UPDATES 7 pm Israel time, March 31, 2014:
**All Israel is abuzz this morning with the blockbuster ruling from a court in Tel Aviv. Following a trial that dragged on for months and months, former PM Ehud Olmert and 14 other defendants were convicted of massive bribery and money laundering. The harshness of the judge’s ruling almost guarantees that Olmert will go to prison though his lawyers have promised to appeal.
Prison bound? An unhappy Olmert with his downcast lawyer in Tel Aviv this morning (photo: Haaretz).
On a legal level, your humble servant is happy to see Olmert’s crimes finally catch up with him. On a personal level, your humble servant is happy to see Olmert’s political career come to an end. The darling of the Israeli and American “left”, the utterly corrupt Olmert has been trotted out as the “symbol” of Israel at bogus “peace” conferences from J St in Washington to numerous ones in Israel. Of course, the peace groups will probably still flock to him, and he will probably have video appearances at their gatherings from his prison cell.
**Increasing anti-Semitism in Europe is beginning to have an impact in Israel. The last two months have seen nearly 1000 French immigrants pour into Israel–an all time record for those two months.
French immigrants to Israel departing Paris (photo: flickr).
It should be remembered that there was a 70% increase in French immigration to Israel in 2013 with 3,300 French arriving. For the first time, French Jewish immigration to Israel is exceeding American Jewish immigration.
**Another 12 Hezbollah “fighters” and one commander were killed in Syria in the last 24 hours. How many such fighters have now been killed is anyone’s guess, but one website yesterday documented that 332 Hezbollah funerals have taken place in Lebanon in the last two years–numerous other Hezbollah members have apparently been headlessly dumped or secretly buried in Syria.
A fascinating graphic. The circles on the left are locations of Hezbollah funerals–name on the right are dead Hezbollah “fighters” (graphic source on graph).
TODAY’S BLOG:
Here we go again.
John Kerry has arrived back in Israel again to try to rescue the floundering “peace” talks. In other words, John Kerry has arrived back in Israel to wring more concessions out the Israeli government.
Concessions not designed to bring peace by the way, concessions merely designed to extend the “peace talks” by keeping the Palestinians at the so-called “negotiating table” where they refuse to negotiate.
And guess what? Mahmoud Abbas has a new list of demands.
1. Israel must release 1000 more Palestinian murderers.
2. Israel must freeze all construction of Jewish homes in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
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3. Israel must place large sections of Area C in Judea and Samaria under “Palestinian sovereignty.”
The sad fact is that Israel is apparently already signaling that it will comply with some of these demands. Reports are that Netanyahu is already “preparing” to coax his Cabinet into agreeing to the release of 400 more Palestinian prisoners.
And this is even before the final batch of 26 murderers has been released in the current round of “negotiations”–negotiations in which the Palestinians have compromised on nothing.
As to those murderers whose release Israel has delayed, the PLO issued this statement out or Ramallah today: “Israel is practicing a policy of blackmail and linking its agreement to releasing the fourth batch of prisoners with the Palestinians accepting to extend the negotiations.”
Extend the negotiations. Extend the negotiations. Extend the negotiations. For what?
What can Israel possibly hope to gain? Nothing, zero, zilch.
Will the world support Israel more? What a joke.
The only event that Israel is delaying is the Palestinian march to the United Nations which they will make no matter how many Palestinians murderers are released, no matter how long construction is frozen, and no matter how much land Israel turns over to the PLO.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.