News in Israel

There are three items in the news in Israel right now. First, the end of the Olmert era is pending. In one of his last statements as PM, Olmert blamed Pres. Abbas of the PA for the failure of the peace process. He said that Abbas was "weak" and "indecisive," and so no deal could be made with him. Olmert inferred that Abbas was afraid to come to any actual conclusion with Israel, because it might cause an uprising in the West Bank that might result in his assassination and a take-over by Hamas. He was unable to move without taking all the Palestinians with him, and to do so would play into the hands of the extremist Hamas opposition. Of course, the PA spokesman Nabil abu Rudeinah dismissed these charges as "baseless." Maybe it was just a case of Olmert passing the blame, but in view of the fruitless, never-ending talks it has the ring of truth.
Another item dominating the news is the on-going negotiations with the Egyptians over the release of Cpl. Gilad Schalit, still held hostage in Gaza for nearly 1,000 days. After Operation Cast Lead there were parallel negotiations with the Egyptians as intermediaries over the conditions of a ceasefire with Hamas. These went on for several months and appeard to be nearing a conclusion, when suddenly Olmert apparently changed his mind and insisted that no ceasefire could be agreed with Hamas without Schalit's release being included. This was something that Hamas refused, so all the negotiations ground to a halt, and Pres. Mubarak of Egypt was embarrassed by the sudden turnaround. However, after making it clear that Hamas could expect to get a better deal from Olmert than from any future Govt. of PM-designate Netanyahu, negotiations resumed, with figures of possible Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged from 400 to 1,400 being touted. No-one knows precisely the current status of the numbers game, and whether or not it might include prisoners "with blood on their hands." But, until now no break-through has been reported in these last-ditch efforts.
The third subject has, of course, been the question of the upcoming coalition government, with rumors of renewed contacts between Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni of Kadima for a unity government resurfacing. But, after all has been said and done, and with agreemetns now in place between Likud and Israel Beitanu and some of the other smaller right wing and religious parties, it looks as if we shall have a narrow right-wing government after all. Noone can foresee how Avigdor Lieberman will be as Foreign Minister, some of us cringe at the thought. But, he won the votes in a democratic way, fair and square, and he is entitled to one of the top appointments in the next Administration.