The issue of "Arab refugees" has long been a matter of widespread consensus in Israel, with even left-wing parties declaring that allowing them into Israel would endanger its very existence as a Jewish state.  Nevertheless, the subject does not appear to be going away.  Reports are that Prime Minister Olmert has now agreed to allow 50,000 Arabs who left Israel in 1948 - or are descendants of those who did - to enter and live in Israel.

Channel Ten reported Thursday night that in a private meeting between Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen, the two agreed that in the final-status agreement, Israel would withdraw from 92% of Judea and Samaria, including all the non-Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.  It was also agreed that 50,000 "refugees from 1948" would enter and live in the State of Israel. 

Staffers in Olmert's office did not deny the report, and even hinted that it was at least partially accurate.

Olmert Went Further than Bush
U.S. President George Bush summed up his three-day visit to Israel on Friday by saying that a new Palestinian state, together with financial compensation, would be the solution to the refugee problem.  The implication is that the refugees need not enter Israel. 

"There must be an end to Israel's occupation [sic] that began in 1967," Bush said.  "Palestine must serve as a national home for the Palestinians, and Israel - for the Jews."

Israel liberated Judea and Samaria during the Six Day War in 1967, capturing it, essentially, from no one. No country in the world, other than Great Britain and Pakistan, recognized Jordan's control over Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967.

Lebanon: Return, Not Money
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Seniora does not accept Bush's position on the refugees. Seniora said that money alone is not enough, and that his country will continue to refuse to grant citizenship to the 400,000 refugees living within its borders.  The number of Arabs who left Israel in 1948 has been estimated to be roughly a half-million, but millions now claim the 'right to return.'

Hamas, too, refuses to accept any solution other than the "return" to Israel of the millions of Arabs who claim that they themselves, or their ancestors, were forced to leave Israel in 1948.  The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said that Bush will soon leave the political arena, while the Hamas demands will remain forever: "A Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, the destruction of all the settlements, the release of all the Palestinian prisoners, the 'right of return' of all the Palestinian refugees, and continued adherence to the strategy of not giving up on even one inch of all of Palestine."

Arabs Denied Refugee Problem
Oft-forgotten is the fact that the refugee problem was not caused by Israel, but by the Arab states.  "The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies," according to the Jordanian newspaper Filastin (February 19, 1949). 

Joan Peters, in her classic work "From Time Immemorial," quotes (on page 13) an Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies finding that "the majority" of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled, and that 68% left without seeing an Israeli soldier.

On April 27, 1950, the Arab National Committee of Haifa informed the Arab States: "The removal of the Arab inhabitants... was voluntary and was carried out at our request... The Arab delegation proudly asked for the evacuation of the Arabs and their removal to the neighboring Arab countries."

Zuheir Muhsein, the late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, told the Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977, "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity... Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people... to oppose Zionism."

U.S. President George W. Bush gave Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a green light to mount a comprehensive ground offensive against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, according to the London daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat ("The Middle East") which quoted diplomatic sources in Israel. The sources said that the two leaders discussed the matter during Bush's three-day visit to Israel last week.

The report says that while the two spoke about other issues including the Iranian nuclear threat, they talked at length about the continuous missile attacks on Israel from Gaza.

Prime Minister Olmert presented information about the sites from which rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israeli communities, and gave statistics regarding the extent of damage to Israeli civilians. He presented the U.S. president with intelligence data and even showed him photographs of the civilians injured by rockets and sent into psychological shock.

The newspaper reported that Olmert said Israel could no longer let its citizens be hostage to the w
Olmert said Israel could no longer let its citizens be hostage to the whims of Hamas terrorists.
hims of Hamas terrorists.

Bush: OK, but don't harm civilians
President Bush, however, voiced concern that a large-scale military operation would lead to a "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.

The sources said that Bush gave Olmert a green light for a military operation in Gaza, but that he also spelled out certain limitations and demanded that Olmert make sure the operation did not wind up hurting civilians.

Two rockets were fired at Israel over the Sabbath, with one hitting near Netiv HaAsara, just north of the Gaza security barrier and the other failing to clear the fence. A mortar shell was fired near the border fence at Nachal Oz, as well. No injuries or damage were reported.

The IDF began defensive operations against terrorism again after laying low for several days because of the Bush visit. IDF forces bombed a Hamas training camp in southern Gaza, killing two terrorists and injuring four, Hamas said.

Israel's top journalists are betraying the public by covering for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as he leads Israel to disaster, according to leading investigative journalist Yoav Yitzchak, who operates Nfc, an independent website. Yitzchak claimed the Olmert bureau was instrumental in helping some of the journalists get an audience with U.S. President Bush, and received sympathetic coverage durring Bush's visit in return.

Yitzchak, who earned a reputation as a leading investigative reporter in daily newspaper Maariv before opening his own news operation, listed the names of the journalists who he says are complicit in the ongoing cover-up. These include Yoel Marcus, veteran commentator for Haaretz; Ayala Hason, the top political correspondent for Channel 1 TV and a presenter on Voice of Israel radio; Ben Caspit, a high-profile columnist for Maariv, author and TV show host; Nachum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer, the two veteran political reporters and commentators for leading daily Yediot Acharonot, as well as Udi Segal and Amnon Abramovich, political reporter and commentator, respectively, for Channel 2 TV.

Together, the list of newsmen covers almost all of Israel's top news sources.

Yonit Levy. Interviewed President Bush.
PR

The journalists "are willingly complicit in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's efforts to survive, politically and personally," Yitzchak wrote. They serve as the Olmert bureau's de-facto spokesmen, he added, and are actively engaged in the production of a fake picture of reality which Olmert is deceitfully manufacturing, while the truth is quite simple.

Bush interview with Olmert's help
Yoel Marcus, he said, began praising Olmert and asking his readers not to support Olmert's replacement by another politician, after receiving a personal audience with Olmert. Just a few weeks earlier, explained Yitzchak, Marcus demanded that Olmert be dragged out of office because of his failures in the Second Lebanon War and his corruption.
Yediot Acharonot and Channel 2 received personal interviews with President Bush, with the intercession and encouragement of Olmert's bureau

Shiffer and Barnea of Yediot Acharonot, as well as Channel 2's Yonit Levy, received personal interviews with President Bush, with the intercession and encouragement of Olmert's bureau, Yitzchak accused. In return Olmert received gushing praise from these news outlets during the course of the last week.

Yitzchak said it was possible that the journalists are not just after their own gain, but think that by helping Olmert they are "protecting" the public from elections in which Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu would take power, a possibility they detest. Even so, he noted, this would constitute taking sides and manipulation of the general public.

'A serious political and public scandal'
Olmert and President George W. Bush's pretense to carry on diplomatic negotiations with the PA, including the "core issues," and end it within the course of a single year, stands no chance of success, Yitzchak explained. "Anyone can understand this, even a spineless newsman/commentator," he said, adding that "the fact that Olmert is committing himself, both diplomatically and politically, as Prime Minister and in the name of the government, to give up parts of Jerusalem and end the negotiations within one year, is a serious political and public scandal."

"The fact that Olmert does not heed principles regarding terror that were set in government decisions… and the fact that the news media do not cover this in a harsh way, show that the media is failing to do its job," Yitzchak accused. The media, he claimed, does not report critically on the fact that Olmert is pretending to negotiate with "a PA that represents the entire Palestinian people, while it is well known that Abu Mazen barely represents half of the Palestinian population (with the other half represented by Hamas)."

The journalists and commentators in the media, according to Yitzchak, "are not giving proper expression and volume to Olmert's opponents, including those inside the Kadima faction."

Olmert's 'court journalists'
When the truth regarding the futility of the negotiations becomes apparent to the Arab residents of Judea and Samaria, Yitzchak speculated, it stands to reason that they will feel cheated. They could react to this by renewing the terror and a "third intifada." If and when this happens, he added, Olmert's "court journalists" will not be able to undo the damage they wrought, even if they act to chase Olmert ou
The journalists "are willingly complicit in Olmert's efforts to survive, politically and personally."
t of office.

Yitzchak's article does not include reactions from the journalists named or from Prime Minister Olmert.

Yitzchak was instrumental in exposing the "house on Cremieux Street" scandal, which led to a police investigation against Prime Minister Olmert on suspicion of receiving a bribe. He has also been involved in acrimonious disputes with other journalists, and was fired from Maariv by its previous editor, Amnon Dankner. His past exposes led to the resignation of a justice minister (Yaacov Ne'eman, in 1996. He was later completely acquitted of the charges against him) and a president (Ezer Weizmann, in 2000).

The ongoing university lecturers strike continues after talks broke down Saturday night. Back-to-work orders may be issued Sunday or the semester cancelled.

A last-minute four-hour meeting between members of the senior academic staff and university presidents broke down Saturday night shortly after midnight. The two sides will meet again Sunday at the National Labor Court, where Judge Steve Adler will decide whether or not to order the lecturers to return to work. Many lecturers have said that if they are ordered back to work, they will return to the classroom, but will not teach.

University heads said they had offered the senior lecturers a 21 percent raise over this year and next, another five percent raise beginning in 2010, and from then on a 1.5 percent raise each year to counteract the effects of inflation. The offer is the best they can give, they said. Lecturers said the university presidents had backtracked on deals they had offered in earlier negotiations, setting “a dangerous precedent.” The offer would decrease the erosion in lecturers’ salaries but not solve the problem completely, they said.

Officials in the Treasury said Sunday that in any event they could not accept the offer made by university presidents. The proposal “is not acceptable to the government,” one official explained.

The heads of the universities posit that if they manage to hammer out an agreement with the lecturers, they can approach Prime Minister Ehud Olmert directly and ask him to intervene, forcing the Finance Ministry to accept the deal.

If the lecturers’ strike does not end on Sunday, university presidents have said they would be forced to cancel the semester, causing serious damage to Israel’s economy.

Olmert to Lecturers: Go Back to School!
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opened the weekly Sunday morning cabinet meeting with a statement urging striking professors and senior lecturers to return to university classrooms.  Olmert said he made the statement "at the last minute so [the lecturers] will not be forced by court order to return to work."

Dozens of students at a protest at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv called on the prime minister to personally intervene in the strike which began at the beginning of the semester. Professors are deadlocked with the Finance Ministry over deterioration in the value of their wages.

The National Labor Court was scheduled to decide whether to grant the universities an injunction forcing the striking lecturers to return to the campus, but no decision had been announced as of 2:00 PM.

While talks with Hamas for a trade for captive soldier Gilad Shalit stall, a picture book he wrote when he was 11 is published. 

"When the Shark and the Fish First Met" is the name of the new Hebrew-language booklet, based on a story written by Gilad Shalit ten years ago.  Complete with drawings by the author, it was released over the weekend in a gallery in the northern town of Nahariya, not far from his hometown. 

The story tells the tale of two enemies, a shark and a fish, who come to the conclusion that it is best to live and play together than continue fighting.

Shalit was taken captive by Hamas terrorists in June 2006.  The enemy forces crawled through a tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border, killed two Israeli soldiers, and dragged Shalit back with them into Gaza.  A tape of Shalit's voice was released this past June, and he is assumed to be alive.    

Talks for his release have been on-again, off-again for many months, stipulating the release of as many as 1,500 convicted terrorists held in Israel or as few as 400.  This past Friday, Hamas blamed Israel in its announcement that the latest round of negotiations had stalled. 

Enemies Put Aside Their Differences
Gilad's father Noam said about the new publication, "It speaks for itself.  An 11-year-old boy wrote an amazing story that is relevant to the situation in which he finds himself today.  The message is about two enemies who end up reaching the conclusion that it is better to live together side by side, and not to eat each other. This, despite the pre-conceived notions of the parents, and especially the mothers."

"Gilad is now being held captive by the Palestinians in Gaza," Noam Shalit said, "and we have been waiting a  year and a half for him to return home. I hope that the message from the book and from the gallery's exhibit will get to whoever needs to hear it: Our leaders and the leaders of our enemies.  The truth comes from the mouth of babes, and all that remains is to persuade our leaders that this is the truth."

The idea of releasing hundreds of terrorist prisoners, including those who may have been involved in murderous attacks, in exchange for captive soldiers is a matter of great controversy.  The Almagor Terror Victims Association has shown that in 30 attacks perpetrated in recent years by terrorists freed in prisoner exchanges or otherwise, nearly 180 innocent citizens, mostly Israeli Jews, were killed, and many were also seriously wounded. Of the nearly 7,000 terrorists who were freed between 1993 and 1999, over 850 (12.4%) had been re-arrested for murderous activity by August 2003.  Another two-thirds of them returned to terrorist activity, be it in capacities of command, training or actual perpetration of attacks.

In addition, it has been reported lately that Hamas demands the release of terrorist chieftain Marwan Barghouti - a murderer who has already been freed from Israeli prison twice before, only to be returned to prison each time for even more heinous crimes and murders.  Originally arrested in 1976, he was released under unknown circumstances and became one of the initiators and leaders of the first intifada that began in late 1987. He was ultimately arrested again and banished to Jordan, where he remained for seven years.  He was then allowed into Judea and Samaria in 1994 in the framework of the Oslo Accords, after promising not to revert to terrorism - and is now in prison for the murder of five Israelis and involvement in murdering at least a dozen more.

Shalit's Comrades in Ariel
The officers and soldiers in Shalit's unit visited the Shomron (Samaria) city of Ariel last week, stopping at the local Holocaust Museum.  Mayor Ron Nachman told them, "On behalf of the citizens of Ariel, I wish to encourage and strengthen you in the holy work in which you are engaged.  From my standpoint, as a mayor and a private citizen, you and the army have my total support. I believe that the public does not sufficiently value the important and difficult work that you do.  Please give the Shalit family all of our feelings of support during this difficult period."

Five Israeli Jews died in a plane crash in Windhoek, Namibia, on the western coast of Africa, over the weekend.

The small Cessna-210 plane the Israeli diamond-dealers were riding in crashed shortly after takeoff. The pilot, a local resident, also died in the accident.

Israel maintains ties with Namibia, but no consulate, and the Israeli Ambassador to South Africa, Ilan Baruch, traveled to the crash-site to confirm the identities of the Israelis, whose passports were found among the wreckage.

The plane apparently tried to make an emergency landing in a nearby suburb, but crashed into a house. Israel is sending a police forensics team to examine the site.

According to the Israeli Diamond Manufacturers Association, half of Namibia’s diamond factories are owned by Israeli businessmen.

1. 1,000 Terrorists Down, 20,000 to Go
2. Kadima Party Official: Internal Griping Will Destroy Us
3. PA Furthers Damage of American School in Gaza 
4. A Year Ago Today at IsraelNN.com