HEADLINES FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

HA’ARETZ 1. UN PREDICTS 100,000 DEAD IN ASIA; ASSESSMENT: AT LEAST FIVE ISRAELIS DEAD. Number of missing Israelis down to 32; ZAKA and police delegation arrives in Thailand to aid in identifying the dead. 2. VATICAN ORDERED AFTER HOLOCAUST: JEWISH CHILDREN WHO FOUND REFUGE IN CHURCHES WERE NOT TO BE RETURNED TO THEIR PARENTS. 3. TEST FOR RELATIONS WITH ABU MAZEN: FENCE IN ETZION BLOC TO ANNEX 18,000 PALESTINIANS. 4. DESPITE INTIFADA: INCREASE IN RECRUITMENT OF MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS TO IDF. Senior IDF Personnel Branch officer reports 20% increase in recruitment of young Muslims and Christians in 2004. HATZOFEH 1. (…). 32 ISRAELIS MISSING. Number of Israelis still unaccounted for declined to 32, according to Foreign Ministry data; 21 in Thailand, five in Sri Lanka and six in southern India. Yesterday, police and Magen David Adom crews reached disaster zone. (…). 2. DEFENSE MINISTRY DIRECTOR-GENERAL ADMITS: THERE IS CRISIS WITH PENTAGON. 3. PALESTINIAN TERRORISM STRIKES COHEN FAMILY FROM KFAR DAROM FOR SECOND TIME. MA’ARIV 1. (…). 35 Israelis missing. COMMON GRAVES. Rescue crews: “Very soon, we will not succeed in identifying bodies.” In meantime, dead being buried in common graves. Israelis in Andaman: “We will celebrate New Year’s Eve here.” Israelis in Thailand: Looking for relatives. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. (…). SEARCHING AMONG THE BODIES. Families of the missing in desperate race to find their loved ones or identify them among the dead. 33 Israelis still unaccounted for. 40 missing Israelis discovered yesterday happy and smoking bongs amidst amazing view on island in Andaman group. (…). ______________________________ SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS Yediot Ahronot asserts that, “The ‘Next Generation’ program, in which senior officers are sent to schools in order to raise morale and the desire to be drafted, is fundamentally mistaken,” and adds that, “The very wording of the project’s goal smacks of the indoctrination done in dark places.” Hatzofeh contrasts the different approaches of Magen David Adom and ZAKA, and congratulates ZAKA for being creative and taking the initiative in its mode of operation. BPI-info