News Brief08:37 AM

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has clarified his announcement that he will demand that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying that the demand will not necessarily be made before the upcoming Annapolis conference.  Israel will participate in the conference whether or not the PA recognizes it as Jewish.  The matter will come up again in talks after the conference, he said.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Israel retreat to the 1948 armistice line, destroy all Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, give the PA control over much of Jerusalem including the Old City and the Temple Mount, and recognize the “right of return” claimed by millions of foreign descendants of Arabs who fled Israel during the War of Independence.  According to Haaretz, Israel plans to release 400 terrorists in the near future in order to maintain Abbas’s popularity if his demands are not met.