Broiges of the week

Strictly orthodox MK Yakov Litzman is in trouble with the supporters of defeated strictly Orthodox mayoral candidate Meir Porush.

Litzman angered Porush and his supporters by backing a secular candidate, Nir Barkat, for mayor of Jerusalem - an election in which Barkat subsequently triumphed.

Porush's suporters were so angered by this betrayal that they physically assaulted Litzman at a family celebration last Saturday.

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The former wife of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has broken her silence about their failed marriage. Irina Abramovich, 41, told Russian OK! magazine that she hated being surrounded by bodyguards and lived in fear of their children being kidnapped. She said: "My life with Roman was not the fairytale that the papers reported... Each year it got harder for me." After their divorce last year, she was awarded £150m of Abramovich £10.8 billion fortune. Which is maybe why she hasn't dished more dirt.

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Egyptian lawyer Galal Abdel-Rahman has filed a lawsuit against right-wing MK Avigdor Lieberman.

He is furious that Lieberman allegedly insulted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Last week, Lieberman said that Mubarak could "go to hell" because he refused to make visits to Israel.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologised for the "crude" comments .

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Abraham Foxman of the US-based watchdog organisation the Anti-Defamation League is outraged by an email sent out by Republican Party campaigners in the American state of Pennsylvania.

The email, which was sent out last week to 75,000 people in Pennsylvania, warned "fellow Jewish voters" of the dangers of a second Holocaust in Israel.

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The Daily Mail sketch writer, Quentin Letts has riled Giles Coren with his attitude to Peter Mandelson.

In a Radio 4 interview last week, Letts compared Mandelson to the pianist Liberace.

The implied homophobia in this comparison annoyed Coren who let rip in his column in The Times last Saturday: "Liberace? Poor old Quentin. Is that really who Mandelson puts him in mind of? Is that what Quentin's unconscious does with a homosexual Cabinet minister? Turns him into a big Italian woofter in a gold suit who died of Aids? I guess so."

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In the summer, Iranian tourism minister Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei said that Iranians were friends with the Israeli people, despite the conflict between their governments.

This has sparked off a row with Supreme leader Ayatollah Khameni, who made it clear he had no sympathy for Israelis: "They are responsible for usurping houses, territory, farmlands and businesses.

They are fighters at the disposal of Zionist operatives."

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Fadi Abboud, the president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, has been threatening to sue Israel - for stealing falafel.

He fumed: "In a way, the Jewish state is trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies such as falafel, tabouleh and hummus. The Israelis are marketing such Lebanese delicacies under the same names and ingredients around the world. This is causing great losses to Lebanon."

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A British government plan to put its embassy in a new Tel Aviv skyscraper has not gone down well with Daniel Machover of the UK-based Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. That's because Kirya Towers is owned by a company controlled by Lev Leviev, a contributor to a fund which acquires land for Jewish settlements.

Machover said renting space from Leviev was "tantamount to condoning Israel's settlement-building".

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The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno - a former neo-Fascist youth leader - has told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that he "did not and never has considered fascism to be absolute evil". The only thing he believed fitted this description were racial laws passed by Italy's Fascist government in 1938.

Alemanno's comments have angered the Jewish community. One leader, Renzo Gattegna, said: "The racial laws were created by the Fascist regime. It is difficult to separate the two."

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Family tensions have intensified since it was announced to El Al shareholders that David "Dedi" Borovich will not be buying out twin brother Izzy's stake in El Al's parent company, Knafaim.

Despite a statement in May that Dedi would be exercising an option to buy the shares from his brother, who has been talking about leaving his position as El Al chairman, it seems that Dedi may not have raised the necessary funds.

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