Ehud Olmert

So are we really surprised ???? Politics makes for strange bedfellows///

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.

The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. The reports were denied by Saudi officials.

Israel puts terms on Gaza truce

Israel will not agree to a truce in Gaza unless an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants is freed, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants in 2006.

There have been reports that Egypt was close to brokering a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel.

A punishing three-week Israeli assault on Gaza aimed at stopping militant rocket fire on Israel ended with separate ceasefires in January.

The uneasy calm has been punctuated by exchanges of fire between the two sides.

"The position of the prime minister is that Israel won't reach any arrangement on a truce before the release of Gilad Shalit," Mr Olmert's office said in a statement.

Prisoner swap talks

How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas

http://online.wsj.co...

By ANDREW HIGGINS
January 24, 2009
Moshav Tekuma, Israel

Surveying the wreckage of a neighbor's bungalow hit by a Palestinian rocket, retired Israeli official Avner Cohen traces the missile's trajectory back to an "enormous, stupid mistake" made 30 years ago.

"Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation," says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel's destruction.

" GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- The U.N. chief has visited the burned-out shell of a U.N. compound in Gaza and urged both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to achieve political reconciliation after what he said was the "heartbreaking" violence of the last three weeks.
Palestinians in Gaza face a huge task to rebuild their lives after Israel's bombardment.

Palestinians in Gaza face a huge task to rebuild their lives after Israel's bombardment.
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"The repeated violence felt by Palestinians and Israelis is a mark of collective political failure," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

It is clear that the events of Gaza are proceeding according to a meticulously prearranged scenario and executed by the outgoing Bush administration in preparation for the handover of the Middle East issue to the Barack Obama’s administration on 20th January 2009. Hence, Ehud Olmert’s cabinet acted only after receiving the American green light to bomb Gaza with all that barbarity, causing all those massacres and devastation amid the silence of the international community and the conspicuous regional collaboration. It is even noted that the Bush administration is encouraging “Israel” to pursue the military operations that reflect the extent of the brutality and hideousness in dealing with an unequal adversary and unarmed civilians, in a very densely populated area.

Need for convening an Arab summit stressed

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HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani addressing the Arab nation last night"

HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani last night described the heinous Israeli aggression on the people of Gaza as a war crime as per international charters and laws.
In an address to the Arab nation broadcast on Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, the Emir said even if there were no other issues concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian cause the woes of Gazans should move the Arab leaders.