Yes, the Current Government of Israel Is Deeply Corrupt, Why Do You Ask?
Philip Elmer-Dewitt:
http://www.wisdeo.com/articles/view_post/3036: The official explanation for seizing the devices at the airport never did make sense: On the face of it, Israel's decision Saturday night to allow iPads to be brought into the country was a straightforward reversal of a sensibly cautious import policy.... But... [no] experts outside (or, for that matter, inside) Israel... [bought] the explanation that the ministry was concerned that a device that used American Wi-Fi power standards... could harm the country's wireless networks.... Time magazine on Tuesday picked up a line of reasoning floated five days earlier....
It is worth noting that Apple's Israeli distributor, iDigital, is run by Chemi Peres, the hyper-entrepreneurial son of Israeli President Shimon Peres. Clearly, iDigital wants its lucrative cut of every iPad brought into the country — which it will undoubtedly receive when a modified European version of the iPad is approved for import over the next two or three months. But in the meantime, iDigital can't make money off the slow trickle of iPads entering the country via private citizens, tourists and international businessmen....
[E]ven Israeli ministers can be influenced by the weight of international opinion.... The order to lift the ban came from Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon... [who now claims that he had] not been apprised of the initial decision to ban the iPad...