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Friday January 19, 2007

Shorts: Mideast

Olmert’s popularity hits record low

Ehud Olmert’s approval rating is at a record low, a poll found.

According to the survey published over the weekend by Ha’aretz, just 14 percent of Israelis approve of their prime minister’s performance, a drop from the previous low of about 22 percent. Defense Minister Amir Peretz is even more unpopular, with a 10 percent approval rating. Olmert and Peretz have been struggling to shore up their standing since the summer war in Lebanon, whose setbacks were blamed by many Israelis on government incompetence.

The poll found that if parliamentary elections were held today in Israel, the right-wing Likud Party would trounce Olmert’s centrist Kadima, taking 29 seats in the Knesset. Kadima would drop to 12 seats. The survey had 500 respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. — jta

Students to learn Arabic

Two Israeli organizations are partnering to promote an Arabic-language study program for Jewish students in Israel’s Galilee.

The Language as a Cultural Bridge program was developed by the Abraham Fund, a nonprofit organization promoting Jewish-Arab coexistence, and is supported by the Jewish Agency for Israel. Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski announced the program Jan. 11 during a tour of coexistence programs in Israel.

Arabic lessons, slated to begin in February, will reach more than 7,000 Jewish students, at a cost of $1.6 million per year. The Jewish Agency and the Abraham Fund also agreed to implement a separate program bringing together more than 4,500 Jewish and Arab children. — jta

Armed forces chief steps down

The chief of Israel’s armed forces has quit. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz published a resignation letter Wednesday, Jan. 17, in which he told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz that he was acting out of a “sense of responsibility” over last year’s Lebanon war.

Olmert and Peretz, who had been informed of Halutz’s decision over the weekend, voiced regret over the resignation.

The 34-day offensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia left many Israelis feeling that their national security was undermined and demanding a purge of the top military brass. As a former Air Force chief, Halutz was widely seen as incompetent when it came to managing a large-scale ground campaign. Halutz, 58, had resisted earlier calls to resign. — jta

Sharon advised Bush to have Iraq exit plan

Ariel Sharon advised President Bush to have an exit strategy before the invasion of Iraq, a report said.

The former Israeli prime minister, who has been in a coma for a year, met with Bush in early 2003, prior to the U.S. invasion. According to a report in last week’s Jewish Forward newspaper, Sharon said he believed, as Bush did, that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the region.

However, he warned Bush to have an exit strategy and not to press for democratization, and asked him to be mindful that once the United States ended its venture in the region and withdrew its troops, Israel would be left to deal with the consequences.

Bush has been strongly criticized for lacking an exit strategy; at the time, he and his top advisers expressed confidence that a democracy would quickly and peacefully replace Saddam’s regime. The Forward report cites Daniel Ayalon, who just completed a term as ambassador to Washington, and another unnamed source present at the meeting. — jta

Drug kingpin to be repatriated

An Israeli drug kingpin who was extradited to the United States will be repatriated to serve his prison sentence.

Zev Rosenstein, who was arrested two years ago and handed over to the Drug Enforcement Administration to be tried for smuggling ecstasy, last week entered a plea bargain under which he will admit to the charges and serve 12 years an Israeli prison.

Rosenstein, who has been held in a Miami jail, was quoted by Israeli media as saying he felt “homesick.”

The plea bargain was expected to be implemented within weeks. With time off for good behavior, Rosenstein could be free by 2013. — jta

Report: Israel, Syria in informal peace talks

Israelis and Syrians reportedly held unofficial negotiations on a potential peace accord.

Ha’aretz reported that between 2004 and 2006 Alon Liel, former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, was a member of an Israeli delegation that met secretly with Ibrahim Suleiman, a Syrian American considered close to the Assad regime, as well as an unnamed European mediator.

According to Ha’aretz, the sides settled on a blueprint for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The plan called for much of the strategic plateau to become a park for Israelis and Syrians to use, and Damascus would distance itself from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, the report said.

Ha’aretz reported that the governments of Israeli Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert were aware of the talks, though Olmert denied it. The Syrian government also called the report “baseless.” — jta

‘Hamas will never recognize Israel’

The Palestinian Authority prime minister reiterated that Hamas will never recognize Israel’s right to exist.

“Hamas will never show flexibility over the issue of recognizing the legitimacy of the occupation,” Ismail Haniyeh said in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television broadcast earlier in the week, using Hamas’ term for the Jewish state.

Haniyeh, Hamas’ top politician, appeared to be trying to counteract comments made last week by the group’s supreme leader abroad, Khaled Meshaal. Speaking to Reuters, Meshaal said Israel is a “matter of fact” but that Hamas could not consider recognizing it before a Palestinian state is created.

Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas last week praised Palestinians who fight Israeli “occupation.” “We have raised our rifles against the occupation, and that is a legitimate right,” he said at a rally of his Fatah faction in the West Bank. — jta

Olmert gets cosmetic surgery

Ehud Olmert raised eyebrows in Israel by getting unannounced cosmetic surgery.

The Israeli prime minister underwent eyelid reconstruction upon his return from China a week ago, but the side effects were still visible by his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, Jan. 14. “Don’t be alarmed by my swollen eyes,” the heavily made-up Olmert told fellow ministers.

Israeli media filed queries with Olmert’s office on whether the chief executive’s unannounced procedure violated protocol, only to be told that as the surgery was not life-threatening and the prime minister not incapacitated, he had no obligation to report it beforehand. — jta

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