1. UN TO LEBANON: CIVILIAN INSPECTORS ON SYRIAN BORDER TO PREVENT SMUGGLING.
2. ISRAELI EFFORTS TO PREVENT INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF PA GOVERNMENT.
3. Despite the speech.
KADIMA PREPARING FOR DAY AFTER OLMERT: THIS IS ALSO OUR PLACE OF WORK.
4. ETHIOPIA: CLOSURE ORDER ON IMMIGRANT WAITING CAMP IN GONDAR.
Reason: Complaints by Christian residents. Implementation of order delayed due to appeal submitted by Falash Mura immigration organizations.
5. TODAY: HIRCHSON TO MEET EINI IN ORDER TO PREVENT GENERAL STRIKE.
Strike, due to start on Wednesday, to affect 700,000 workers; Finance ministry – Number of unpaid workers has declined.
HATZOFEH
1. Calls in EU to cooperate with Palestinian government.
DIPLOMATIC DRUBBING.
Norway announces resumption of relations with Palestinian government. France invites Palestinian Foreign Minister for visit. Ireland and Spain: Consider dropping boycott of Palestinians. Israel: We will boycott Palestinian government but will talk to Abu Mazen. Arab minister Majdele: Hold links with Fatah ministers.
2. ABU MAZEN AND HANIYEH AGREE: RETURN REFUGEES TO ISRAEL.
Haniyeh, at presentation of unity government: „Opposition is Palestinian people’s legitimate right until end of the ‘occupation’.”
3. EFFORT TO PREVENT CLOSURE OF IMMIGRANT CAMP IN ETHIOPIA.
MA’ARIV
1. Expose: During Lebanon war, France worked to topple Assad government.
CHIRAC PROPOSED TO ISRAEL: ATTACK SYRIA.
Secret message passed from Paris to Jerusalem at start of war: If IDF invades Syria, France will back Israel at UN. Motive: Hostility between Chirac and Assad. „They wanted us to do their dirty work.”
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. Israeli effort to prevent recognition of Haniyeh government fails.
WORLD HALTS BOYCOTT OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT.
US to hold contacts with Finance Minister Fayyad. Great Britain to maintain links with some ministers. France calls for resumption of flow of funds. EU to cooperate with new government.
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot calls on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to fulfill his obligation: „The release of Gilad Shalit is your workplace.”
Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, says that the announcement that Abu Mazen is authorized to maintain contacts with Israel is an opportunity for the Government to switch from neutral to drive.
Yediot Ahronot, in its third editorial, decries the bulldozing, for the fifth time, of Bedouin tents and tin shacks in the Negev. The editors claim that the treatment of the Bedouin population exemplifies the typical Israeli approach to the Negev Bedouin, which deeply undercuts human rights and breaches the principle of equality, and frustrates coexistence.
Hatzofeh asserts that when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert created the distinction between a positive Abu Mazen and a negative Hamas he opened the door to the European Union claim that it is also possible to differentiate between Fatah and Hamas regarding both ministers and financial aid transfers.
BreuerPresss