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Rabin’s assassin gets conjugal visit

jerusalem (jps) | Larissa Trimbobler emerged from Ayalon Prison on Tuesday, Oct. 24 but refused to offer any comment to reporters following her long-awaited conjugal visit with her husband, Yigal Amir, the convicted assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

After almost two years of petitioning for the right to consummate their marriage and allow Amir to father a child, the couple met Tuesday for eight-and-a-half hours in a special room in the prison, which is the regional center for such visits. The prison has five secure rooms in which couples are provided a double bed, a television and a private shower and bathroom.

Trimbobler, 42, has four children from a previous marriage that ended in divorce. Amir, however, is childless, as his marriage to Trimbobler — his first — took place after he was already behind bars. The High Court of Justice said it decided to permit the visit because Amir, like all prisoners, was entitled to certain basic rights, including the right to bring a child into the world.

State investigating Olmert for alleged role in Leumi sale

jerusalem (jps) | Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under investigation for allegedly taking an illegal role in the sale of Bank Leumi’s controlling stock, the Justice Ministry confirmed on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Olmert, while serving as acting finance minister in 2005, is suspected of helping billionaires Daniel Abrams and Frank Louie complete the Leumi deal, despite a conflict of interest.

The ministry stressed that at this point, the probe is not of a criminal nature, and that a decision to involve the police has yet to be made.

Olmert was in charge of the Leumi tender despite the fact that one of the contenders was Abrams, who bought Olmert’s private residence in Jerusalem. Olmert allegedly forced officials to provide Abrams with benefits despite their objections. The Prime Minister’s Office strongly denied the allegations.

Convicted spy criticizes Olmert

jerusalem (ynetnews.com) | Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy serving a life sentence in the United States, sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he criticized the fact that his name did not appear on the list of missing and captives that Olmert recently read in his opening speech of the Knesset’s winter session.

In the letter, Pollard asked Olmert to cease what he called his disrespectful policy of abandonment. He said that Olmert’s silence is costing him his life.

Pollard’s wife, Esther, said that her husband painfully described to her in a recent telephone conversation the ridicule he received from fellow inmates after he wasn’t mentioned in the prime minister’s speech.

“After all, the figures responsible for Pollard in jail listen to the media. They knew that the prime minister didn’t mention his name. Jonathan told me that they mocked him and said, ‘Do you really believe you’ll get out of here someday?'” she said.

Peres expected to seek presidency

jerusalem (jps) | Vice Premier Shimon Peres has begun campaigning for the presidency, seeking support from Knesset members from across the political spectrum in meetings and phone calls, according to a source close to him.

The source said Peres was waiting for a meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which Olmert is expected to endorse his candidacy. Olmert and Peres meet weekly and it appeared likely that Olmert would put his decision on Kadima’s presidential candidate high on his agenda.

A source in the Sephardic Orthodox Shas Party said that Peres met last month with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and discussed the possibility that he would seek the presidency.

Underground city being dug in Gaza

jerusalem (jps) | In a briefing to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 24, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said he believed the IDF must stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Halutz explained, “There is an underground city being dug in the Gaza Strip,” where in the past three days “IDF troops have uncovered at least one hundred tunnel openings in the Rafah area.”

But Halutz stressed that “no decision has been made” and that the army is examining options of how best to deal with the terror-tunnel threat.

A recent IDF intelligence report warned that the pace of smuggling by armed groups in Gaza, as well as the quality of weapons being imported, was increasing.

Kadima offers civil marriage proposal

jerusalem (jps) | The Kadima-led coalition plans to present a civil marriage bill that has the backing of the Orthodox rabbinic establishment, but offers only a limited solution to the plight of thousands of Israeli citizens who cannot get married in Israel.

The bill is expected to allow a marriage between two Israeli citizens who are defined as non-Jews according to Orthodox Jewish law and who do not belong to any other religion. It would not allow a Jew to marry a non-Jew, or a Jew who converted in a non-Orthodox manner.

Only those Israelis who can prove they are not Jewish would be allowed to marry in a civil ceremony.

All marriages among Jews in Israel are governed by Orthodox Jewish law, which forbids the marriage of a Jew to a non-Jew. However, the marriage of two non-Jews is irrelevant to Jewish law.

Livni to attend summit in Qatar

jerusalem (jps) | Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will travel to Qatar on Sunday, Oct. 29 to attend an international summit on emerging democracies, Israel Radio reported.

Livni’s trip will be the first visit by to the Persian Gulf nation by an Israeli minister in five years.

Last month Livni met with Qatar’s foreign minister on the sidelines of a UN general assembly meeting.