FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner Cabinet met three times in one day to discuss a prisoner swap to free Gilad Shalit.
The third meeting of the prime minister’s seven senior ministers, on Sunday night, came after the captured Israeli soldier’s parents personally delivered a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office. They did not see Netanyahu.
“We feel that the coming days will be fateful for our beloved son Gilad,” Noam and Aviva Shalit wrote in their letter. “We are monitoring with concern and hope the movements of the government, and of yourself, at its head, in your sincere efforts to bring Gilad home. We turn to you, Mr. Prime Minister, before it becomes too late.”
The previous two meetings lasted for a total of five hours, according to Ha’aretz.
Hamas terrorists captured Shalit in a cross-border raid in 2006. He is believed to be held in Gaza.
According to Israeli media, the ministers are evenly split on whether or not to approve the prisoner swap deal with Hamas. Netanyahu would have to break the tie. The ministers have not yet voted, according to reports.
The inner Cabinet members are Defense Minister Ehud Barak; Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman; Deputy Prime Ministers Moshe Ya’alon, Dan Meridor and Eli Yishai; and Minister Without Portfolio Benny Begin.
Olmert in Court Denies Corruption Charges
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied all of the corruption charges against him.
Olmert appeared in Jerusalem District Court Monday to make his first public response to the indictment filed against him in three separate cases earlier in the year.
“I would like to take the opportunity of this day to make a comprehensive denial of all the allegations made against Olmert in the indictment,” Olmert’s attorney Eli Zohar said in a statement to the court.
Olmert is on trial in three cases: for allegedly paying for family vacations by double billing Jewish organizations through the Rishon Tours travel agency; for allegedly accepting envelopes full of cash from American businessman Morris Talansky; and for allegedly granting personal favors to attorney Uri Messer when he served as trade minister in the Investment Center case.
He is charged with fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate records and tax evasion.
Olmert is the first former Israeli prime minister to stand trial. He resigned as prime minister in September 2008 after police investigators recommended he be indicted.
Near Miss Reported at Ben Gurion Airport
Two flight controllers at Ben Gurion International Airport were reassigned after two airplanes nearly collided.
The Dec. 17 incident, which was announced Monday, involved a Lufthansa passenger plane and an El Al jetliner that passed dangerously close to each other.
It was the second incident to occur within 24 hours, Ha’aretz reported. The day before, a Russian commercial plane nearly landed on Israel’s Highway 1 after being misdirected to a landing strip.
An investigation of the near collision, which originally was not seen as a safety incident but was reclassified after a closer look at radar readings, is being conducted.