HEADLINES FROM THE IZRAELI PRESS
HA’ARETZ:1. NETANYAHU TO HIS MINISTERS: IF YOU SUPPORT THE ARRANGEMENT LAW YOU WILL BE FIRED
Ministers Hershkowitz and Edelstein, who promised to support the law, are expected to conclude their duties. Shas ministers to be absent.
2. GANTZ VS. DAGAN: THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO KNEW THINGS ABOUT IRAN
– AND TODAY NO LONGER [KNOW]
3. ISA DEMANDED THAT AMERICAN FEMALE TOURISTS WITH ARAB NAMES REVEAL EMAIL PASSWORDS
MA’ARIV
1. TODAY: VOTE ON ARRANGEMENT LAW EXPECTED, MINISTERS WHO SUPPORT IT WILL BE OUSTED
Shas ministers to be absent. Yisrael Beytenu to decide this morning. Edelstein, Hershkowitz and Deputy Minister Gamliel holding to their support for the law.
2. ERDOGAN: WE DO NOT NEED ISRAELI TOURISTS
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in sharp message: „We have succeeded in filling the places of the Israeli vacationers, they’re not felt.” At Davos Forum: „We are willing to pay the price of a prolonged crisis.”
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. PM threatening to fire ministers and deputy ministers who vote today in favor of law to circumvent High Court of Justice. Four senior figures in the line of fire.
NETANYAHU: WHOEVER DOES NOT VOTE WITH ME WILL BE FIRED (…).
Yuli Edelstein, Daniel Hershkowitz, Gila Gamliel and Ayoub Kara declare that they will support law to circumvent the High Court of Justice. Feverish contacts held with them overnight in effort to change their minds. Yishai: Shas ministers to be absent from vote. Liberman: We will decide, for or against, at last minute. Settlers: We will not allow Netanyahu to demolish the homes.
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. Tension peaks before arrangement law vote today.
„MINISTER WHO VOTES IN FAVOR
–
WILL BE FIRED Netanyahu’s ultimatum on the eve of decision over Ulpana. Edelstein announces that he would support the law. Hershkowitz inclined to support it, is holding consultations. Deputy ministers Gamliel and Kara: We will support it. Shas ministers expected to be absent. Liberman: Solution that will prevent future evacuations will satisfy me. Yesha Council: „Ministers who are fired can be proud.”
2. 2,000-YEAR-OLD TREASURE
About 140 gold and silver Roman era coins found in astounding 2,000 year-old cache. Rare find was recently uncovered in Israel Antiquities Authority dig near Kiryat Gat.
WALLA!
1. WEINSTEIN GIVES „GREEN LIGHT” TO EVACUATION OF ULPANA NEIGHBORHOOD
Netanyahu’s threat to fire minister or deputy minister who would vote in favor of the arrangement law worked on Minister Liberman and Yisrael Beytenu members as well. Overnight, Weinstein approved plan to transfer the buildings to a military zone.
NANA10
1. LIBERMAN: DECISIONS MADE REGARDING ULPANA ARE SUFFICIENT
–
WE WILL VOTE AGAINST THE ARRANGEMENT
2. PRIME MINISTER ACCEPTS ATTORNEY GENERAL’S RECOMMENDATION
–
NO CHOICE OTHER THAN TO EVACUATE ULPANA
[Headlines for Walla! and Nana10 are from their websites as of 10:30.] ______________________________
SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot believes that in the debate over the role of cartelization and tycoons in the Israeli economy, the fact that the latter employ many ordinary workers is often overlooked, and asks, „Who looks out for them, the major producers of the economy’s value?”
Ma’ariv criticizes the US and Western handling of the Iranian nuclear threat. The author suggests that their, „soft response,” to Tehran, „will soon drag additional regimes into the nuclear arms race,” and will spur greater Shi’ite terrorism, and warns, „From here, the route to chaos is short and one-way.”
Yisrael Hayom says that Knesset approval of the proposal to formally legalize the homes on Ulpana Hill in Beit El would mean that, „Israel is adopting post facto legislation. It would overturn a court verdict at a time when the democratic world has no concept like a ‘law to circumvent the High Court of Justice’. Theoretically, such a country is liable to deteriorate to the point where it punishes citizens who legally express themselves against the regime because the latter has, in the meantime, changed the law. This reads like a story by Franz Kafka, 88 years after his death.” The author says that Likud ministers Dan Meridor, Benny Begin and Michael Eitan, „cannot support such a proposal, not because they have turned their backs on the Land of Israel, but because they refuse to turn their backs on the ideas of Zeev Jabotinsky and
– mainly –
Menachem Begin, specifically on the latter’s 1951 manifesto on the supremacy of the rule of law<www.begincenter.org.il/uploads/Our%20World%20View.pdf>*.” The paper contends that, „Nobody wants to see the demolition or uprooting of the homes, but this is one of the cases in which accepting a bad verdict by the judicial authority is better than demolishing the High Court of Justice merely to justly allow five homes to remain standing.” The author recalls, „The government of Menachem Begin, which was established around a decade after the Six Day War, determined the settlement enterprise would not be carried on private Palestinian land. It is possible that a generation of politicians has arisen in the Likud that does not know the Jabotinsky-Begin heritage and reservations about it. It seems to me that it is a source of pride.” The paper agrees with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contention that the proposal would hurt Israel’s international standing.
*See pages 24-29
BreuerPress info
