Israel not interested in peace: Syria's Assad DEC 23,09
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that peace talks with Israel had been stalled because Israel was not interested in achieving peace.Israel's demand for negotiations without conditions meant that it wanted to bring down the peace process, Assad said after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Damascus.We discussed today the ways to bring the peace process out of the deadlock that it has reached ... because of the absence of a serious Israeli partner who aims to achieve peace,he told a joint news conference with Erdogan.When Israel says it wants negotiations without conditions it means it wants negotiations with no foundation. This is like having a building with no foundation, then it's very easy to be brought down and they want to bring down the peace process,he said.Peace talks between Israel and Syria faltered in 2000 over Damascus's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed.Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, last year facilitated contacts that focused on Syrian demands for a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and Israel's accusations that Damascus was arming militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Those contacts failed to produce formal negotiations, and Turkey's repeated offers to re-open the peace track have not resulted in further talks.Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has ruled out resuming Turkish-mediated talks with Syria, insisting that any new contacts must be direct.Relations between Turkey and Israel turned sour after Israel launched a three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip last December and Erdogan said Israel no longer trusted Turkey to mediate peace talks with Syria.On Wednesday, Erdogan reiterated that Turkey remained committed to mediating peace talks.If the responsibilities fall on Turkey (to mediate between Syria and Israel), we are ready,Erdogan told the news conference, speaking through an Arabic interpreter.(Writing by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, editing by Tim Pearce)
UN expert slams tragic international failure in Gaza
Wed Dec 23, 2:45 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – A UN human rights expert on Wednesday condemned a tragic failure by major powers to end Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip or probe alleged war crimes committed during a military offensive one year ago.The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, urged Israel's European and North American allies to press for the immediate end of the blockade backed up by a credible threat of economic sanctions.There is no evidence of meaningful international pressure being brought to bear to end the blockade or to ensure that Israeli and Hamas officials are held accountable for alleged war crimes perpetrated during the Gaza attacks,he said in a statement.This represents both a tragic failure of responsibility by the powerful governments of the world and of the UN,he added.
Israel launched a devastating 22 day military offensive dubbed Operation Cast Lead on the Hamas-ruled territory on December 27, 2008.People of conscience everywhere, as well as governments worldwide and the United Nations, should take note of the dire situation in Gaza,said Falk.The ordeal of the 1.5 million residents of Gaza affected by the Israeli blockade, over half of whom are children, has been allowed to continue without any formal objection by governments and at the UN.Falk said a three-year blockade had stopped enough food and medicine reaching civilians in Gaza, harming their physical and mental health, and was still hampering reconstruction.He also called for full and swift implementation of the conclusions of a UN human rights investigation led by Richard Goldstone.The Goldstone report adopted in October recommended that Israel and Hamas should face possible prosecution at the International Criminal Court, if they fail to conduct credible investigations into war crimes within six months.
Renewed Lebanese drug trade hikes Mideast tensions
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 23, 1:54 pm ET
BAALBEK, Lebanon – Lebanon's drug-producing heartland is back in business with a resurgence of marijuana and poppy fields, challenging the country's underpowered security forces and adding another dimension to Israel's war with Hezbollah militants.Associated Press interviews with farmers and Lebanese officials, and documents from international organizations that monitor drugs, show that the drug trade in the Bekaa Valley has ramped up again since its drop following the 1975-1990 civil war.Israel's Anti-Drug Authority claims Hezbollah is behind the flow of cross-border drugs as part of its war on the Jewish state. Hezbollah denies abetting drugs, saying it's un-Islamic.Production in the Bekaa peaked during the civil war, then died down to the point where the U.S. removed Lebanon from its list of big producers in 1997.But on a recent visit by the AP, acres of cannabis were seen growing behind concealing stands of tall corn stalks, and farmers spoke openly of the fortunes they are making off the plants.The Lebanese government, long preoccupied with violent political clashes in the country, has begun striking back by plowing up fields.It's hard to pin down independently what role Hezbollah plays in the trade, but the flat, green Bekaa Valley, with its sunny Mediterranean climate and terrorism-filled history, is a Hezbollah stronghold.The accusation is that Hezbollah, given its strong presence in the Bekaa and its unmatched influence there, is heavily involved in the trade, though indirectly, for ideological reasons,said Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the University of Maryland.However, there is no independent evidence of this involvement.Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah strongly denies Israel's charge of narcoterrorism.In a speech last month, he claimed the Israelis were trying to put a political spin on what in his view is simply a drug operation run by Lebanese drug dealers in collusion with Israeli border guards.
Israeli police say that based on evidence gathered from interrogating busted traffickers, nothing happens on the Lebanon-Israel border without Hezbollah's consent.Aram Nerguizian, an expert at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., says Hezbollah has enough financial support without depending on drug money, but uses the drug trade to gather intelligence on the Israeli military.Shamai Golan, a spokesman for Israel's Anti-Drug Authority, agrees the main goal is to gather intelligence information, but also to weaken Israeli society.Last year his agency ran an advertising campaign featuring an image of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah wafting out of a smoky pipe with the slogan: At the end of every joint sits Nasrallah ... Drug users are lending a hand to the next terror attack.In 2006, an Israeli army lieutenant colonel, Omar el-Heib, was sent to jail for 15 years for relaying maps and information about tank positions, troop deployments and the whereabouts of top Israeli commanders to Hezbollah in exchange for heroin, hashish, and thousands of dollars.Besides Bekaa drugs, Golan said, is heroin from Afghanistan, four tons of which enter Israel annually through Lebanon, controlled by two Lebanese families who answer directly to Hezbollah.He said there are dozens of documented cases implicating Hezbollah and also Syria, which has influence in the Bekaa. On the other hand, Jordan is doing great work in stopping smugglers with drugs bound for Israel, he added.Experts say the Lebanon trade is controlled by drug barons under the protection of powerful clans in the Bekaa Valley, largely beyond the reach of Lebanese authorities. About 10 families are involved, said Col. Adel Mashmoushi, the head of Lebanon's drug enforcement bureau.This is a clan affair most of the time,said Timor Goksel, a longtime U.N. official in Lebanon who is now a professor at the American University of Beirut. He noted that drug-growing was rife in the Bekaa Valley long before Hezbollah was created with Iranian backing in 1982. This year's U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report doesn't say whether Hezbollah is involved in drugs. It says last year's data show Morocco and Afghanistan have replaced Lebanon and Jordan as Israel's main source of drugs. During the civil war, Bekaa drugs generated almost $500 million a year in revenues — 15 percent of the country's economy.
That money bought weapons and fighters for various sectarian militias. The Bekaa was notorious worldwide as a cauldron of terror and crime. Masked gunmen patrolled the streets brandishing automatic rifles and grenade launchers. Thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and troops from neighboring Syria held sway, along with tribal warlords, and Syria was thought to benefit from parts of the drug trade. Westerners were snatched off the streets of Beirut and held for years in the valley by militants allegedly linked to Hezbollah.After the war ended, the U.S. pressured Lebanon and Syria to plow up most of the drug fields, and eventually the U.S. State Department dropped Lebanon from the offenders list. But a 2009 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says farmers appear to be resuming cannabis cultivation. Lebanon's government refuses to release the current estimate of volume but officials say they are less than during the civil war. A spate of factional clashes around the country kept the military so busy that from 2006 until this year, the government made no effort to wipe out cannabis.But in the spring the military started hunting drug smugglers, and things turned bloody when Bekaa gunmen killed four soldiers in an ambush. Undaunted, the government arrested 69 people, and in August and September it sent hundreds of policemen and workers into the Bekaa's northern districts of Baalbek and Hermel.They bulldozed more than 3,000 acres of harvest-ready fields as soldiers in armored cars stood by to protect them from villagers whose weaponry includes automatic rifles and even mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.The army is wary of going too far, said analyst Nerguizian. Instead, it applies limited pressure ... without getting dragged into a broader confrontation with drug cartels, he said.In many drug-producing countries, notably Afghanistan, farmers are offered money to switch to legal crops, but the farmers say the offers made in Lebanon never produced any money. Abu Mohammed, a 65-year-old Bekaa farmer who has been in the drug business for 40 years, said he can net $1,200 off 1,000 square meters (10,000 sq feet) of land planted with cannabis, much more than other crops would bring in.
And If I don't sell the hashish, I can keep it until next year and it does not need refrigerators,he said, asking to be identified by his nickname because he feared reprisals.He lives in a handsome two-story stone villa. Drug profits paid for it, he said.Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Captain of famed Exodus refugee ship dies at 86 By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 23, 1:42 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Yitzhak Ike Ahronovitch, the captain of the Exodus ship whose attempt to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine built support for Israel's founding, has died. He was 86.He died Wednesday in northern Israel after a long illness, his daughter Ella said.The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people — most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews — in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews.The British navy seized the vessel off Palestine's shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.The ship's ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated.It inspired a fictionalized account by American writer Leon Uris and a classic 1960 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman.Newman's character was patterned after Yossi Harel, who commanded the Exodus mission as a leader of the Haganah pre-state Jewish armed force. Harel died last year.Ahronovitch, who was nicknamed Ike, captained the ship. His daughter said the experience remained a pivotal part of his life for years afterward.It was one of the most important things of his life. He wasn't a big storyteller, but he'd happily tell schoolchildren about it,she said.The Exodus influenced him and his friends deeply. Those were the days that defined them and as far as they were concerned defined the character of this country.Ahronovitch was born in Poland in 1923 and moved to pre-state Israel 10 years later. He later worked with ships and always loved the sea, his daughter said.In a statement Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Ahronovitch one of a kind ... a combination of pioneering, courage and love of his people.Ahronovitch is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled for Friday in northern Israel.
Hamas leaders weigh Israeli draft on prisoner swap
By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Wed Dec 23, 11:17 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – A German mediator gave Hamas on Wednesday Israel's response to a proposed swap freeing hundreds of jailed Palestinians for a captured soldier, and the Islamist group said it would need days to review the new draft.Signaling a possible breakthrough, a Hamas official said he expected the group to send a delegation from the Gaza Strip to Damascus by Thursday to meet exiled Hamas leaders. Such rare conferences are reserved by Hamas for important policymaking.Israel kept a lid on which of the Hamas demands it may meet to recover Gilad Shalit, an army conscript who has become a cause celebre during 3-1/2 years' captivity in Hamas-ruled Gaza.Security minister Eli Yishai reiterated Israel's misgivings over a prisoner amnesty likely to boost Hamas, which spurns peace with the Jewish state and is in a power struggle with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.We always say not at any price because otherwise our enemies would exploit it. But on the other hand, we have to make every possible effort,Yishai told Israel's Army Radio.Where is the middle ground? I think any further (public) words about this would be excessive.Under the proposed exchange, about 1,000 of the some 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons would be released.Officials familiar with the negotiations said Israel had ruled out releasing a handful of top Palestinian militants serving life sentences for orchestrating lethal attacks.Israel was also intent on barring between 100 and 120 other Palestinians from returning to the West Bank, where Abbas holds sway, and they might be sent instead to Gaza or abroad.
DILEMMAS
Hamas had agreed that some prisoners be exiled but wanted them to be able to choose their destinations, officials said.Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the group had received Israel's response through the German mediator, and that Hamas will study the response.A Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it could take a few days to formulate a response it would then hand to the mediator. A delegation from the group in Gaza will leave for Syria for a broader discussion,the official added.Shalit, now 23, was seized by Hamas-led gunmen who tunneled into Israel in 2006. He is incommunicado except for a videotape, voice recording and letter released by Hamas as proof of life.For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightist who has long cultivated tough on terror credentials, the release of senior Hamas prisoners poses a particular dilemma.Developments in the negotiations look to coincide with the anniversary of a Gaza offensive launched by Israel on December 27 last year. At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
The United Nations and Western powers hope a swap will lead to a relaxation of Israel's blockade of Gaza, many of whose 1.5 million Palestinians depend on food aid and smuggled goods.Netanyahu has given no indication he will ease the restrictions after a deal with Hamas, which has rejected Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence. Israel Radio said the German mediator -- an intelligence officer whose name is barred from publication -- had left Gaza and was expected to fly home to await a possible return. (Writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Russia says stalled Mideast talks need extra push
By Douglas Hamilton – Tue Dec 22, 8:33 am ET
SWEIMAH, Jordan (Reuters) – Russia on Tuesday said it planned to become more involved in resolving the Middle East conflict along with the European Union and the United States.Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, who is President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy to the region, told a conference in Jordan that new efforts were needed to break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians.We have not exhausted the full potential of the Quartet,said, referring to the joint diplomatic committee formed by Russia, the EU, the United Nations and the United States.
Saltanov was addressing a meeting of Russia's Valdai Club on Jordan's Dead Sea coast, where Russian, Arab, Palestinian and Israeli speakers debated the prospects of a comprehensive Middle East peace accord in the coming decade.This conference itself is a small signal of Russia's intention to return to the Middle East arena, said Middle East specialist Patrick Seale. It has been absent for 20 years.Saltanov said the long-running conflict increasingly posed challenges of a strategic nature that could have a negative impact on states outside the immediate region, where rising Islamic radicalism could lead to religious wars.In a message on Monday to participants in a Russia - Muslim World strategic conference, Medvedev spoke of the need for a joint alternative to radicalism and extremism that are not inherent in any specific religion or ethnic group,the Interfax agency quoted the Kremlin as saying.
NO DEADLINES
Former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov told the Valdai conference on Monday that the Quartet should formulate the basis of a framework Middle East peace agreement, and invite Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate in a fixed time period.
Saltanov said deadlines could prove disappointing.
The Quartet backs Washington's lead role in Middle East mediation, and there was no suggestion Russia would challenge this arrangement. Saltanov said he met often with U.S. presidential envoy George Mitchell, who has led shuttle diplomacy for 10 months with no sign of a breakthrough to relaunch the stalled talks.He denied that Russia wanted a Moscow Conference on the Middle East merely as an attention-grabbing publicity stunt, just for a photo opportunity.But he made clear Moscow still hoped to host a major peace conference, if and when Israel and the Palestinians agree to restore a dialogue interrupted since last December, and if the Quartet can set out the terms of reference of a peace accord.Collaboration in the Quartet should be intensified and all parties should be active players,Saltanov said.U.S. President Barack Obama may not have made much headway in the Middle East in a tumultuous year of war and economic crisis, Seale added, but I believe he will return (to it) in the new year with greater resolve.(Editing by Peter Millership)
Latin Patriarch says Holy Land peace efforts a failure by Gavin Rabinowitz – Tue Dec 22, 6:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Efforts to bring peace to the Holy Land have failed, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said on Tuesday in a sombre Christmas message.Our dreams for a reconciled Holy Land seem to be utopia,said Fuad Twal, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land. Despite the praiseworthy efforts of politicians and men of goodwill to find a solution to the ongoing conflict, all of us, Palestinians and Israelis, have failed in achieving peace.Twal said this was particularly disappointing in a year that Pope Benedict XVI had visited the region.Spiritually (the visit) gave us more hope, but on the ground nothing changed till now,he told reporters in his headquarters in the Old City of Jerusalem.Twal singled out the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, a siege maintained on the Hamas-run Gaza strip and clashes in Jerusalem.Palestinians still do not have their own state where they can live in peace and harmony with their Israeli neighbours, he said.
Nevertheless, he urged the faithful not to give up hope.Hope means not giving into evil but standing up to it,he said. That was a quote from a recent statement by Palestinian Christian leaders who called for an end to the Israeli occupation and accused Christian Zionist groups of misusing Christian theology to justify Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
In the Holy Land everything is not desperate,Twal added.A recent Israeli move to limit settlement building and ease restrictions on Palestinians had led to an improved economic situation for the Palestinians.It is not enough, but a step forward, he said.On the other hand Palestinians are more and more expressing resistance in a non-violent fashion. It is a positive sign pointing in the right direction.
Twal also singled out an increase of pilgrims to the Holy Land.Born into a Bedouin Christian tribe in Jordan in 1949, Twal was enthroned last year as the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the title given to the Latin rite Roman Catholic archbishop of Israel and Palestine.The patriarch urged his followers to work for peace in the Christmas season.The best gift we seek, above money and wealth, is peace. It is the wish of all the inhabitants of this land, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Peace is a gift of God for men of good will; we have to deserve it.
Amid Gaza calm, Israel and Hamas prepare for battle
by Djallal Malti – Mon Dec 21, 9:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A year after Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, an unprecedented calm has held around the Hamas-run enclave, but both sides are busily preparing for the inevitable next round, analysts say.Since Israel's massive 22-day offensive to stop rocket fire from Gaza ended in reciprocal ceasefires on January 18, the borders of the territory have remained largely quiet despite violations by both sides.Not one soldier or Israeli citizen was killed in acts of terror in the winter of 2009, a phenomenon which we have not seen in the past decades,the head of Israeli military intelligence General Amos Yadlin was quoted as saying.
Each side has its own reasons for keeping the status quo, analysts say.Both Hamas and Israel are interested to maintain the current (situation). Israel wants a degree of political stability, and Hamas needs to rebuild its war capacity,said David Hartwell, a senior Middle East analyst at Jane's, a London-based information group specialising in defence issues.But behind the quiet exterior, regional foes are busy preparing for the next conflict, which is certain to erupt sooner or later.Because both sides expect a conflict, eventually it happens,Hartwell said.Israel has poured millions of dollars into developing defensive shields against the makeshift rockets often fired from Gaza as well as the more sophisticated weapons used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in its 2006 war with Israel, or the medium-range missiles in the arsenal of arch-foe Iran.Although there has been a steady improvement in security along our borders... our enemies have significantly improved their capabilities to fire precisely and for an extended time at the Israeli homefront,said Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi of the Israeli army's operations branch.
Behind it all, to a large extent, is Iran,he said.Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, although there are disagreements over the extent of the aid. Israel says Iran gives them arms and training, while Tehran says it provides only moral support.
For Hamas, the lull is a time to restock arsenals in Gaza, which has been under a strict Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamists seized power in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The lion's share of Hamas's weapons are smuggled into the territory via tunnels on the border with Egypt and the group is notoriously secretive about the types of weapons it has.
But in September its political supremo Khaled Meshaal boasted that the group was procuring weapons by all means at its disposal.Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages ... we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms,he said during a trip to Sudan.Israel says that the smuggling has included more and more sophisticated weapons, including a rocket that is capable of reaching its densely populated commercial centre Tel Aviv.
Hamas has called the claim a fabrication.Hamas is rebuilding its forces, recruiting more militants, and testing new equipment to be more efficient in the next military escalation against Israeli forces,a senior Israeli military commander said. Hamas's rearming efforts may be severely hampered, however, by an underground barrier that Egypt is building on its border with Gaza, where most of the smuggling tunnels lie.
The steel barrier, which an Egyptian state-owned daily last week finally confirmed was under construction, will reportedly reach up to 30 metres (100 feet) into the ground and extend some 10 kilometres (six miles).
Status quo won't hold, warn Middle East experts
By Douglas Hamilton – Mon Dec 21, 12:33 pm ET
DEAD SEA, Jordan (Reuters) – Efforts to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict are at a dangerous standstill and in need of a rescue mission that goes beyond U.S. mediation, speakers at a Russian-sponsored debate said on Monday.At a conference on the Jordan shore of the Dead Sea, they warned that Israeli and United States bids to re-launch peace talks that have been suspended for one year would yield nothing if both sides still have a veto on the resolution.There is no bilateral solution,said Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information. The fastest road to the next round of violence is through another failed negotiation process ... and it has zero chance.In remarks endorsed by Palestinian and Arab participants, he said 2009 had been a wasted year.Next year could be ripe for peace, but also ripe for an explosion unless the Russians, the Europeans and the United Nations stepped up their role.Former Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov warned that a real crisis could develop that may strengthen the position of radical elements in the Muslim world and fuel a religious war, if the international community did not intervene.The so-called Middle East Quartet (the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union) had not played enough of a role, Primakov said.It should set out a constructive foundation for a settlement and make its recommendations to the parties, and set a time-frame for a peace conference.
FUTILE AND IN VAIN
In a straight-talking session of Russia's Valdai Club, Israeli speakers rejected charges that Israel was putting itself above the law, relying on power to prolong its occupation of the West and Bank, and closing its eyes to the wider risks.If it was not for the Israel Defense Forces, with our soldiers patrolling, the West Bank would be like Gaza,said retired IDF general Jacob Amidror. Palestinians in 2006 had voted for the Islamist movement Hamas, he reminded the conference.Hamas rejects peace with Israel and is now in control of the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, pledged to continue armed struggle to liberate all Palestinian lands.Israelis would not be stupid enough to come to a proposed Moscow conference where all the participants would be against us, like they are here,Amidror added.And don't sell us this nonsense that all regional conflicts will be resolved as soon as Israel signed a treaty swapping land for peace and creating a Palestinian state,he added.Primakov said the remarks show the very radical views against peace in Israel, and they're probably quite widespread.But he said a Moscow conference was only conceivable once the current deadlock was broken by the Quartet's presentation of a framework for talks defining the core issues.Speakers clashed on whether an international force could relieve Israeli security fears.
It's nice to preach to others,Amidror said. But Russia did not invite international peacekeepers to prevent last year's war with Georgia, and U.N. forces had done nothing to reduce the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon who are stronger than ever.
Rejecting Palestinian demands to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state as an obstacle to peace,Israeli strategic analyst Efraim Inbar said Jerusalem had been Jewish for 3,000 years and was the focus of our yearnings.Former Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurie replied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was deluded if he believed Jerusalem, as Israel's undivided capital,could simply be excluded from peace talks. Is anyone dreaming of a solution not including Jerusalem? It would be futile and in vain. It would not work regardless of force, regardless of power,the former premier said. (Editing by Jon Hemming)
Former Israeli premier Olmert pleads not guilty
Mon Dec 21, 8:56 am ET
JERUSALEM – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is pleading not guilty to charges of illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad.Olmert spokesman Amir Dan says Olmert and his office chief, Shula Zaken, denied all charges at the Jerusalem district court Monday.The accusations relate to offenses allegedly committed during Olmert's time as Jerusalem mayor and Cabinet minister, but emerged when he was prime minister. He eventually resigned over the allegations.The 63-year-old Olmert left politics when Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister in March.
