HEADLINES FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

HA’ARETZ 1. 149 days till evacuation. CABINET APPROVES SETTLEMENT EVACUATION; SHARON: HARDEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. Seventeen ministers supported disengagement, five opposed; Sharon and Mofaz sign orders: Evacuation to begin 20th July; Israel to release 500 prisoners today. 2. IN GUSH KATIF: NO MORE “MR. NICE GUY”, WE WILL ACT ILLEGALLY. 3. Extreme right wing – good for the Jews? EUROPEAN JEWS FEARFUL OF ISLAM AND ARE MOVING RIGHT. 4. PANDORA’S NUCLEAR BOX. Report by pro-Israel institute recommends that Israel cease creating material that can be used to produce nuclear weapons, on the assumption that countries in the region will do the same. HATZOFEH 1. Cabinet approves uprooting Gush Katif by 17-5 majority. EXPULSION ORDERS SIGNED. Prime Minister and Defense Minister signed [orders] yesterday on uprooting Gush Katif Jews. Day of Destruction fixed for 13th Tamuz 5775/20th July 2005. Signing possible after cabinet approved uprooting. Sharon: Decision on disengagement is hardest decision I’ve had to make. Yesha Council: Those who supported transfer will be remembered as instigating the destruction. Cabinet also approved new fence route, including Gush Etzion, Maaleh Adumim and southern Hebron Hills. 2. DICHTER: ROAD 443 WILL BECOME MASSACRE ZONE. ISA Director said this after government approved new separation fence route. New route will annex approximately 7% of West Bank territory and not 16% as originally planned. 3. YA’ALON: I WILL LEAVE EARLIER THAN PLANNED. On visit to Ephraim Regional Brigade, Chief-of-Staff said that for disengagement and security of Israel, he would agree to leave position early. Mofaz clarifies: There was no dismissal, but preference. MA’ARIV 1. Cabinet approves disengagement by large majority. HARDEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. For second time in country’s history, Government has decided to evacuate Israeli communities. Last night, Prime Minister signed evacuation orders for settlements in Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. 2. Expose: NOT ONLY ISA HAS “CHAMPAGNE”. Police source behind some of the incitement and protest actions attributed to extreme right wing. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. Sharon signs evacuation [orders] for Gaza and northern Samaria. HARDEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. Last night: Thirty-eight years after sending them to strengthen hold on territories, Sharon signed orders to remove settlers from their homes. ______________________________ SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS Hatzofeh accuses those who favor the Disengagement Plan of claiming that all those who oppose it are necessarily engaging in dangerous incitement. The editors believe that, “The signs of a police state are before our eyes,” and declare that, “We must rise up against the dictatorship at the gates.” The paper believes that the Government’s reckless policies may provoke the very disaster it claims it is trying to avoid. Yediot Ahronot calls on the Government to learn from what the paper deems to have been the chief failure of the withdrawal from Yamit, namely that, “The political leadership was nowhere to be seen on the ground and left the confrontation to the army and the settlers.” The editors urge that this not happen again in order, “to assure an evacuation without injury and without humiliation,” and so that the evacuation is carried out with, “the required assertiveness and the necessary empathy.” Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, says that the evacuees will win public empathy and solidarity by being the pioneers they claim to be and building new communities in areas, “that are crying out for a pioneering spirit.” The editors caution that the public will have no empathy for, “those settlers who use threats and violently oppose the evacuation.” Yediot Ahronot, in its third editorial, commends Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s style of speaking as well as her leadership at the Justice Ministry. BPI-info