June 21, 2009 Iran Week Two

The Israeli news today was dominated by the sentencing of former Minister of Finance Hirschson to five years and five months in jail for his actions before becoming entering the ministry. This was the longest time that a former minister has ever been sentenced to jail for. Coincidently, former Minister Ben Ezri had his sentence for corruption extended by the high court of Justice from one and half years to four years. I am not one of those who have been highly critical of Israel’s Supreme Court, but actually extending the sentence seems a little odd.

Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu is in Paris tonight as part of his diplomatic offensive that follows his speech last week. Netanyahu is reportedly worried that he has not been able to make any progress with the Obama administration on resolving his differences over the settlements. The Obama administration seems unwilling to budge on the issue.

Demonstrations continue in Iran against the government. This is despite a brutal crackdown. It is still impossible to determine what the end result of the events in Iran will be, but whatever the short term outcome, the Middle East has been surprisingly transformed by the events. Interestingly, I have been in Israel for only a few hours and it seems to be getting less attention than it was getting in the news in the United States. Arguably, events that are taking place in Iranare probably more important to Israel than to anyone else besides the Iranian people.