Shorts: Mideast

New financial questions plague Sharon

jerusalem (jta) | Israel's attorney general is investigating a report that Ariel Sharon may have received illicit foreign campaign funding.

The Justice Ministry said this week that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz would look into the Channel 10 television report that the prime minister met last weekend with American Jewish backers who donated money for his race in an upcoming Likud Party primary.

According to Channel 10, participants in the meeting with Sharon in New York were asked to pay $10,000 per couple — more than the sum permitted for foreign contributions to Israeli political campaigns.

Ma'ariv reprinted a letter it said was issued by the hostess of the event, in which she suggested that Sharon needed the money to contend with his main Likud rival, Benjamin Netanyahu. Sharon confidants denied any wrongdoing on his part. "It is very possible that the hostess, who is full of good will, who does not know the law, who thinks she can help the prime minister, would send an invitation and write these things," Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Army Radio.




Bahrain wants to end Israel boycott

jerusalem (jta) | Bahrain said it would end its economic boycott of Israel. Ha'aretz reported that officials with the Persian Gulf country told U.S. officials that the boycott would soon be ended.

The report is the latest positive news to emerge regarding Israel's world standing since its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.




Israel: Hamas electoral gains would be huge setback

jerusalem (jta) | Top Israeli leaders confirmed that they do not want Hamas to take part in Palestinian elections. It's up to the Palestinians to "decide if they would like to have real elections," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told journalists in New York on Monday, Sept. 19, noting that electoral gains by Hamas would "move us backward maybe 50 years."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that Israel wouldn't stop elections that include Hamas, but also would not provide any support — which would make it difficult for the Palestinians to proceed.