A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman
January 6, 2008 Winograd Commision Report January 30th: Bush Coming to Town
The Winograd Commission has announced that it will issue its final report on January 30th. The report will not have any official personal recommendation, such as the fact that the Prime Minister should resign. Olmert has stated that he will not resign, but sources in the commission claim that the words will be extremely strong. Most of the government is more concerned about the Winograd report that preparing for President Bushís visit, which is happening this week.
Meanwhile, someone asked what Israelis think of the Bushís visit; the answer: they are concerned about the traffic. An interesting side note is that Israel has been busy placing American and Israeli flags everywhere. Thousands have been placed at Ben Gurion airport alone. Bush is visiting the Palestinian Authority and they are also making preparations for his visit. Hundred of flags have been hung. The flags however are all Palestinian; no American flags have been hung there.
While talks continue over Gilad Shalití's release, there has been a flurry of speculation that Mahroun Bagouti would be released as part of the deal. That has been denied by Israeli sources. The decision not to release Barghouti has more to do with its effect on the Palestinian Authority. The sense is that if Hamas is the one who manage to get Barghouti released that will be the end of Abbas.
The demographic study of the Jewish people came out today. In terms of Israel it showed positive news. While the Muslims in Israel are still out birthing Jewish Israelis, there are four Muslim children per family as compared to three amongst Jews. If the Haredi communities are taken out of the statistics, the number of Jewish children is 2.6, which is not so bad. Furthermore, the average Jewish family wishes to have 4 kids. All of these are positive numbers.
