HAARETZ 1. MAZUZ DECIDES: OLMERT TO SERVE AS ACTING PM UNTIL ELECTIONS. Decision if there is no significant change in Sharon’s condition; sedatives reduced but PM has not woken up. 2. NUMBER 2 ON HAMAS LIST: WE WILL NEGOTIATE BETTER THAN OTHERS. 3. STATE COMPTROLLER CHECKING IF PERES RECEIVED ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTION FROM SABAN. HATZOFEH 1. Today: Cabinet to approve placing Palestinian polling stations in Jerusalem. ASSESSMENT IN ISRAEL: HAMAS WILL WIN PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS IN JERUSALEM. Six seats in Palestinian parliament reserved for Jerusalem district four to be held by Hamas members (other two reserved for Christians). Security sources: Impossible to prevent Hamas’s participation in Palestinian elections in Israel’s capital. [NRP Chairman MK] Orlev: We will appeal to High Court of Justice if Hamas is allowed to participate. 2. STATE COMPTROLLER TO CHECK LEGALITY OF CONTRIBUTION RECEIVED BY PERES. Channel 10: In December 2004, MK Shimon Peres received $320,000 contribution ahead of primaries for Labor Party chair. 3. SEVERE CLASHES IN HEBRON BETWEEN SETTLERS AND ARMY: OFFICER WOUNDED IN EYE BY STONE. Hebron settlers: Tension stems from Government decision to expel settlers from their homes most rioters were youths who arrived from outside city. 4. YESHA COUNCIL: DECISION TO UPROOT THREE OUTPOSTS SCANDALOUS REVENGE. Reasons for decision Uprooting of orchards in nearby Palestinian villages. Yesha Council hopes to reach understanding with security establishment heads in order to prevent uprooting. Two outposts previously approved in legal processes. 5. SHARON’S DOCTORS FEAR THAT HE IS COMATOSE. 6. EFFORT TO PREVENT SPLIT IN SHINUI WITHOUT SUCCESS SO FAR. MAARIV 1. Doctors concerned: Sharon not waking up. „PM IS COMATOSE.” Senior Hadassah doctor: „Impossible to judge if he will wake up tomorrow, next week or next month.” 2. SHIMON PERES IN CONTRIBUTIONS AFFAIR. Received $320,000. 3. LAPID CONSIDERING GOING HOME. Will announce by tomorrow. 4. IN LIKUD: CONSIDERING BIBI’S DISMISSAL. In event of decline in polls. 5. Expose: MOSSAD AND IDF INTELLIGENCE QUARRELING AND WE ARE PAYING. Due to prestige contest: Mossad and IDF Intelligence considering establishing parallel intelligence units. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. PM’s doctors admit for first time: Cannot wake him up. COMATOSE. Despite that sedatives have been stopped, Sharon is not responding. Experts: Coming month during which Sharon will be able to wake up on his own will be critical. 2. LIKUD WILL NOT OPPOSE PALESTINIAN STATE. Netanyahu to submit party platform this week. Likud ministers: Netanyahu worked to oust us from list. 3. STATE COMPTROLLER EXPOSES POLITICIANS’ CONTRIBUTORS. Today: Will issue full list of contributors. Checking suspicion that Peres received illegal contributions. 4. LAPID INCLINED TO QUIT POLITICS. In wake of Shinui upheaval, Lapid and Poraz expected to announce their futures today. ______________________________ SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS Yediot Ahronot says that a badly split Shinui is now regretting having rejected a suggestion that it turn itself into a non-parliamentary citizens movement and doubts whether the party will make it into the next Knesset. Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, says that after Benjamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom, who head the list, the Likud Knesset list is composed of, „political wheeler-dealers, some of them without experience outside the corridors of politics, and some of them worn out and astonishing,” and notes that, „There is no senior security or military personality in a realistic place on the Likud list.” The editors decry the Likud Knesset list as, „A gallery of gray politicians with thin resumes.” Yediot Ahronot, in its third editorial, believes that, „The Labor Party elections team is not functioning these days and is internally split,” because, „The brutal primaries battle is squeezing out the candidates’ last bit of political energy.” The editors suggest that, „bombastic and unrealistic socio-economic declarations,” by senior Labor figures have driven away many voters and assert that, „Israel is marching towards a one-party regime not because Kadima has been so successful but because its rivals are such failures.” Hatzofeh avers that, „Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is apparently looking for clashes with settlers any way possible.”
BPI-info
BPI-info
