HEADLINES FROM THE HEBREW PRESS SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

3.11.2003 HA’ARETZ 1. CONTACTS IN EFFORT TO POSTPONE GENERAL STRIKE CONTINUE THROUGH NIGHT. SHARON ASKS PERETZ FOR TWO-DAY POSTPONEMENT; LABOR COURT DISCUSSING MOTION AGAINST HISTADRUT. (…). 2. RECORD OF 226,797 JOB SEEKERS, RISE OF 3.2%. (…). 3. SHALOM: EUROPEAN POLL IS NOT SIGN OF ANTI-SEMITISM. 4. US INTELLIGENCE: APPLY PRESSURE OVER SETTLEMENT ISSUE. 5. EGYPT PREPARING NEW HUDNA. US supports efforts. 6. “POSITIVE MEETING” BETWEEN DICHTER AND RAJOUB. HATZOFEH 1. Last minute intervention by Prime Minister to prevent strike. COUNTRY STRIKEBOUND. (…). 2. SIX IDF SOLDIERS WOUNDED BY BOMB AND TERRORIST FIRE IN SAMARIA. 3. SEVERE WARNING FOR TERROR ATTACK IN JERUSALEM – POLICE ON HIGH ALERT. 4. ADDITIONAL 7,100 UNEMPLOYED IN SEPTEMBER: 226,800 TOTAL. 5. SHARON TO MEET RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN. MA’ARIV 1. Efforts through night: Prime Minister called from Russia and asked to postpone. COUNTRY ON STRIKE. (…). 2. RECORD: 227,000 UNEMPLOYED. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. (…). WAR OF NERVES. At last minute Sharon intervened last night from Moscow in attempt to prevent “mother of all strikes.” ______________________________


Hatzofeh comments on the general strike that had been threatened for today and urges the Finance Ministry and the Histadrut to negotiate and thus, “spare the put-upon citizen the unnecessary suffering of a strike.” Yediot Ahronot compares the Israel of today to the Israel of eight years ago, on the eve of the assassination of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, suggests that the late Yitzhak Rabin would not recognize contemporary Israel and notes that many young people attended last Saturday’s rally in his memory in Tel Aviv. BPI.