HA’ARETZ:LIBYA CELEBRATES END TO 42 YEARS OF GADHAFI’S RULE

2. THE TENTS ARE EMPTYING OUT, THE PROTEST IS LOOKING FOR ITS WAY

Against backdrop of considerable decline in activity at encampments around the country, protest leaders are focusing on preparing for ‘million person march’ next month.

 

3. Financial damage estimated at hundreds of thousands of shekels.

ACTIVITY AT ASHDOD PORT HALTED FOR WEDDING OF SENIOR WORKERS COMMITTEE MEMBER

 

1. THE FALL AND THE VICTORY

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2. BARAK: MAJ.-GEN. RUSSO ERRED

DM on performance of GOC Southern Command during terrorist attack on Highway #12: „He erred in judgment and in assessing the reality.”

 

1. (…).

END OF A DICTATOR

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2. UNCALM CALM IN THE SOUTH: FIRING FROM GAZA HASN’T STOPPED COMPLETELY

 

1. (…).

LIBYA CELEBRATES, FOR NOW

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2. DESPITE THE CALM: KASSAMS

Hamas officially announces ceasefire but as of last night intermittent rocket and mortar fire has continued.

 

1. „BIN LADEN’S DOCTOR COMMANDED MAJOR EXERCISE IN THE SINAI”

According to an Egyptian newspaper report, army captured Dr. Ramzi Muwafi while he was commanding an exercise of 40 Al Qaeda operatives. It also claimed that hundreds of organization activists were sent to the peninsula in order to establish an Islamic emirate.

 

2. REPORT: „TURKEY CONSIDERING CREATION OF BUFFER ZONE ON TURKEY-SYRIA BORDER”

„Turkish President Abdullah Gul is extremely disappointed with the state of affairs in Syria and the continuing bloodshed there.” – So Turkish president’s senior advisor, Arshad Hurmuzlu, told Asharq Alawsat this morning.

 

1. TRAJTENBERG COMMITTEE HEARING PUBLIC STANCE: „THIS IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE; WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO JUSTICE BY EVERYONE”

 

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Yediot Ahronot discusses the claims of those who are calling for a more moderate policy toward Hamas because, inter alia, „‘In the end, we will talk to Hamas’.” The author reminds his readers that, „From the outset, the Jewish community here has always had interlocutors in the rival camp, but they have been silenced with the assistance of bullets and knives. Thus it was during the ‘Arab Revolt’ in the late 1930’s and in the decades since Fatah was founded.” While the paper commends not only Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad’s pragmatism, but the fact that he „has not been killed by the men with knives,” it also notes that he has no counterpart in Hamas. The author says that, „My conclusion is that Hamas’s leaders (‘the military arm’, ‘the political arm’ and all of the other ‘arms’ that this organization has grown) have not yet finished their course on pragmatism. Until they do so, we must ‘separate their heads from their bodies’ as the Defense Minister put it.”

 

Ma’ariv asserts that, „There is no argument that after 42 years in power, the time has come for Gadhafi to go and make way for others who will establish a free democratic regime in Libya that will defend human rights,” but adds that, „The only problem is that absolutely nobody in the whole world has a clue about how this will actually occur.” The author wonders whether post-Gadhafi Libya will be able to avoid the – still ongoing – tribulations of post-Saddam Iraq. The paper contends that the Libyans would never have been able to overthrow Gadhafi without massive NATO support and suggests that, „Tehran and Damascus have monitored the successful NATO operation in Libya with great interest. If there is anything that Assad and Ahmadinejad may conclude from this operation, it is that Gadhafi was a complete idiot to have – in 2003 – renounced the development of nuclear and chemical weapons, thus making himself more vulnerable. The Syrian President, as is known, has already threatened to use the ‘hidden capabilities’ at his disposal if he is attacked and the Iranian President is now hastening to move the uranium-producing centrifuges to a protected underground facility in Qom.”

 

Yisrael Hayom suggests that Israel’s acceptance of Hamas’s request for a temporary truce, which was delivered via Cairo, is an effort to bolster the position of the Egypt’s ruling military council in the face of growing anti-Israel sentiment among the Egyptian people. While the author commends the Government’s, „responsible and mature policy,” he nevertheless acknowledges that the truce has, „left a bitter taste,” due to an impression that, „the terrorist organizations have yet to be properly punished for the murders north of Eilat and for firing missiles at communities in the center and south of the country.”