By Stan Goodenough
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, increasingly desperate in the face of advanced criminal investigations against him, had his office drop a political bombshell on the country Wednesday by announcing that Israel and Syria are holding peace talks in Turkey.
This suspicion was the instinctive reaction of a great many Israeli parliamentarians, including members of Olmert's ruling coalition, following the surprise news that hit Israel's airwaves Wednesday morning.
"The publication of the negotiations has a clear purpose, aimed at covering up the prime minister's investigations," charged angry Labor Party MK Danny Yatom.
Yatom party colleague MK Shelly Yacimovich said the prime minister's "only aim" was to divert attention from "his cash envelopes" – envelopes containing money Olmert allegedly received from businessmen and placed in his own pocket.
The chairman of the Likud faction, MK Gideon Sa'ar, said the announcement demonstrated that "Olmert's calculated cynicism when gambling Israel's strategic assets for his own political survival knows no bounds…
"He has no mandate to make any concession in the Golan Heights," he declared.
Likud, National Union-National Religious Party and Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party leaders all leveled criticism at the prime minister.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar el-Assad has said that he is interested in negotiating with Israel. He has warned, however, that if the talks collapse without an agreement then "war may really be the only solution".
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