News Brief11:00 AM

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, responding to the displaying of posters of President Shimon Peres wearing an Arab kafiah head covering, declared that he "will fight against this without any tolerance." He then stated that Israel is a "democratic and tolerant country" that "will make painful concessions for security and peace." He maintained that "everyone knows peace is made by concessions."

The poster is similar to one showing then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin with a kafiah during the debate on the Oslo Accords. Those accords included massive concessions to the Palestinian Authority (PA) but blew up with the Oslo War, in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered and thousands others wounded.

Promoters of the Oslo Accords have cited the poster as a means of incitement that contributed to a mood that ended with the assassination of Rabin. Prime Minister Olmert said Monday, "We thought we were strong enough that this would not happen again."