SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

HEADLINES FROM THE HEBREW PRESS HA’ARETZ 1. IDF EVACUATES FIVE SETTLEMENTS; NEXT OBJECTIVE: KFAR DAROM AND NEVEH DEKALIM SYNAGOGUE. 5,000 residents have already left Gaza Strip; assessment: Approximately 3,000 residents and 5,000 infiltrators left in Gush Katif. 2. Jewish terrorism. SHVUT RACHEL SETTLER MURDERS FOUR PALESTINIANS; HAMAS’S RESPONSE: WE WILL NOT HARM EVACUATION OF SETTLEMENTS. 3. „KFAR DAROM WILL NOT FALL,” BEING ASSURED IN COMMUNITY AHEAD OF EVACUATION TODAY. HATZOFEH 1. Thousands of youths barricading themselves in Neveh Dekalim synagogue. BEGINNING OF TRANSFER. First day of racist transfer accompanied by heart-rending scenes (.). In contrast to predictions, expulsion passed quietly. However, at Kfar Darom, which is due to be uprooted today, residents are promising that they won’t leave without a struggle. Yesterday: Uprooting of Kerem Atzmona, Ganei Tal, and Tel Katifa completed. Sharon calls on settlers: „Attack me, I am responsible for this, it was my decision.” Tension in Gush Katif peaked when, at Shilo, settler murdered four Palestinians. Yesterday evening: Army withdrew from Neveh Dekalim and thousands of youths holing up in synagogue sang and danced. 2. LARGE-SCALE DEMONSTRATION OPPOSITION SHIKMIM FARM. 3. TWENTY WOUNDED ON SECOND DAY OF UPROOTING. 4. JERUSALEM ADOPTS NEVEH DEKALIM RESIDENTS. 5. STOCK EXCHANGE HITS NEW RECORD. MA’ARIV 1. Next objective: Kfar Darom. In Samaria: Jew murders four Palestinians. FALL OF GUSH KATIF. In one day, Morag, Ganei Tal, Kerem Atzmona, Bedollah and Tel Katifa were evacuated. Most residents of Neveh Dekalim withdrawn to outside Gush Katif. This morning: Evacuation of Gush Katif capital to be completed – and forces will be directed, apparently, to Kfar Darom. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. Without violence, 6,000 settlers left their homes in Gush Katif. GOOD-BYE TO GAZA. IDF: By Tuesday, no Jews will remain in Gaza Strip. Today: Large forces deployed to evacuate those holing up in Shirat Yam and Neveh Dekalim synagogue. Following murder of four Palestinian workers by settler in Shilo industrial zone: Concern over revenge attack. ______________________________ Both papers discuss various issues related to the implementation of the Disengagement Plan: Yediot Ahronot characterizes the struggle over the Disengagement Plan as one, „between two beliefs. The first is that settling in every part of the Promised Land – now, immediately and without the Messiah having come – is holy. The opposite belief is that the democratic regime gives us the only tool with which we can decide, without bloodshed, what path the nation and the people will take.” The editors accuse the Yesha Council leadership of having deliberately tried to foil and nullify, „the decision of the elected institutions.” Hatzofeh says that, „Ariel Sharon will go down in the Guinness Book of Records as a man and a Jew who showed unprecedented insensitivity regarding the decent and proper citizens who have been struck by an awful personal-family tragedy in a single day – the residents of Gush Katif.” The editors condemn the Government for not postponing the evacuation until all the preparations for absorbing the evacuees were in order. Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, applauds the restraint being shown by the soldiers and police in Gaza in the face, „awful taunts.” BPI-info