1. PM’S NO’S: JERUSALEM, REFUGEES AND RETURN TO 1967 BORDERS.
Sharp division between Israel and Palestinian Authority ahead of next
week’s Jerusalem tripartite summit.
2. OLMERT CONFIDANTS: DECISION TO POSTPONE CONSTRUCTION OF MUGRABI GATE
RAMP – „PREDICTABLE.”
3. ALSO: OLMERT AGAINST PERETZ AND AGAINST NETANYAHU.
HATZOFEH
1. Abu Mazen to US: Unity government only after tripartite meeting.
ISRAELI-EGYPTIAN AGREEMENT TO RELEASE 1429 TERRORISTS FOR SHALIT.
So claims senior Hamas member, emphasizing: Israel must pay for all
detentions and destroyed buildings. Abu Mazen concerned that new
government guidelines will cancel meeting with Olmert and Rice.
Palestinian negotiations to begin on Wednesday.
2. POLICE: INVESTIGATE PRESIDENT CASE LEAKS
3. DIRECT CONFRONTATION BETWEEN NETANYAHU AND OLMERT: „YOU HELPED HAMAS
AS PRIME MINISTER.”
Prime Minister and opposition head clash head-on in Knesset Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee. Netanyahu: Government has failed – it
should go home.
4. OLMERT: RELATIONS WITH MINISTERS NEED NOT BE INTIMATE.
Claims that his rapport with the Defense Minister „is carrying on as
usual, without problems.”
5. HERZOG SURPRISED AT PERETZ’S WILLINGNESS TO CONCEDE TOURISM PORTFOLIO
– AND OLMERT ALSO DOES NOT WANT TO.
MA’ARIV
1. Tomorrow: Gaby Ashkenazi to be appointed C-O-S.
PLANNED GENERAL STAFF.
Surprises are indicated: Amos Gilad likely to return as GOC
Intelligence, Prof. Yishai Bar candidate for GOC Southern Command.
2. DEFENSE INDUSTRY’S AERIAL BATTLES.
Senior Israel Aerospace Industries official turned to Russians in order
to shoot down huge deal by Israeli competitor Elbit.
3. THE PALESTINIAN WHO WILL PLAN LIGHT RAIL.
Birzeit graduate will build Tel Aviv train.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. ISRAEL ACCELERATES ARROW [MISSILE] DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE OF IRANIAN
THREATS.
Within two-three weeks Israel Aerospace Industries is to conduct
additional test of advanced Arrow Missile, which can intercept nuclear
and chemical missiles far from Israeli territory.
2. APPARENT: STATE WITNESS IN HIRCHSON AFFAIR.
Advanced negotiations with Ovadia Cohen, Finance Minister’s confidant,
on deal to reveal non-profit association embezzlement of millions.
3. ONLY STREET IN ISRAEL NAMED AFTER MEIR KAHANE.
Or Akiva Mayor – Whoever doesn’t like it – let them complain.
SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot suggests that Jerusalem Mayor, „Uri Lupolianski pulled
Ehud Olmert’s chestnuts out of the fire,” by temporarily freezing plans
to build a new pedestrian bridge at the Temple Mount Mugrabi Gate but
adds, „We have no illusions: The recent battle over the Mugrabi Gate was
not over the bridge or this or that dig. The war is over Israeli
sovereignty over Jews’ holiest site – and one of Muslims’ holiest
sites.” While the editors assert that, „There is much truth in the
claim that this is a religious war that will not end in the forseeable
future,” they nevertheless commend Mayor Lupolianski and suggest that
the bridge can be built at a more appropriate time.
Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, comments on the checkered
relationship between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister
Amir Peretz and declares: „We must tell the two of them: Friends, this
is the lives of our children and the future of the State of Israel. If
you are incapable of working together, even while frothing at the mouth,
then you would do well to go home.”
Hatzofeh notes that Bar Ilan University has cited – inter alia – the
principle of academic freedom of expression regarding the controversy
over its Prof. Ariel Toaff’s book ‘Passover of Blood’ but asks, „Holy
sacrosanct is academic freedom when it comes to pouring oil on the fire
of anti-Semitism that is now raging in the Western and Arab worlds?”
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