saint. Pope Benedict's spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi reacted and stated that the pope had decided to study the matter further.
The central umbrella organization for Jewish groups in France , the Conseil Representatif des Institutions Juives de France, warned in a statement, "Pope Pius XII, worried about burning bridges with Germany, never made a clear statement denouncing the singular monstrosity of the extermination of millions of Jews. Moreover, he did not do so after the war either, which is profoundly shocking. If carried out, the plan to beatify Pius XII, who was pope between 1939 and 1958, would deal a severe blow to relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish world."
Jewish groups in Italy and elsewhere have also urged the Vatican to reconsider the move. Amos Luzzatto, president emeritus of Italy 's Jewish communities, noted in an interview published in the newspaper La Repubblica that numerous European leaders had spoken out against the deportation of Jews during the war. "I ask myself why Pius didn't do the same thing to call European Catholics to action. These are questions that haunt us Jews," he was quoted as saying. "The Vatican should know that for the Jewish world this would open up a wound that will be difficult to heal."
The charges were refuted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who wrote in a pre-emptive full-page tribute to Pius XII published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, "It was precisely by means of a prudent approach that Pius XII protected Jews and refugees. If he had made a public intervention, he would have endangered the lives of thousands of Jews who, upon his directive, were hidden, in 155 convents and monasteries in Rome alone."
Threat to Snub Israel Met with Anger Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit priest in charge of the beatification process, told the ANSA news agency on Saturday that the pope would not visit the State of Israel unless the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem removes a photo of Pius XII captioned with a note that he "abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews."
The threat set off a further storm of protest from Jewish groups, who stepped forward with public statements criticizing the Vatican 's reluctance to allow historians open access to its archives in order to determine the truth.
In an effort to contain the damage, Rev. Lombardi acknowledged the Vatican's displeasure over the plaque but said it was not the "determining factor" in a decision over whether the pope would accept an invitation from Jerusalem to visit the Jewish State.
Pope Benedict Taking Time to Consider Issues According to the Catholic News Service, the Rev. Lombardi "told reporters not to expect the pope to go off and sign such a decree immediately after the mass. The pope was demonstrating his 'spiritual union' with those hoping for canonization, but gave no indication about future steps."
Rev. Gumpel was quoted in the same article as saying "The pope may have his good reasons, of course, for example the constant attack from some Jewish parties. The church wants to live in peace with the Jews."
The article noted, however, that from Pope Benedict's perspective, there is another issue to contend with as well: the fact that elevation of a saint should not be a cause of division or discontent. 6. Egypt to Fatah, Hamas: Make Upby Gil Ronen  Egypt delivered invitations Sunday to a summit meeting of all factions in the Palestinian Authority (PA) territories, along with a draft plan for ending the prolonged crisis between Hamas and Fatah, high-ranking sources told Arab news organization Ma'an, which is based in Bethlehem. The “comprehensive national dialogue” meeting is set for November 9 in Cairo. The officials said that the Egyptian draft calls for the creation of a new PA unity government. The new government's tasks would include ending "the blockade (of the Gaza Strip)", easing daily life, preparations for presidential and legislative elections, and reforming the security forces in order to “defend land and civilians.” Sanctity of blood The draft agreement's introduction describes the PA territories in Judea, Samaria and Gaza as being “nationally, geographically and politically" united and mentions the "sanctity of Palestinian blood and the resistance." According to Ma'an, the draft also mentions “democracy” as a means of rotating authority among leaders. 7. Akko Inciter Escapes to PA Areaby Hana Levi Julian  The Arab who incited others to riot in eastern Akko on Yom Kippur Eve has escaped justice and fled to the Palestinian Authority areas.
Akko Mayor Shimon Lankry announced Sunday that "the man who announced at the city's mosques that there are injuries in the eastern neighborhoods… has fled to the territories."
Lankry added that the man who drove young masked Arabs in a minibus into the Jewish neighborhood had also fled police.
The men he brought with him brandished axes, knives and truncheons as they piled out of the bus, yelling "Itbah al Yahud" (Slaughter the Jews) and "Allah Hu Akbar" (G-d is Great – the traditional Arabic war cry).
The Arab driver whose behavior in the Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur Eve started all the trouble in the first place was released from custody last week. Tawfik Jamal denied at a special Knesset Committee meeting last week accusations that he had been drunk, or that he had been playing his car stereo excessively loud as he allegedly pulled his car around the traffic circle in the neighborhood at high speed.
Approximately 1,000 police officers have been deployed in the ancient seaport city to keep the peace after days of riots that were sparked by the incident. Police said last week that they may lower their presence if Tuesday's Shemini Atzeret/Simhat Torah holiday passes without incident. 8. Crazy Musical Times in Nachlaotby Gil Ronen  Imagine a hassidic-Woodstock-jazz-flamenco rock-and-roll festival of belief and love featuring ecstatic bearded men and you will come close to what went down in Nachlaot Saturday evening. [video:123535] The aptly named Kobi Fringe, an organizer of the Regalim Festival at Nachlaot, called it an event of "like, free love" – in the sense of "music, Sukkot, food, dancing, happy." The sounds emanating from the stage ranged in style from Crosby Stills and Nash to Kool and the Gang to completely indescribable improvisations dedicated to Abraham the Forefather and Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, among others. Musician Yehuda Glantz, another organizer, said the festival is intended to bring together the young and old people living in the unique area of Nachlaot. Osher, a Nachlaot resident, told Yoni Kempinski, host of Israeli Salad in the Sukkah, that it is very difficult to find a festival like this one, which is "all improvisation." |
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