Officers of the National Police Department's Fraud Investigations Unit are questioning Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday morning in relation to corruption charges in the "Bank Leumi Affair." Olmert is
It is one of several fraud and bribery investigations... involving the Prime Minister.
suspected of interfering with the bank's privatization on behalf of wealthy allies from overseas. It is one of several criminal investigations or suspicions involving the Prime Minister.

Tuesday's probe, carried out "under caution," is taking place in the official Jerusalem residence of the Prime Minister. Questioning may continue on Wednesday. An interrogation "under caution" indicates that the interviewee may face criminal charges.

According to suspicions, then-Finance Minister Olmert allegedly intervened on behalf of two of his friends who were interested in buying control of Bank Leumi, which was undergoing privatization in 2005. The men involved eventually dropped out of the bidding and are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

When the tender for privatization of Bank Leumi was published in November, 2005, Olmert ordered changes which he explained would encourage more investors. But, police suspect that Olmert was using his influence to help his friends.

Suspicions pointing to Olmert's part in the Bank Leumi Affair were first raised in testimony given by the Finance Ministry's Accountant General, Dr. Yaron Zelicha. As a result of Zelicha's statements, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss initiated his own investigation into the bank's privatization process. The material collected was handed to the State Prosecutor's Office, which, on January 17, 2007, ordered police to begin a criminal investigation of Ehud Olmert.

Zelicha Speaks
While Olmert was being questioned, Zelicha was appearing on the first hour of government-run Israel Radio's afternoon news magazine.  "I was brought up not to merely swim with the tide or look the other way," Zelicha said.  "I refused to have it be written in history that Bank Leumi was stolen under my watch... I and my people were able to stop the sale of Bank Leumi to Olmert's friends at a loss to the State of hundreds of millions of dollars."

Asked why he did not turn to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz with his suspicions, but rather to the State Comptroller, Zelicha said, "I didn't turn to Mazuz because I feared that he was a weak man, and that this was why he was appointed in the first place." 

Zelicha further said that the Attorney General's sister Yemima Mazuz, the top legal counsel of the Finance Ministry, was "involved from the very beginning in this story.  If she had not been weak, and if she had not closed her eyes from the beginning, it is very doubtful that Olmert would have gotten as far as he did in his bid."  He accused Olmert and then-Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson, who resigned in May over suspicions of embezzlement, of having offered the post of Chairman of the Directorate of Israel Railways to Yemima Mazuz after she testified regarding the sale of Bank Leumi. 

"I don't claim that everyone around me is corrupt," Zelicha said.  "Far from it; this is just a baseless spin against me."

The Probe
Three senior police investigators are to lead the questioning of the Prime Minister: the commander of the Fraud Unit, Brig.-Gen. Shlomi Ayalon; the Financial Crimes Division head, Chief Superintendent Eran Kamin; and Superintendent Anat Glutman.

Last month, Attorney General Mazuz instructed police to launch an additional criminal investigation against Olmert, who was Mayor of Jerusalem until 2002, regarding his purchase of a private home on Cremieux St. in Jerusalem in October 2004. Olmert is suspected of receiving a hefty discount on the apartment from the contractor, Alumot, in return for acting to speed up the approval of construction permits for the project. 

Mazuz is also expected to soon announce his decisions regarding two other matters in which Olmert is suspected of corruption. These are known as the "Small Business Bureau Affair" and the "Investment Center Affair." Both involve illegal exertion of influence to assist friends and political allies.

Knesset Member Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud), leader of the parliamentary opposition, sharply attacked the coalition parties Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu in his speech at the
"What are you doing in this government?" - MK Netanyahu to Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu
opening of the Knesset's winter session on Monday.

"What are you doing in this government?" he asked. "Do you really agree to let Hamas rule neighborhoods in Jerusalem?" Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to give the Palestinian Authority a state in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and much of Jerusalem is a danger to Israel, he said, "and you are not preventing the danger by sitting in the government. To the contrary - you are giving it legitimacy and allowing it to happen."

Giving further territory to the PA would endanger cities within Israel's pre-1967 borders, Netanyahu said. If the PA is given control of Judea and Samaria, he warned, then it will lead to Hamas rocket fire on Tel Aviv. The hills in those regions overlook major Israeli cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ra'anana and Kfar Saba, the opposition leader noted.

In a candid analysis offered at a meeting of his Likud party Knesset faction on Monday afternoon, Netanyahu charged, "It is clear that the government intends to take extreme steps and push Israel back to the 1967 borders and divide Jerusalem."

The Iranian Threat
Despite differences over other policy issues, Netanyahu told the Knesset plenum, the opposition and the coalition are united in confronting the nuclear threat from Iran.

At the same time, Netanyahu said the government was undermining its own struggle with Iran by allowing the Islamic Republic to gain a foothold in Israel through the creation of a Palestinian state. He warned that the experience in Gaza, in which Iranian-backed Islamists gained complete control, is sure to repeat itself in any other territories relinquished to PA control.

Promises, Promises
MK Netanyahu went on to quote statements made by Olmert ahead of the Gaza Disengagement in which he promised industrial parks in Gaza and a harsh Israeli response if the terrorism from Gaza continued after Jewish communities were evacuated and destroyed. He also quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak from Barak's days as Prime Minister before the IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. At the time, Barak
Opposition and coalition are united in confronting the nuclear threat from Iran.
also vowed that the Israeli response to continuing terror after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon would be harsh and uncompromising. Netanyahu, who is a former Prime Minister himself, said that such statements, left unfulfilled, have led to a weakening of Israeli deterrence in the face of terrorism.

Similarly, Netanyahu said, promises that the Arab-Israeli conflict can be moderated by turning over sovereignty in parts of Jerusalem are lies. Such moves will only encourage the terrorists, he warned.

"Extracting our forces from Jerusalem," MK Netanyahu said, "will make Jerusalem a place of pilgrimage for all the world's terrorists, including those of Al-Qaeda. ...One doesn't need a great imagination to think of what those global terrorists will do from this place."

The Likud Peace Plan
MK Binyamin Netanyahu then described what his party, the Likud, proposes as central parameters of a national peace plan: defensible permanent frontiers, including the Jordan River as Israel's eastern border; Israeli sovereignty over a united Jerusalem; collaboration with Jordan and Egypt in the final status agreements; dissolution of PA terrorist organizations;
Netanyahu then described what his party, the Likud, proposes.
rehabilitation of PA refugee camps; and a decision not to allow even a single Arab "refugee" to enter Israel.

"We want to make peace only with a true partner," Netanyahu said. Later on in his remarks, he added, "There is only one problem, Abu Mazen is not [Egyptian President Anwar] Sadat, he is only a partner for talking." At this stage, according to Netanyahu, it is the PA's turn to prove its good intentions, especially after Israel has done so much for the sake of peace.

Time to Go
MK Netanyahu ended his speech on Monday by calling for fresh elections: "After 2,000 years of exile, we liberated our cities in a process in which we sacrificed the best of our sons out of a faith in the justness of our cause. If the government does not believe in the justness of our cause, then it must return its mandate to the people and announce new elections."

Critics of Netanyahu noted that, much like Shas today, the Likud chairman himself remained in the Sharon government even as it planned the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria. He did not resign, despite his frequent vocal criticisms of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans, until the phase at which the Disengagement could no longer be prevented by political action.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, already under two police investigations for attempting to sway the Bank Leumi privatization sale and for receiving a $330,000 discount on his purchase of a luxury apartment, was presumably happy to learn Monday that the Winograd Commission is likely to omit personal recommendations in its final report.

The Winograd Commission, chaired by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd, was appointed by the government shortly after the Second Lebanon War, in response to strong public pressure to investigate the war's perceived failures.
It began its work in September 2006, releasing an interim report six months later that harshly criticized Olmert, then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.

The interim report, dealing only with the decisions relating to the beginning of the war, specified that it "includes only personal conclusions in the interim report, without personal recommendations. However, we will reconsider this matter towards our Final Report in view of the depiction of the war as a whole."

Though the interim report led many, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, to call for Olmert to resign, the Prime Minister managed to side-step these pressures. It was widely felt his respite was only temporary, however, and that the Commission's Final Report would decisively call for his resignation.

These predictions have been shelved, however, with a report on Ynet that the Final Report will likely not include any personal recommendations.

MK Zahava Gal'on (Meretz), who has long demanded less secrecy in, and tougher action by, the Winograd Commission, has asked Justice Winograd to issue an official statement regarding the Commission's intentions.

"A final report without personal recommendations is not sufficient," she said.  "Even if the report is grave and tough, it will not be enough if it does not include operative conclusions regarding those who are responsible for the failures.  It is incumbent upon you, morally and legally, to mete out full justice regarding the failed political leadership."

Peretz Speaks
At a Tuesday session of the Knesset Audit Committee, Former Defense Minister Peretz said it would be irresponsible of anyone to imply that a decision by the Israeli Government to go to war was hasty or reckless.  "It was the proper response to a series of grave events that occurred at the time," Peretz said.

At the opening of the Knesset's winter session Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel must either surrender Judea, Samaria and Gaza for an Arab state or face a violent demographic struggle.

The Pime Minister told the assembled legislators that negotiations with the Fatah-
The Prime Minister's words of caution may have been intended to deflect growing criticism.
controlled Palestinian Authority must continue. He said that Israel has only two strategic options at the moment: create a Palestinian State or face a bitter fight to maintain the current character of the Jewish state.

"Israel has excellent excuses that justify a freeze on negotiations," Olmert acknowledged in his speech to the Knesset, "but I'm not interested in excuses. I'm determined to give the political process a chance.... Every other option means a tear-soaked demographic struggle."

In a speech to a gathering of Kadima party representatives before the Knesset session on Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Olmert touched on the theme of his commitment to negotiations. "I will not miss any opportunity" for negotiations with the PA, he said. He emphasized, however, that the efforts are not guaranteed to reach a positive conclusion. "Perhaps, and I emphasize 'perhaps,'" negotiations with the PA will succeed, he cautioned.

The Prime Minister's words of caution may have been intended to deflect growing criticism from within his Kadima party over what critics say is a danger that Israel will be forced to make major concessions at an upcoming international conference on the Middle East. The US-sponsored gathering of dozens of nations is expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland next month.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Olmert told the Cabinet that Israel will not make any strategic concessions at the Annapolis conference. He agreed that there are doubts over the ability of Abbas to carry out any signed agreements, but he said that Israel must nonetheless take advantage of the "window of opportunity" to establish a new Arab country within Israel's current borders.

Dividing Jerusalem
One of the more controversial aspects of the deal reportedly worked out between Prime Minister Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas includes a division of sovereignty over Jerusalem. However, Olmert has vehemently denied a report in the London-based Arabic-language Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that he and Abbas have agreed to turn over control of Muslim holy sites in the Old City to the Jordanian government, as well as granting Jordanian citizenship to Arabs in eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.

"The idea never existed," the Prime Minister's Office stated.

Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon, who is the Prime Minister's chief architect on the program to divide the capital, has said that a special governmental committee should be set up for sovereignty over holy sites in the Old City, but that it is too early to work out details.
Olmert did not have the moral authority "to draft municipal bylaws..."

An Israeli Constitution
Touching on another controversial issue in his speech to the Knesset on Monday, Prime Minister Olmert called to create an Israeli constitution in advance of the country's 60th Independence Day celebrations next summer. While creating a constitution will be difficult, he said, "after 60 years, the time has come."

The Land of Israel Legal Forum criticized the Prime Minister's announcement, saying that Olmert did not have the moral authority "to draft municipal bylaws, much less a constitution." The creation of a document with moral force for the entire nation, said forum head Nachi Eyal, cannot be by "someone enveloped in current and future criminal investigations, and in damning reports by the attorney general...."

Two Israeli bloggers from Be'er Sheva who spent months writing in favor of Jesus and the Christian faith have made a complete turnabout - thanks to an 8-hour visit from the anti-missionary Yad L'Achim organization.

A blog on Israel's Nana10 site, entitled "Blog HaBesorah" (Blog of the Gospel), long featured the pro-Jesus missionary work of a pair of bloggers calling themselves Princes of Light ("Fighting Knight" and "Fighting Princess," individually).  On July 11 of this year, for instance, they listed a series of Biblical verses that, they claimed, prove the veracity of the Christian messiah. 

A week later, however, the blog was entitled "Spiritual Revolution" - and explained that they had undergone a major change.  Excerpts from the July 19 entry: 

"Dear readers,
"For a good number of months, I believed wholeheartedly in Jesus as god.  But about a week ago, I started to have doubts and to search for the truth, the historical facts, and the veracity of the New Testament... I reached the conclusion that the entire New Testament is simply full of lies that were made up by human beings... for political reasons... The gospels are not reliable! Various parts were continually added to them, and they were then organized anew... mainly by the Romans who defined the New Testament according to their needs.  This is the conclusion I reached - and now I am sure of it as well.  The sign is that yesterday the Fighting Princess received a visit from Yad L'Achim.  They came to her home, explained and proved to her time after time after time why the New Testament and Jesus' divinity are not true and are full of lies.  I apologize to you, dear readers, but most of what you read here on this blog was simply lies.  Judaism is the only right way.  Proofs of this will come soon, from the Fighting Princess."

The Yad L'Achim visit referred to in the blog was an eight-hour event, in the home of Fighting Princess, a girl by the name of M.  The Yad L'Achim activists, after being made aware of the missionary blogging pair, had invested great efforts to find out their identities - and one day in July, three of them made their way to M.'s home in Be'er Sheva. 

Among the three was "Shlomo," a former leading missionary himself.

M. greeted the three with some surprise, and unenthusiastically welcomed them into her home.  The conversation lasted eight hours, until 1 AM, with M.'s parents - non-observant at the time, but now already on their way, with their daughter, to living a religious Jewish lifestyle - shocked to find their daughter thick into belief in Jesus.

"It was the kind of discussion in which you don't even look at the clock until it's over," Shlomo later told Arutz-7.  "It was very intense, with many issues brought up, and it's constantly in the back of your mind that it's a one-shot deal - not the type of thing that you can just say, OK, we'll continue tomorrow.  The fact that they let us in at all was already an achievement, and we sensed that we had to make the most of it." 

Eight tense hours later, M. said, "You have given me a lot to think about.  Now I have to process the data by myself."

Apparently, she immediately discussed it with her boyfriend A., otherwise known as Fighting Knight.  It turned out that A., a young Israeli of Russian descent, had been having doubts of his own, but hesitated to share them with M.  The next day, the above blog announcing their "spiritual revolution" appeared on their site.

Talkbacks Reveal a Large Community
The talkbacks to the blog announcing the switch came fast and furious.  One said, "I'm in shock! What about the experiences you had?! And what about what happened with Yaron and Steve in the park near your home?  And everything you told me - it's all lies?"  To this, A. answered, "It didn't all disappear in one day.  It's research that I did and found out lots of things.  The fact that M. also was convinced is a sign that I am right.  There is one G-d in the sky and He is our true Lord!  And not Jesus!"

Arutz-7 also spoke with Rabbi Meir Cohen, who led the drive to locate the bloggers' identities and also took part in the fateful meeting.  Asked if it is true, as the blog and the talkbacks indicate, that there is an entire community of young Hebrew-speaking Jews who claim to believe in Jesus, Rabbi Cohen said, "It most certainly is!  I personally know dozens of them, and I know that there are hundreds of them...  We have already made contact with some of their blogging friends, and I have an appointment to meet one of them in the next few days."

A. explained in a later posting that he has no intention of actually becoming religious.  Rabbi Cohen said, "Yes, he is very wary of the daily religious obligations such as putting on tefillin, etc.  But of course the fact that he no longer worships more than one god is a great achievement..."

Rabbi Cohen's Story
The young Rabbi Cohen, who displayed great expertise in the way Christian missionaries misrepresent the Jewish Bible, explained how he got involved:  "One day about three years ago, I met a well-known missionary and began talking to him.  He made charges that I could not answer, and I went to someone from Yad L'Achim, who explained to me the missionary's 'mistakes.'   Weeks later, I happened upon a large rally held by Yad L'Achim against a missionary group, and when I saw the important work they were doing, I just became hooked.  I asked how I could volunteer, and I did some work for them each day, and then I began to attend classes, until I felt knowledgeable enough to argue the issues...  Today, we have many people who call and wish to volunteer; we make sure they know that they are never to get involved in arguments with missionaries until they have studied a lot."

Secular Dangers
Shlomo volunteered to explain his role in the mission: "The bottom line is that these young people feel they have undergone a very emotional and personal experience - and when they tell me that I don't know what they're going through and how unique it was, etc. - I right away tell them that I've 'been there and done that,' and that I was even deeper into it than they are!  ...  The fact is that many secular people come from a culture that is very close to Western culture, which is largely based on Christian views.  So when someone comes along and offers them to believe in Jesus, and tells them his nice teachings and the like, it seems very attractive - spirituality with no demands, with no proofs, but very much in accordance with what they already 'believe.'  We have to show them that the claims of his divinity and the like are simply based on falsehoods."

"There have been many cases like this one [of the Knight and Princess]," Shlomo said, "but this one has the extra elements of finding them via the internet and the search for who they were, etc.  But we are constantly doing this type of work.  We recently had a case from a religious community in the north, where a religious boy began to believe in Jesus.  We were able to bring him back...  There was another case, south of Jerusalem, where a couple converted and lived a religious life, and the husband even studied Torah with the rabbi.  I went there, as if I was still a Jesus-believer, and was able to extract a confession from the wife that she believes in Jesus, but that she is 'waiting until the time is ripe' to begin active missionary work.  We told the rabbi, and he was shocked..."

The Fighting Knight Posts Again
Four days after the turnabout-blog appeared, the Fighting Knight posted again, writing, "Hi, all.  As I promised, here's a list of proofs of the inaccuracy of the New Testament..."  He then essentially presented a report of the 20th-century archaeological finds at Nag Hammadi, in Egypt, of ancient texts of additional gospels that present an entirely different picture of Jesus than the one accepted today. 

"Only in the year 367 [200, according to others - ed.] was a consensus reached on the final composition of the New Testament," A. concludes.  "All the other manuscripts were then searched out and burned - all except for the ones at Nag Hammadi, which do not portray Jesus as the son of god and the messiah, but rather as a wise nomad who preached [nice things]. For there is one truth accepted by all - that there is one G-d in Heaven.  Regarding Messiah... I have concluded that whoever he is, he is not Jesus."

An even more recent blog by Fighting Knight explains that the New Testament contradicts the Jewish Bible - "and yet you [Messianic Jews] claim that it comes to strengthen it!" - and even contradicts itself: "For instance, the Prophets said the Messiah would come from David - and yet the New Testament itself says that only Joseph was a descendant of David, not Mary, who was impregnated by the holy spirit and not by Joseph.  So here you see that from the very first page of the New Testament it is shown that Jesus was not the Messiah! ... Only many generations later did another gospel say that Mary also descended from David - but in any event, the descent follows the father... But I am worried that you are stuck in these beliefs, even though they are shown, black on white, to be false. [One of you] even told me, 'I don't care how many proofs you bring me, I'll still believe [in Jesus]!" 

This fear of A. was borne out by the very first commenter to that posting, in which a girl wrote that every proof A. brought against Jesus would cause her to believe in Jesus more strongly.  Other commenters, however, took the opposite approach, defending the Torah and those who believe in it.

"There is much work to be done," Shlomo and Rabbi Cohen sum up. "We are facing a powerful group that has much money and power - but we are not giving up.  Every Jew rescued from these false beliefs is like a whole world saved."

Two minors, aged 14 and 15, who were arrested Monday during the forced evacuation of the Shvut Ami civilian outpost in the Shomron, were brutally beaten in a police station by Policeman Abu Salman Aslah.  So reports Orit Strook of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Civil Rights Organization.

Shvut Ami was one of the five new satellite communities "founded" last week by the grassroots Land of Israel Loyalists organization.  Most of the five did not last for more than a day, as IDF forces and Border Guard policemen evicted the "residents" by the next morning.  But Shvut Ami, near Kedumim, lasted several days - until Monday, when the ten remaining activists, some of them minors, were arrested.  All ten were taken to the nearby police station in Kadum.

When they arrived, policeman Aslah removed two of the handcuffed boys from the police vehicle and took them to a hidden spot outside the police station. With no one around, he began kicking, punching and beating them in a most brutal manner, inflicting bruises all over their bodies.

Strook, who was informed within a short time of the incident, submitted an urgent complaint to the Police Department's Unit for the Investigation of Policemen.  Demanding an immediate investigation, she wrote, "In light of the fear that the two boys will remain in custody, I request that you send an investigator as early as tomorrow (Tuesday) morning to document the injuries inflicted upon the two and to take their testimony."

A police spokesman told Arutz-7's Shlomo Piotrokovsky that once a complaint has been submitted to the Unit for the Investigation of Policemen, "the matter is in its purview, and the police will take action in accordance with its recommendations."

Court Fines State, Police
Meanwhile, the same day the boys were being beaten, a Jerusalem Magistrates Court fined the State of Israel and a policeman 30,000 shekels ($7,500) for similar violence. 

The incident occurred in July of 2005, when three teenaged Jewish girls from Hevron - two daughters of Noam Federman and one daughter of Baruch Marzel - were arrested during an anti-Disengagement protest.  On the ride to the police station, Border Guard policeman Ataad Shanaan slapped and pinched the girls, pulled their hair and twisted their arms, and threatened them. Policeman Tzion Muallem hit one of the girls and knocked her head against a wall at the end of the ride.

Justice Shimon Feinberg ruled that the testimony of the three girls was consistent and reliable, while that of the policemen was riddled with contradictions.  "There is proof that the girls chanted, 'A Jew does not expel a Jew,' but this is certainly no reason to beat them," the judge said. He awarded 10,000 shekels to each of the three girls, to be paid jointly by the State and policeman Shanaan.

Baruch Marzel, a long-time activist, said afterwards, "During the period leading up to the expulsion [from Gush Katif], there were many incidents of police brutality against the children who were arrested during the protests.  The police seemed to feel that they could do whatever they wanted.  I have another nine claims ready for submission very soon against policemen for similar violence.  We will make sure that every policeman who abused the demonstrators is brought to justice."

American-Israeli relations expert Yoram Ettinger, a former Congressional liaison in Israel's Washington embassy, says the Palestinian Authority has always taken a pro-terror slant - in opposition to U.S. policy and interests.

In the latest edition of his "From the Jerusalem Cloakroom" newsletter, Ettinger continues what sometimes appears to be a one-man crusade against the creation of a Palestinian state.  His latest theme is that the PA openly supports Moslem terrorism and incitement, in opposition to US policy and interests.

The newsletter has dealt with the issue of a Palestinian state of late, in anticipation of the Middle East conference scheduled for next month outside Washington at which U.S. President Bush hopes to make such a state a reality.

Ettinger directly and sharply targets Palestinian Authority/Fatah chairman Mahmoud Abbas, known in terrorist circles as Abu Mazen, and the entity he governs.  "Abu Mazen's PA/PLO," Ettinger writes, "has been a systematic ally of Bin-Laden, Saddam [Hussein], Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. It has been a deadly threat to the Hashemites [of Jordan] and moderate Gulf regimes."

Furthermore, Ettinger charges, the PA has been "a role-model of inter-Arab treachery, hate-education, terrorism, homicide and car bombing, hijacking and murder of diplomats (e.g., murdered US ambassadors in Sudan), human rights violation, oppression of Christian Arabs and corruption. PLO mentors were allies of the Nazis and of the ruthless communist regimes in Moscow and Eastern Europe."

Ettinger, who still serves intermittently as an Israeli government consultant, cites cartoons recently published in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that honor the perpetrator of 9/11, Osama Bin-Laden, even as the US continues to mourn the nearly 3,000 victims of those attacks.  The cartoons "echo sermons and text books in Abu Mazen’s controlled mosques and schools," Ettinger notes.

Palestinian terrorists fought US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past, Ettinger said, and if they are granted a state, will simply provide an east Mediterranean platform to US enemies and will add yet another anti-US vote at the United Nations.

The Histadrut National Workers Federation (NWF) has ordered the firing of a senior employee who disclosed information that led to the indictment of former Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson, on suspicion of fraud involving a union fund, as well as other charges.

The government watchdog group Ometz has filed an appeal with State Comptroller and Ombudsman Micha Lindenstrauss to prevent the union from firing the woman.

Ometz attorney Aryeh Avneri said in a letter to Lindenstrauss, a retired justice, that the worker should be supported for her efforts.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced late last month that Hirschson would face criminal charges on allegations of having embezzled some NIS 14 million from Nili, a nonprofit organization owned by the NWF from 1998-2005.

The former Finance Minister was the group’s chairman for much of that time. The organization is separate from and has no connection with the Histadrut national labor union.

The allegations include theft, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering and forging documents. Hirschson has denied the charges.

Chief Prosecutor Eran Shendar decided with the Tel Aviv Prosecutor’s Office earlier in the month not to indict the former Finance Minister, despite a statement by police that enough evidence existed to compile a formal charge sheet. The Attorney General reversed the decision.

A formal indictment is conditional on the results of a formal hearing by the Attorney General, said the Justice Ministry.

A delegation from the New York-based World Jewish Congress (WJC) met with the supreme Roman Catholic pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, in Vatican City on Monday. At the top of the agenda was a resurgent
Benedict said that the issue of Catholic-Jewish relations was very close to his heart.
anti-Semitism in Europe, including the part played by Tadeusz Rydzyk, an influential Catholic priest and radio broadcaster in Poland. 

According to a statement, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder expressed his appreciation for the Pope's efforts in support of the Jewish people. Pope Benedict said that the issue of Catholic-Jewish relations was very close to his heart. "We have made such great progress over the last four decades that it should be possible to work even more closely together," Lauder told the pontiff.

WJC delegates said that the Pope expressed his awareness of growing anti-Semitism and his hope that it could be defeated through greater education. Neither the Vatican nor the WJC revealed if the pope made any specific commitment regarding the anti-Semitic radio broadcasts of Father Rydzyk in Poland. The WJC statement said that the delegates "called on the Pontiff to take action against those in the Church who wanted to do damage to the close and positive relationship between Christians and Jews."

"Anti-Semitic statements by the Polish priest Tadeusz Rydzyk, owner of the ultra-conservative Catholic station Radio Maryja should not be tolerated any more," Lauder told the Pope. Radio Maryja and the affiliated television station Trwam are watched and listened to by millions of Poles.

The delegates included WJC President Ronald S. Lauder, WJC Secretary-General Michael Schneider and WJC Deputy Secretary-General Dr. Maram Stern. The WJC visit to Vatican City included a dinner on Sunday evening hosted by Lauder and Schneider, which was attended by cardinals, ambassadors to the Vatican, and other officials. On Monday, the WJC representatives met in private with Pope Benedict. 

In August, Pope Benedict met with Rydzyk in Canstelgandolfo, the Pope's summer residence near Rome. At the time, Jewish groups warned that the encounter lent the anti-Semitic priest legitimacy. Last year, the Pope reprimanded Rydzyk and ordered Poland's bishops to monitor his radio station. However, according to the European Jewish Press, the supervision has failed to moderate Rydzyk's broadcasts.

In addition, the WJC delegates discussed with the Catholic leader the threat posed to the Jewish people, Israel and the West by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Pope advocated an educational approach in the case of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamist
The Pope advocated an educational approach in the case of Ahmadinejad.
leadership of Iran, as well. The Vatican and the WJC leaders discussed ways in which Christians, Muslims and Jews could work to improve dialogue.

During a speech on Sunday night, Lauder called for "tripartite bridges of tolerance and understanding" that would include moderate Muslims. The WJC president said he believed that engaging in dialogue with moderate Muslim leaders would discourage supporters of Islamist terrorism.

In addition to issues of specific and immediate concern for the Jewish people, the WJC delegation raised the possibility of joint initiatives with the Vatican to provide humanitarian assistance in poor countries. Lauder then invited Pope Benedict to host a "joint event" when a Vatican delegation visits the United States next year.