3.12.2003 HAARETZ 1. US DONTS: DONT EXPEL ARAFAT, DONT SHOCK REGION, DONT FOIL PALESTINIAN STATE. US administration: State must be durable and contiguous. White House lowers profile and asks, Dont bother Bush. Reason: President busy with Iraq and 2004 elections. US trying to foil initiative to transfer fence to discussion at Hague. [US Ambassador to Israel Daniel C.] Kurtzer in contacts with Defense Ministry to advance evacuation of outposts.
2. Jerusalem security fence: Refugee camps and neighborhoods out. ID CARDS OF 100,000 PALESTINIANS TO LOSE THEIR SIGNIFICANCE. 3. FINANCE MINISTRY BACKTRACKS: WILL GIVE IN ON IMMEDIATE DISBANDING OF PORTS AUTHORITY. 4. LIKE USING CHILDREN AS MINE DETECTORS. Untrained and unprotected soldiers sent to sweep area full of unexploded ammunition. 5. ATTORNEY GENERAL: CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST [LIKUD] MKS [YEHIEL] HAZAN AND [MICHAEL] GORLOVSKY OVER DOUBLE VOTING. Decides to indict MKS for forgery, fraud and violation of confidence. HATZOFEH 1. Olmert: Powell mistaken for meeting initiators of Geneva understandings. FOREIGN MINISTER: NEGOTIATIONS WITH ASSAD – AFTER HE STOPS TERROR FROM SYRIA. Security sources: Syrian proposal to open negotiations – throwing sand in American eyes. [President Moshe] Katsav: Resume negotiations unconditionally. 2. NEGEV DRAMA: AIR FORCE HELICOPTERS RESCUED DOZENS OF GIRLS FROM BUS TRAPPED IN FLOODS. Floods in center of country; peak of storm still before us. 3. DOUBLE VOTING AFFAIR: [ATTORNEY GENERAL ELYAKIM] RUBINSTEIN SEEKS TO REMOVE IMMUNITY OF MKS HAZAN AND GORLOVSKY. MAARIV 1. Mediator passed on Damascus ceasefire message. SYRIAN PROPOSAL. Several weeks ago, international figure arrived in Jerusalem from Syria and proposed formulation for quiet in North. Halt to flights over Lebanon in exchange for cessation of Hizballah attacks. Claimed in Israel: It is no proposal, merely mediators idea. 2. (
). THUS IDF SENDS SOLDIERS TO DRAW FIRE. Soldiers complain: They make us dress up as settlers and travel on roads in Judea and Samaria in order to draw fire from terrorist ambushes. Not in protected vehicles, without flak jackets or helmets and so crowded that our ability to drive and react is greatly restricted. IDF: Objective is to apprehend stone-throwers. 3. SOON: NATIONAL SERVICE FOR ALL THOSE WHO ARE NOT DRAFTED. Special committee considering ways to involve 18-year-olds in civilian institutions. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. Wintry onslaught – yesterday: Floods; as of tonight: Storms. DELUGE ON ITS WAY. We saw death and recited Psalms, dozens of girls who were rescued by helicopter from stranded bus said yesterday. Shas Chairman Eli Yishais daughter among those rescued. ______________________________ SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS Hatzofeh compares US Secretary of State Colin Powells expected meeting with the initiators of the Geneva understandings to a meeting between the French Foreign Minister and Indian representatives claiming they were expelled from their country. The editors claim that, Powell is going to give validation to a diplomatic performance that every Israeli political party, including Meretz is distancing itself from and condemn Beilin and his cohorts for
undermining the legitimacy of the government and elected Knesset. The paper urges the government to protest the planned meeting with Powell. Yediot Ahronot says that Golan Heights residents do not need to, start packing their bags, in response to Syrian President Bashar Assads statement this week. The editors assert that, Assads declaration
is a shriek in the darkness aimed at Washington, which is planning to take a hard line with Syria in the near future. The paper believes that a peace agreement with Syria could have been achieved during Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Baraks tenures, but asserts that, Both realized that peace with Damascus will only be possible with a complete evacuation of the Golan Heights, to the 4.6.67 lines, and adds that, There is no-one in the State of Israel who will make such a courageous decision. Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, discusses the plight of foreign workers in Israel. Yediot Ahronot, in its third editorial, bemoans the fact that Israeli youth have little knowledge of their heritage.
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