23.9.3. HAARETZ 1. PROPOSAL IN PRISONERS NEGOTIATIONS: RELEASE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AND EXPEL THEM. Nasrallah: Negotiations at critical stage, we will look for information on Ron Arad. 2. HAARETZ INVESTIGATION: SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET FOR SETTLEMENTS APPROXIMATELY NIS 2.5 BILLION PER ANNUM. Civil costs per resident: NIS 10,000 a year. Supplementary civil expenditure since 1967: At least NIS 45 billion. Supplementary costs of building roads since 1967: NIS 21 billion. Security costs in territories during conflict:
NIS 4 billion a year. Extending separation fence due to settlements: NIS 3 million. Loan guarantee cuts due to settlements: 2 billion a year. 3. PERES TO SHARON: YOU DONT NEED US IN THE GOVERNMENT. DECIDE AND WE WILL SUPPORT. HATZOFEH 1. News on prisoner exchange deal within a few days. HIZBALLAH DEMANDS SWEEPING RELEASE OF HUNDREDS OF TERRORISTS. Hizballah demands include: Marwan Barghouti and Husam Khader, in addition to Sheik Obeid and Mustafa Dirani. Hizballah also demanding release of two foreign terrorists who arrived in Israel to perpetrate attacks and were captured. Ilan Biran, head of Israeli negotiating team, carrying out negotiations in Germany with Ernst mediator Erlau. Sheikh Nasrallah: We have an interest in providing information on Ron Arad. Report from Kazakhstan: Chief Rabbi Metzger to discuss Ron Arads fate with Iranian spiritual leaders. 2. IDF ELIMINATES SENIOR HAMAS TERRORIST IN HEBRON. IDF demolishes house of leader of Hamas terror cell in Hebron, who was responsible for 51 Israelis killed and 244 injured. 3. MINISTER SHALOM: TERROR IS GLOBAL PROBLEM, NOT LOCAL ISSUE. 4. DEFENSE MINISTER SHAUL MOFAZ: WE WILL EXPEDITE BUILDING OF JERUSALEM ENVELOPE. 5. GOVERNOR OF BANK OF ISRAEL REDUCES INTEREST RATES BY 0.4%. 6. SELF-EMPLOYED: 65,000 BUSINESSES TO CLOSE BY END OF YEAR. MAARIV 1. PLOT: BLOW UP TEMPLE MOUNT MOSQUES. ISA uncovers: Jewish underground planned series of attacks on mosques in one day. 2. PRISONER RELEASE DEAL REVEALED. 3. MERKAVA-IV IN DANGER: CONCERN THAT THOUSANDS WILL BE FIRED. No way out of canceling military industries flag project in Israel, declare senior IDF officers. Senior officer: If this happens 220 factories will be affected, 15,000 people likely to lose livelihoods. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. Hizballah to promise: We will make effort to obtain information on Ron Arad. DEAL IS CLOSE: BARGHOUTI WILL NOT BE RELEASED. Israel and Hizballah on verge of completing negotiations. Sharons Bureau: In return for Elhanan Tannenbaum and bodies of the three kidnapped soldiers, we will release Palestinian prisoners but not hundreds. ______________________________ SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, endorses the projected deal in which Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of the three IDF soldiers who were abducted from Mt. Dov almost three years ago (see www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0jd50) will be exchanged for dozens of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The editors remark that, Several times in the past we have been obliged to pay very high prices for people who were being held captive, and the principle of redeeming captives has always been weighed against the fear of encouraging abductions for bargaining purposes. The paper avers that, We cannot envy those who must make the decisions, and adds, They do not make their decisions lightly; we cannot criticize them. Hatzofeh strongly criticizes Interior Minister Avraham Poraz for urging the Cabinet to reconsider its decision in principle to expel PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, in the wake of the lopsided UN General Assembly resolution calling on Israel not to expel him. The editors dismiss the UN General Assembly as a biased forum dominated by anti-Israel countries and declare that, The UN has stopped representing justice and equality among peoples. Yediot Ahronot laments a 30-year-old Israeli inability to make major, fateful decisions and says that the controversy over the demarcation of the security fence is its most recent expression.
