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/ 14 October 2009
Israel braced on Wednesday for what is expected to be a bruising UN debate on a report that accuses the Jewish state and Hamas of war crimes.
Israel’s fraud squad on Friday questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been dogged by corruption scandals that surfaced after he took office in 2006, police said. The investigators, led by the head of the National Fraud Squad, Lieutenant Commander Shlomi Ayalon, questioned Olmert in his Jerusalem residence.
Israel is worried about getting bogged down in a foreign public-relations disaster following a series of botched air raids over the Gaza Strip that killed a number of civilians and children. Despite pledges to continue air raids as the best means to stop rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, diplomatic officials abroad are coming in for a rough ride.
Newly installed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert set his sights on Friday on a visit to Washington to win United States support for his plan to redraw Israel’s borders and leave parts of the West Bank. Olmert, whose four-party coalition was sworn in on Thursday, will leave for the US on May 21, making his first overseas trip as prime minister.