on both Talansky and Rishon Tours charges. The indictment would hardly result in a meaningful court sentence, both because Olmert placated the leftist establishment by stepping down, and because no one in the establishment wants to set a precedent of convicting a high-ranking politician, as the precedent might one day be applied to himself.
Olmert’s prosecution is outrageous. His alleged crimes are trivial: every Israeli party receives foreign donations, and every major politician lives off the donations. To prosecute Olmert on Talansky irregularities before jailing Barak for life for passing the Gaza gas field to Arafat is a top of hypocrisy. The overbilling case should not concern the state whatsoever as long as the allegedly overbilled charities do not complain.

In the last-ditch effort to stave off what is expected to be a violent confrontation with Israeli army, settlers of the large Migron outpost asked Jerusalem court to rule on the legal status of their land. The settlers contend they built their houses mostly on the abandoned property and party on the land they properly purchased from Palestinians. The army believes their land, a part of the Land of Israel, is a private Palestinian property. The IDF, therefore, wants to make the settlers homeless.
Neither army, nor the police show a similar zeal in defending private Jewish land, such as yesterday in Sha’ar Hamizrah, a private Jewish plot for decades squatted by Arab enemies.

from the West Bank jails.

to shoot Israeli planes which routinely violate Lebanese airspace.

Israeli negotiators touted their “success”: Syria agreed to end the state of war with Israel and establish diplomatic relations in exchange for the Golan Heights and the Lake Kinneret. Israel would rely on Syria’s promise to cut the ties with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
The idiocy involved in the peace talks is incredible. Syria has long forgotten about the Golan Heights - until various scum starting from Rabin and including Barak, Netanyahu, and Olmert flared the issue by pushing Syria to accept the Golans back in return for a piece of paper. Syria, oh, it would surely honor its paper obligations. Suppose Syria doesn’t stop aiding Hamas and receiving support from Iran - what would Israel do, renounce the peace treaty? Surely not. How can Syria stop aiding Hezbollah despite Syria’s tremendous stake in Lebanese affairs?
Just like Egypt amassed a huge modern army financed by the US aid under the cover of peace treaty, so would Syria strengthen its armed forces. When Syria resumes its nuclear program, would Israel risk bombing a “friendly” state? When Syria mounts its missiles on Western slopes of the Golan Heights so that no missile defense system has time to intercept them, would Israel shatter “peace” and reoccupy the Golan Heights? And considering that Syria would certainly do all those things, why relinquish the Golans now?
Israeli government conducts peace talks with Syria despite the overwhelming opposition in the society to abandoning to Golan Heights which we had duly conquered from the aggressor. Any subsequent government, be it Livni or Netanyahu’s would continue the talks. Leftists bleat about democracy when its suits their interests, such as demolishing the Jewish state by incorporating hostile Arab citizens. But the Golans issue show how little the leftists care about democracy: it is only a tool for those totalitarians.

Lt.-Col. Omri Burbarg had denied for weeks what was evident to everyone who served in the army: that he indeed ordered a soldier to shoot rubber bullet at the arrested Palestinian rioter. After the lie detector tests, Burbarg admitted giving the order but claims it was a joke.

After 4 years of deliberations, Jerusalem court slapped police with a token fine for wrongfully arresting a handful of conservative activists who celebrated the news of Arafat’s death at the Paris Square in Jerusalem. It is only in the Jewish state that someone was arrested for celebrating the PLO thug’s death.
The court did not clarify whether it would also be legal to celebrate the demise of, say, Yossi Beilin or a few hundred other Jewish arafats.

All of us got used to Arabs’ stoning Jewish cars in Judea and Samaria, but today Arabs stoned a car near Abu Gosh village on Tel Aviv - Jerusalem road. Israeli government can give Palestinians a state of their own, but what about the cars stoned on Tel Aviv highway?

The fourth and supposedly final interrogation lasted almost 3 hours instead of the planned two. Before the interrogation, the police spokesman told they only need to verify Olmert’s signatures on bills and similarly mundane issues - which couldn’t have taken 3 hours to confirm.
Olmert, for his part, was saying that he has perfectly good explanations for double-billing, and the old fox was indeed likely to invent a plausible explanation for his petty wrongdoing.
Let’s wait a short while for the leaks.