Police arrived at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s residence Friday morning after the Attorney General issued an order requiring Olmert to be questioned under caution within 48 hours.

The police questioning, conducted by detectives from the National Fraud Unit for 90 minutes, was supposed to be secret, but was leaked by Channel 2 news Thursday evening, with the Yediot Acharonot newspaper providing details of the fresh allegations in its Friday edition. The Israeli paper reported that the allegations are that Olmert received bribes, in cash, from an unnamed “American businessman” operating in Israel. The allegations, like the three other investigations launched against misconduct by the prime minister, deal with the period when he served as Minister of Industry and Trade.

The urgency of the police questioning, according to Yediot Acharonot, stems from the fact that Olmert's former chief of staff Shula Zaken was interrogated Tuesday for six hours and police are trying to prevent the two from coordinating their versions of the events in question.

Huge Sums, Businessman Cooperating
According to the Yediot report, the sums involved were "huge" and were received in cash, both in Israel and abroad. The businessman suspected of paying the bribes was also questioned by police and is said to be “cooperating fully with investigators.”

New Scandal, Stemmed From Others
The newest scandal involving Olmert was not the result of investigative reports or investigations by the State Comptroller, like the previous ones, but arose from information culled during the investigations of the three previous corruption cases.

Those cases dealt with conflict of interest in the Investments Bureau, political appointments in exchange for cash at the Small Business Authority and a $330,000 discount Olmert received on a home purchase on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem’s German Colony that is suspected to have been a bribe.

This is the first time a special order has been issued by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz requiring Olmert to submit to interrogation within 48 hours. The implications of such an order are that there is a concern that, if given time, the prime minister might obstruct the investigation.

It is not the first time Olmert has been questioned “under caution,” however – a term used when police are investigating allegations that can lead to an indictment. Last October he was grilled about allegations he interfered in the selling off of the government shares of Bank Leumi in favor of his associate Frank Lowy, a wealthy Jewish businessman.

Police later announced that Olmert was not suspected of criminal behavior in that case.

One month later, twenty different sites were raided by the National Fraud Squad in relation to the three remaining cases against Olmert, with records and computer hard-drives confiscated in relation to the investigation.

PMO: Olmert Will be Vindicated
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office expressed confidence that Olmert would cooperate fully with investigators and that he would be vindicated. "The prime minister intends to fully cooperate with law enforcement officials, as he has done in the past," a PMO statement read. "He is convinced that as the truth will emerge in the framework of the police investigation, the suspicions against him will disappear."

Police Surprised by Leak
The police apparently intended to keep Olmert’s latest interrogation a secret and were caught by surprise when Channel 2 reported the questioning Thursday evening.

Gag Order Slapped on Details After Already Published in Print
After Yediot Acharonot already published details of the allegations against Olmert, a court order placed a gag order on all the details of the investigation. According to the unprecedented order, even details which this morning were being reported on state-run radio can no longer be published.

Some web sites immediately pulled stories on the scandal while others are limiting their coverage to quoting reports that remain published - such as the Yediot print edition.

Labor MKs Call for Olmert to Step Down
MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor) labeled PM Olmert a "serial suspect" Friday morning in an interview with state-run Voice of Israel government radio. She said that he must remove himself from office until police have completed investigations against him.

MK Yechimovich, serving her first term in the Knesset after having been a veteran radio journalist, said that Olmert is "up to his neck" in investigations. "He cannot head the government with all the investigations against him," she said. The MK described him as the most investigated leader in the world and added that the public does not trust him.

Fellow Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz expressed his consternation that the police would keep the newest allegations secret. Pines-Paz heads the Knesset Interior Committee, which is charged with oversight of the police department.

"It's unreasonable and puzzling in my view that the police hid from the public the prime minister's investigation," Paz told Yediot Achronot. "It would be appropriate for the investigation of a prime minister not to be published through a leak…but rather, via a police spokesperson's announcement. In addition, the fact that the police have not revealed the affair which the prime minister is expected to be questioned over also raises quite a few question marks. If the probe was hidden in order to prevent its disruption, it's acceptable, but if the police refuse to disclose details because they fear the prime minister, we are dealing with a dangerous situation that must not happen within Israeli democracy.”

Pines-Paz noted that senior police officials have publicly pledged in the past to speedily disclose any investigations dealing with the prime minister. Police have still declined to comment on the case.

MK Gideon Saar: Labor Must Leave Government
MK Gideon Saar, chairman of the Likud's Knesset faction, called upon the Labor party to leave the government immediately, following the new suspicions against Olmert.

"Olmert is the most investigated Prime Minister in Israeli history and he heads a coalition with the largest number members implicated in criminal cases in Israeli history," Saar said Friday. "The body which is responsible for this government's maintenance and survival is the Labor Party, and it must leave it immediately if it pretends to represent values of legal and moral governance."

Eldad: Mazuz Can Whitewash No More
MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) voiced wonder Friday at the sudden nature of Olmert's investigation by police. "Every reasonable citizen knows that the Prime Minister is corrupt, and does not understand why the Attorney General, who has been dragging his feet for years, suddenly demands an urgent investigation,” he said. "It seems that Olmert's crimes have exceeded even [AG Menachem] Mazuz's ability to whitewash."

Kadima MK Schneller to Politicians: Shut Up on Olmert
MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) said Friday that he has complete confidence in the investigative system and the courts and that he "recommends to all politicians" that they "keep their mouths shut" regarding the investigation of PM Olmert.

"Any statement of a position before the finalization of the investigation and legal process is tantamount to political intervention in the considerations of the investigative and legal system, and will encourage the system's corruption," Schneller said.

Schneller is considered a close confidante of Olmert's.

Israel National News shows you photos of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel and in the Auschwitz death camp, where IDF top officials are visiting. (Email subscribers, click here to view the photo essay)

The siren sounds and Israelis exit their vehicles and stand at attention.
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

Even the bustle of Jerusalem's Machaneh Yehuda open-air shuk comes to a halt at 10 AM, with the shrill harmony of multiple sirens sounding across the Jerusalem rooftops.
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

Even in the middle of crossing the street, the moments of the siren are set aside from quiet reflection, prayer and memories of the horrors and lessons of the Shoah (Holocaust).
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

The moment of silent unity is not enshrined in law, but it is nearly universally observed, whether through prayer, silence or quiet Torah learning in memory of the victims.
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

A large photo at the Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum of the view of the Auschwitz death camp as seen from the cattle-cars of the trains bringing in Jews from afar for murder.
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabriel Ashkenazi, with a delegation of IDF top brass beneath the "Work Will Set You Free" inscription over the gates of the infamous Auschwitz death camp.
(Israel news photo: IDF Spokesman)

Holocaust survivor Yehudith Ashriel tells her story before IDF top officials in Auschwitz.
(Israel news photo: IDF Spokesman)

IDF Chief of Staff Gabriel Ashkenazi looks at the ovens used to burn Jews in Auschwitz. Ashkenazi's father was a Holocaust survivor; his mother a Jewish refugee from Syria.
(Israel news photo: IDF Spokesman)

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi visits the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw.
(Israel news photo: IDF Spokesman)

Jewish families in Ashkelon inspect the graves of their loved ones, smashed apart by a rocket fired from Gaza by terrorists who also aspire to the liquidation of the Jewish people. Rockets landed in Sderot during a Holocaust memorial ceremony there.
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert puts his arm around a relative who survived the Holocaust at a state ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad VaShem Museum.
(Israel news photo: Flash 90)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabriel Ashkenazi viewing prosthetics and crutches stolen from Jews at Auschwitz.
(Israel news photo: IDF Spokesman)

"I came as the IDF Chief of Staff on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, and on the 60th year of independence of Israel to say: never again," Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi wrote in the Auschwitz guestbook.

Click here for last year's photo essay "As the Siren Sounds" 

Shlomo Taub of Israel, founder of a Polish-based organization, spoke with IsraelNationalRadio's Eve Harow about his efforts to help Holocaust-era Jews reclaim their long-lost property from the hands of absentee-owner administration authorities, mostly in Poland.

Taub's Legacy organization helps Holocaust victims and their descendants reclaim property they left behind in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

"We must remember," Taub said, "that Poland had 3. 5million Jews before World War II, and afterwards only 280,000 or 300,000 survived.  Life was erased, but property was not; it is still there.  We are calling for awareness. Awareness is the name of the game.  Those 280,000 survivors have the right to claim what was never erased or destroyed; the properties are there, they are being used. We say go and take it, or at least sue for it - otherwise it will be lost forever.  Time is absolutely of the essence."

Taub became involved in the issue of Jewish-owned property in Poland via his personal family experience: "I was born in Poland after the war, and my family decided to remain in Cracow. My parents owned property there, but after we came to Israel in 1951, we [the children] were always told that we shouldn't go touch it because it was unworthy for us to step on Polish soil.  Only about about ten years ago, after my parents had passed away, I decided that I wanted to see our family property. So I went, and I saw beautiful residential homes in the middle of Cracow, the Jewish area. They were in good condition, with Polish people living there. I didn't know if they knew who the owners were. I found that my parents were still listed as the owners, and that an administrative authority was running the property on behalf of 'owners who were not there.'"

Taub decided that he wanted to reclaim the property: "It was very easy for me to prove that I was the heir, but I had to find a local law office that would be willing to work with me.  It took me two years before the court awarded me these two beautiful houses in Cracow.  During this period, others asked me, 'Hey Shlomo, maybe you can find our property in Lodz, or other places, too?'  And this is how Legacy was born..."

Legacy began with an office in Cracow, "then we opened one in Warsaw, then in Prague, and now we are involved in Romania as well, and in Germany too, where possible."   The company now has a website, <www.polishlegacy.org>.
  
Taub is disdainful of the fact that 60 years after the Holocaust, so many Jewish properties in Europe have not been returned to their Jewish owners: "There are many organization dealing with restitution and compensation, such as the Jewish Agency, Bnai Brith, the Congress, etc.  But they are doing nothing, and their files are just collecting dust; the clients then come to me with these dusty files... Unfortunately, there is still $40 billion worth of Jewish assets and property lying there, untouched.  The Israeli government reported in 2005 an even higher amount..."

Taub also had strong words against the Polish government, which, he said, "is playing a cynical game.  Almost every year, a new government arises in Poland, and the new Prime Minister comes up with a new nice invitation for Jews.  The newest Prime Minister, for instance, elected just last November, offered to give compensation - but he said it would be a minimum percentage of the true value of the property, and that it would be spread out over many years.  They want people to wait in line, and try to prove their ownership, and bring all the documentation, and then if they ever succeed, they will get a minimum value.  Meanwhile, the survivors are already very old, and many of them will die waiting on line..."

25% Are Successful
The process is not a simple one, nor is it cheap, Taub acknowledges: "Sometimes officials have to be paid extra - spoken to in their own language, if you will. There are other costs as well, and it is very painstaking; it must be done step by step.  We have to work with lawyers in Poland. Prospective owners must prove that they are the heirs of the last owners of the property; this is not simple or always possible.  But in the end, it could be very profitable.  Out of every ten cases, two or three end successfully, which I feel is a good record - and these properties are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more."

"Not to mention the moral aspects," added show hostess Harow.  "By not trying to claim these properties, we are allowing a situation of allowing the murderers to inherit as well, as in the case of King Ahab [as recounted in Kings I 21, who killed Navot of Jezreel and then took his vineyard - ed.]...  In addition, many Holocaust survivors, as we know, are very poor financially; they spent many of their working years in concentration camps, many of them require medication, etc."

"The name of the game," Taub concluded, "is awareness.  Now is the time."

In a speech at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that the Jewish people will never again remain undefended against its enemies. Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is the first Chief of Staff to lead a delegation of IDF officers on the annual March of the Living from Poland to Israel.

Approximately 12,000 people took part in the event this year, most of them young Jews from Israel and around the world. Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi reminded them, "A people which does not know or honor its past, shrouds its future in uncertainty." As for the Jews, he said, "We have learned our lesson. We take threats of leaders calling for the destruction of Israel very seriously."

Addressing the assembled delegations, the Chief of Staff noted that it was Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day, and said, "With hundreds of witnesses in uniform by my side - joining the thousands of representatives of the IDF who come here every year, commanders of the ground forces, the Air Force and the Navy - the defending force of the Jewish people, reborn in its land - with tight lips, a coarse voice and tears in my eyes, yet still standing tall - I salute to the ashes of our people and vow: Never Again."

Speaking for himself and in the name of his fellow officers, Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi continued, "We consider ourselves the executor of the last will and testament, the dream and the silent prayer of our six million Jewish brothers and sisters whose existence was brutally expunged by the Nazi oppressor."

Turning to "the nations of the world and their governments," Ashkenazi called on them to "learn the lesson of this most terrible horror, and let not its seeds sprout anew. Fight anti-Semitism and racism of any kind wherever they are, and do all that is necessary to prevent the propagation of the violence in all its forms."

The Chief of Staff continued:

"Sixty-three years have passed since the end of the most horrible war humankind has ever known. Sixty-three
I stand here with pride and honor and pledge: Never Again! Never again shall we stand helpless.
years after the atrocity. The Star of David is no longer a mark of disgrace, but a symbol and a sign of the resurrection of the Jewish people. As the commander of the Israel Defense Forces, the fighting force of the mighty Jewish State, I stand here with pride and honor and pledge: Never Again! Never again shall we stand helpless, crying for the mercy of others. Never again shall we beg to be defended. Never again shall we allow our sons and daughters, our parents and our grandparents to be erased from the face of the earth. Never again shall the frightened eyes of Jewish children look with ghastly dread through the barbed-wire fences of concentration camps. Never!

"We who have had the privilege of seeing the establishment and the blossoming of the State of Israel; we, who have been entrusted with the country's fate, know that if we had had our country then, in those somber days, the Holocaust of the Jewish people would not have taken place. We remember, and will never forget, that from the killing and the destruction, from the ashes and the despair, we have risen to establish not only the Jewish State, but the military force that will forever provide security for the Jewish people, protecting it from any future attempts of persecution, torture and destruction."

A Jewish State Must Not Be Taken for Granted
"These days, after sixty years of independence, the existence of an independent Jewish state is not a fact that should be taken for granted," Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi cautioned. "Even today, in our region of the world, voices are heard calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. Even today, we have to continue the struggle for our right to maintain a national home and safe haven for the Jewish people in their land.
"I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish men in battle." -- Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi quoting Warsaw Ghetto Uprising commander Anielewicz.

"We have learned our lesson. We take threats of leaders calling for the destruction of Israel very seriously.

"From this sense of deep responsibility for our continued existence as a people in our land and for the continuity of our heritage, we have no choice but to continue the struggle. Since we are fighting for our very existence, we cannot afford to grow weary or be deterred in our struggle."

The Chief of Staff went on to quote Mordechai Anielewicz, commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, who wrote: "I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish men in battle."

"Two days ago," Ashkenazi added, "I laid a wreath and saluted at the doorstep of the bunker where he commanded the uprising at Mila 18 in Warsaw."

Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi concluded by saying, "Here on this cursed ground, from which still cry the voices of our slain brothers, and as commander of the Israel Defense Forces of the state of the Jewish people, I salute our six million brothers and sisters, who have been persecuted, deported, tortured and cruelly murdered, and swear that Jewish blood shall never again be spilled in vain!"

The Canadian Legal Forum has launched a campaign to save the life of an Arab resident in the Palestinian Authority (PA) who was sentenced to death by a PA court for stopping a terrorist attack against Israeli civilians.

The forum is calling on the public to dispatch letters to Canadian government officials demanding that they use their leverage as a donor country to the PA to protest the sentence.

A sample letter is below:

To the Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, and The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs,

We are writing to ask you to make an urgent appeal to save a life. On Monday April 28th, the Palestinian Authority sentenced a young Arab Palestinian, Imad Saad, to death by firing squad. Mr Saad's crime was doing what the Palestinian Authority are supposed to have committed itself to do

– fight terror, specifically by advising Israel of the presence of a group of armed terrorists. Mr Saad is a policeman who helped protect civilian lives from criminals; this act should not be considered treason, deserving death, by the Palestinian Authority.

The PA military commander of the Hebron area, Samih Staidi, referring to the verdict said "Let it be an example to those who sell their homeland and their people."

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas must now approve the sentence.

Canada committed $300 million dollars to the Palestinians to "build security, governance and prosperity." This sentence reveals the truth about Abbas's commitment to fight terror.

We appeal to you to speak out now against this sentence. Time is of the essence; the PA must hear a strong, firm statement from all those who are committed to peace. Canada must not let this pass.

We thank you for what we know will be your response.

Sincerely,

Judy Shier Weisberg
Reena Greenwald
canadianlegalforum@gmail.com
Co-ordinators
Canadian Legal Forum for Israel

A court in Nazareth has approved a ceremony to be held this coming Independence Day that will commemorate the "catastrophic" nature of the day for Israel's Arabs.

The Nazareth District Court has allowed the radical anti-Israel Islamic Movement to conduct a Naqba (Catastrophe) ceremony on Israel's Independence Day, next Thursday. Many Arabs believe Independence Day actually marks their own Naqba, and commemorate it as such.

The ruling was handed down today (Thursday) after the authorities of the Arab town of Kfar Kana refused to allow the ceremony, claiming it was political in nature. The court rejected this claim, and the anti-Israel ceremony will be held on Independence Day in the Kfar Kana stadium.

MKs Saar, Orlev, Livnat
"Such a decision on the day we remember the Holocaust," said MK Gideon Saar (Likud), "is shameful, and it shows total Zionism and moral bankruptcy."

MK Zevulun Orlev, chairman of the National Religious Party, agreed, saying, "The court's decision makes a mockery of the Declaration of Independence, and of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."

Likud MK Limor Livnat, a former Minister of Education, demands that the government file a request for an appeal of the court ruling.  "The brain refuses to accept that on Holocaust Day, a court in Israel could come to such an incredible ruling," she said. "Now, more than ever, we must remember that the State of Israel is primarily the State of the Jews."

Saar added, "The Naqba ceremony will most definitely be a stage for incitement against Israel.  It shows that our national authorities have no national respect or self-respect."

Huda Nono, he only female Jewish legislator in Bahrain, may become the Muslim nation's Ambassador to the United States.

Bahrain, a pro-Western Arab emirate island numbering some half a million souls in the Persian Gulf, is home to less than ten Jewish families.

Nono, a businesswoman as well as the head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch, is also a mother of two and lives part of the time in London as well.

Nono's family is prominent among the remnant of the once-vibrant Jewish community in Bahrain. She is one of two Jewish members of the legislature's upper chamber, the Shura Council, but the only Jewish woman. She replaced her cousin Ibrahim, who served in the seat for four years.

The Shura Council is a 40-member body appointed by the king. It also includes a Christian among its 11 female lawmakers. The 40-member elected lower house only has one female legislator.

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday, Nono cautioned that "Nothing is official yet," and referred the reporter to Bahrain's Foreign Ministry for further comment. Foreign Ministry officials, said AP, could not be reached for comment but embassy spokesperson Yasmina Britel in Washington DC later confirmed that Nono is "one of the nominees." Britel could not say when a final decision would be made.

Bahrain is a close US ally, hosting the base of the US navy's 5th fleet. If Nono is appointed, Bahrain will become the first Arab country to send a high-level Jewish diplomat to Washington, possibly also signaling a new opening for relations with Israel as well.

Shura Council Supports Nono Candidacy
Although the country itself is ruled by Sunni Muslims and populated by a Shi'ite Muslim majority, there appears to be a great deal of support for Nono's candidacy for the position.

The daily Gulf News newspaper quoted Faisal Fouladh, a representative of the Shura Council, as saying it would be "very good news" for the country's "deep-rooted values of tolerance and openness" if Nono were to be appointed Ambassador to Washington.

A second newspaper, the pro-government daily Akhbar Alkhaleej, also reported that Nono was likely to win the post.

Jewish History of Bahrain
Currently there are fewer than ten Jewish families left in Bahrain, where Jews have lived since ancient times, with Arabic records noting their refusal to convert to Islam during Islam’s founder Muhammed's takeover of the territory.

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