March 14, 2011 Olmert Lupolianski and Danker to be Indicted, Fallout from Murder in Itamar

The "good news" from Israel continued today, with the announcement that the State Prosecutor has decided to indict former Prime Minister Olmert, Former Mayor of Jerusalem and Uri Lupolianski and ther former head of Bank Hapoalim, Dan Danker, along with 30 others, in probably the worst case of public corruption in Israel's history. The case surrounds the apartment buildings built on the site of the old Holyland Hotel in Jerusalem, huge towers that most Jerusalemites wondered who ever approved. The "Holyland saga" is a simple case of bribery. This was not a complicated case of public corruption of job appointments, rather a simple transfer of money reportedly changing hands, in return for approvals that would have never otherwise been offered. Why there is so much corruption is a subject for a different discussion.

The Friday night murder of a family in Itamar continued to make waves in Israel. The Judea and Samaria Settler's Council obtained the approval of the family to show pictures of the murder scene with the faces blurred. They were disappointed to find that the foreign media would not take the pictures, claiming they do not accept doctored pictures. There also seems to frustration in Israel that the world does not seem to care about the killings, no matter how horrific they are. Considering what is going on in the world, this is not a surprise. However terrible the killings were, it's not news that Arab terrorists do terrible things. The events, of course, just caused everyone to repeat their old slogans; The right stating: "The Palestinians hate us, they do sub- human things and we can not reach a peace agreement with them." and the Left, or whatever remains of the Left, exclaiming: "The only solution is for us to get out of places like Itamar."

One notable difference this time, the Head of the Palestinian Authority did clearly condemn the killings, in no uncertain terms. Interesting: Israel's Channel 10 sent their Arab Affairs correspondent to Shechem and Nablus, people there seemed to clearly condemn the attack; saying that it was against Islam to kill little children and babies. The horrific nature of the killings may have been too much, even for people who are not exactly friendly to Israel.