Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 62, announced Monday at noon that he has a microscopic-sized growth in his prostate gland.  He said that surgery to remove it is tentatively scheduled for the coming months, and that no chemotherapy or radiation treatments are required.

"I will be perfectly fit to fulfill my duties before the operation, and within a few hours after it," Olmert said firmly.

Olmert said he had no obligation to reveal the details of his physical check-ups, but "I wanted to make a full and open disclosure as soon as possible... The public has a right to know."  Legislation requiring the Prime Minister to publicize his health status has been discussed in the public arena, particularly since the fairly-sudden collapse of ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in early 2006.

Prime Minister Olmert said he has no plans or need to step down, and that he will be able to completely fulfill his duties despite his condition both before and after the operation.  His doctors noted the growth was treatable and discovered at an early stage, and that the survival rate of those in Olmert's situation over the course of the next ten years is 100%.

The biopsy was taken on Oct. 19. Olmert's doctors said afterwards that the growth did not require immediate treatment, and that it is acceptable to wait at least six weeks before beginning treatment, if at all.

The doctors were asked if they did not fear a repeat of mistakes made with Sharon, and if their self-confidence did not indicate that they may be repeating similar mistakes.  Dr. Kobi Ramon, of Sheba Hospital, said that the self-confidence they are displaying stems from the professional knowledge available about prostate cancer, and that Israel was among the leaders in this area.

Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas says that rival Hamas terrorists are planning to overthrow his government in Ramallah and take over Fatah-controlled Judea and Samaria.

Abbas made the statements Sunday night in an interview with the Jerusalem Post and accused "international parties [of] supporting Hamas in its effort."  Abbas aides said the PA Chairman was referring to Iran, Syria and Qatar.

"We have information that Hamas is planning to copy the (June 2007) Gaza coup in the West Bank," Abbas said, adding that he believes the plan will fail. He stated his willingness to resume negotiations with Hamas when the terror faction relaxes its chokehold in Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied the charges, accusing Abbas of covering up "crimes" carried out by his "militias" against Hamas supporters in Judea and Samaria. Barhoum also claimed Hamas was "forced to take security measures in the Gaza Strip to stop Abbas's forces from carrying out the Zionist-American plot to overthrow the democratically-elected [Hamas] government."

The PA Chairman also charged Hamas and Israel with holding separate talks, and said Hamas leaders must publicly admit their involvement with Israel. The Olmert administration previously has stated it is against any contact by Hamas with Jerusalem or with the PA.

Hamas won control over the PA government in a landslide victory at the polls in January 2006, and Hamas Chairman Ismail Haniyeh became PA Prime Minister.  Abbas remained as PA Chairman. Fierce clashes between the two factions followed the elections and repeated attempts by local and international figures to resolve the differences between the two – including a Saudi-sponsored summit that led to a brief unity government – ultimately failed.

Many donor nations to the PA withdrew their support when Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization in the United States and other Western nations, was voted in.

After Hamas took over Gaza and expelled Abbas's forces in June, 2007, Abbas retaliated by dissolving the unity government and installing an emergency government in Judea and Samaria. Abbas won back financial and political bounty from Western nations by declaring that he would keep his distance from Hamas.

Recently there have been whispers that Fatah is negotiating secretly with Hamas to repair its relationship, an allegation denied in a lukewarm statement by Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman, who admitted several Arab and Islamic countries were mediating between the two factions.

IDF troops attacked terrorist strongholds in southern Gaza Sunday night killing one Hamas terrorist in fierce fighting near the Sufa Crossing. Monday morning, the IDF conducted counter terror operations in northern Gaza which ended before noon.

The army carried out counter-terrorism operations Sunday night one kilometer southwest of the Sufa crossing when gunfire broke out, according to local sources. Two IDF soldiers were wounded. The southern Gaza operation concluded early Monday morning. Terrorist cells in Gaza have become better trained and equipped, said a separate source, increasing the necessity for Israeli troops to maintain a presence in the region. 

In the Monday fighting, Israeli forces clashed with an armed terrorist cell that fired rocket-propelled grenades at the soldiers in the area around the Agricultural College in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a favorite Kassam rocket launching spot. 

The IDF reconnaissance unit captured three wanted terrorists Monday morning during operations in Shechem, the "terrorist capital" of Judea and Samaria. In Shechem, located 35 miles northeast of Tel Aviv, a Givati Brigade soldier was moderately wounded while battling terrorists in the city's Ein Bet Ilmeh neighborhood. The soldier was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva with shrapnel wounds in the neck. 

IDF soldiers also arrested 20 other Palestinian Authority fugitives around Judea and Samaria. All were transferred to security personnel for interrogation.

Despite Israel's declaration of Hamas-run Gaza as a hostile entity, trucks filled with hundreds of thousands of shekels each are allowed to enter Gaza monthly.  The Finance and Defense Ministries have given their approval.

With a shortage of dollars and Jordanian dinars in Gaza, the money is used by Hamas to keep Gaza's economy flowing - including the payment of salaries to terrorists.  Terrorists fire near-daily Kassam rockets at Israeli towns and cities from northern Gaza.

Bank Boycott on Hold
The only two Israeli banks working with the Palestinian Authority, Discount and HaPoalim, announced over the past several weeks that they were cutting monetary ties with banks in Gaza. Discount has announced it is considering an end to ties with Arab banks in Judea and Samaria as well.

The Bank of Israel, however, asked the two banks to continue working with Gaza for the meanwhile, out of concern that a cash-flow crisis would greatly harm the local economy.

It could be that this problem has been solved, however, by the entry of cash-filled trucks into Gaza, via the Kerem Shalom crossing on Gaza's southern tip. 

Last week, a convoy of money-laden trucks made its way from Ramallah, in southern Samaria, to southern Gaza.  Security sources estimate that tens of millions of shekels have made their way into Gaza over the past few months, and that some 500 million shekels ($125 million) are currently in Gaza.

The money is used largely to pay salaries.  Hamas pays its military personnel in cash. Weapons smugglers, terrorist group members and charity organizations are also paid in this manner. Suitcases filled with cash are brought to local post offices, and the salary payments are made there.

On October 6, Hamas paid a total of 35 million shekels in September salaries to some 20,000 security force members - an average of 1,750 shekels ($435) each.

Iranian money also apparently finds its way to Gaza/Hamastan in this manner.  It is transferred from Iran or Hizbullah to Arab banks in Judea and Samaria, from where some of it makes its way in cash to Gaza.

Israel is thus a silent partner in transferring money to terrorists in Gaza, but is searching for a way out.  Finance Minister Roni Bar-On has held recent talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Boutrous Ghali, on the option of enlisting Egyptian banks to replace the Israeli banks that had been working in Gaza.

Cutting Back on Fuel to Gaza
Israel began this week reducing fuel supplies, food and medicines to Gaza. Defense Ministry spokesman Lt.-Col. Shlomo Dror said Israel was limiting food and medicines to "the minimum the Palestinians need to avoid a humanitarian crisis."  He said fuel supplies would be reduced by 13%, with the heaviest cuts coming on gas for private cars.

The Karni freight terminal has been closed indefinitely, with only the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings continuing to operate.  Gaza-Israel border crossings have frequently been the sites of Palestinian terrorist attacks, some of which have claimed multiple casualties.  "If they fire at the checkpoint," Dror said, "we will have no choice but to close it. Hamas will have to think about how it takes care of its own people."

Israel's attempt to disengage, once and for all, from Gaza, has drawn criticism from left-wing groups - those who always claimed that Israel had no business being in Gaza. Sarit Michaeli of the B'Tselem group, said, "Cutting fuel supplies into Gaza will only exacerbate the humanitarian problems that already exist... [Israel] has obligations under international law to allow the normal running of everyday life."

Haggai Huberman contributed to this article.

The State Prosecution says a recent decision allowing Jews to reside in several homes near the old Jewish marketplace in Hevron should be overturned and that the Jews should be evicted.

The legal battle revolves around a Jewish family living in an old store built several decades ago by the Jordanians on Jewish-owned property, and another family residing in a room it added to an existing home.

The Military Appellate Committee decided two months ago that the Jews need not be evicted. But in the wake of an appeal by the extremist-left Peace Now group, the Prosecution now wishes to repeal that decision.

The stated reason for the change in position: Concern for the rule of law.  In its statement to the Court, the Prosecution writes, "The Appellate Committee's decision to issue an order preventing the eviction of the infiltrators does not give appropriate weight to the importance of maintaining law, or to the grave harm that will be caused to the rule of law if the legally-ungrounded infiltrators remain in the stores."

"Therefore," the Prosecution continues, "this is a decision that is unreasonable in an extreme manner, to the extent that justifies the intervention of the honorable Court."

Hevron Jewish Community spokesman David Wilder said, "We're dealing with Jewish property whose owner - Yosef Ezra, whose family lived here for hundreds of years - has declared that he wants us to live there, until the property can returned to him legally."

According to Wilder, the IDF has stated that the Arab stores which were built on the Jewish property should never be reopened because of security dangers they represent to the nearby Jewish Community. "The fact that the State Prosecution is backing Peace Now's claim is so blatantly political and against Jewish Hevron that it seems we're dealing more with a Bolshevik regime than with legal democratic issues," Wilder said.

Eldad Withdraws "Evict Arabs from Hevron" Bill
Last week, MK Yossi Beilin, chairman of the extreme left-wing Meretz party, submitted legislation in the Knesset calling for the expulsion of all Jews from Hevron. In response, MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union), introduced a similar bill that merely substituted the words "Palestinians of Hevron" for "Jewish Community of Hebron."  When Arabs and other MKs shouted that a bill calling for the expulsion of Arabs was racist, Eldad said, "So is Beilin's bill."  The Beilin bill was then defeated by a 47-11 margin, and Eldad did not bring his bill to a vote.

Hevron Jewish Community spokesman David Wilder feels that the Jews in Hevron are suffering from the plans being made for the Annapolis summit next month.  He explained that Olmert will need to make a significant concession: "It won't be Jerusalem, for that's still too sticky an issue. Nor can it be a Palestinian state - that's already old hat. So it will have to be a commitment to remove the Jews from the most sensitive settlement of all - Hevron." 

Wilder says that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is exerting great pressure to this end.

Up to 20,000 Jews are expected to visit Hevron this coming Sabbath, in an annual commemoration of the purchase of the Machpelah Cave by Patriarch Abraham, as recorded in the weekly Torah portion of Chayeh Sarah (Genesis Ch. 24-25).

In its weekly cabinet session Sunday, the Israeli government established the "Committee for Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev." The committee was initiated by Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim (Kadima) to find solutions for the growing problem of illegal construction by Bedouin Arabs in southern Israel.

Ministers from Shas opposed the creation of the committee in its present form, and warned that its creation was tantamount to granting the Bedouins autonomy.

According to Boim, Bedouin illegal construction is so vast, that the government must afford it "special treatment," in finding ways to legitimize it. He explained that "according to existent legal tools, the state in effect has to raze tens of thousands of illegal structures." Boim's Housing Ministry added that the committee was "a confidence building measure" vis-à-vis the Bedouins.

Retired Supreme Court Judge and State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg will head the committee. Two of the eight committee members deciding on illegal Bedouin construction will be Bedouins. Only three members will represent the government: one from the Prime Minister's Office, a Housing Ministry representative, and one Finance Ministry official.

The two additional members will "represent the public" and will be chosen by the Housing Ministry.
"The government has created a committee on the Bedouin matter with no governmental supervision."

The committee will conduct research and make recommendations within six months which may include suggestions for legislation. According to Omedia, the committee may determine "rates of compensation, methods of supplying alternative land, means of civil enforcement, and a timetable for carrying out the solutions." 

'Privatization of the state'
Shas party ministers, the Sephardic hareidi-religious party, sharply criticized the fact that the government will have only 3 out of 8 committee seats. Shas Minister Yitzchak Cohen said: "This is the first time in history that a committee is created on such a vital matter, and the government lacks a majority in it." Shas leader Eli Yishai said, "The government has, in effect, created a committee on the Bedouin matter with no governmental supervision." 

Cohen said the decision reflected a "privatization of the state." He said it was "simply unbelievable" and that the government "has to have a majority" in a committee making this kind of decision. According to Omedia, Cohen was livid about Bedouin illegal construction and highlighted the related problem of illegal Arab aliens coming into the Negev from Judea and Gaza. "There are thousands of illegal aliens from Gaza and Hevron in the Negev," he said.

Larissa Trimbobler Amir, wife of convicted Rabin assassin Yigal Amir, gave birth to a baby boy Sunday afternoon. The brit is scheduled for the 12th Gregorian-calendar anniversary of Rabin's death, November 4.

Amir is serving a life sentence, without parole, in the Rimonim Prison in Even Yehuda, near Netanya.  He was married to Larissa in 2005.  Their son was born shortly after 3 PM in Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem, where heavy security has been placed around the mother and baby.

Asked whether the brit milah (ritual circumcision) will be held at the prison, and whether Amir will be allowed to attend if not, a Rimonim jail representative said the matter is to be taken up in court.

Yigal Amir's mother Geulah was asked by reporters if the name of the new boy would be Yitzchak.  She reportedly laughed and nixed the idea, saying, "Why? He wasn't a member of our family."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking at a memorial ceremony for Rabin in the Druze village of Daliat al-Carmel in the north Sunday, said, "There is still, on the margins of Israeli society, malignant wild growths that have not come around to a self-reckoning following the murder of the Prime Minister and the resultant national crisis.  There are even those who show understanding, not to mention support, for the murderer's motives."