HA’ARETZ:1. Foreign Ministry Intelligence Center report:
DIPLOMATIC STALEMATE LIABLE TO LEAD TO WEST BANK VIOLENCE.
Annual intelligence assessment submitted to Cabinet warns that Egypt would respond severely to Israeli action in the Gaza Strip.
2. TRANSPORTATION MINISTER PLANNING 475 KILOMETERS OF RAILWAYS IN THE WEST BANK.
3. Shas and United Torah Judaism:
„WE WILL GIVE OUR LIVES FOR THE CONTINUATION OF THE [MILITARY] EXEMPTION FOR [ULTRA-ORTHODOX] YESHIVA STUDENTS.”
MA’ARIV
1. LAST NIGHT: HASTY EMERGENCY MEETING AGAINST IDF DRAFT OF [ULTRA-ORTHODOX] YESHIVA STUDENTS.
Heads of all ultra-orthodox [Knesset] factions met at Rabbi Shteinman’s home and decided: Uniting against military draft.
2. SENIOR RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT: WE HAVE WARNED ISRAEL AGAINST ATTACKING IRAN.
Moscow sends message to Jerusalem: „Military action would throw region into chaos.”
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. Liter of gasoline jumping to NIS 7.99.
FUEL DISCIPLINE.
(…).
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. PM: „THIS IS NOT HOW YOU MAKE PEACE.”
Outrage in Jerusalem over Abu Mazen’s speech in Qatar, in which he claimed that Israel is erasing all signs of Islam and Christianity in Jerusalem. Netanyahu: „Harshly inflammatory speech.”
WALLA!
1. FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS ON MIGRON OUTPOST; BEGIN SET TO QUIT AS MEDIATOR.
Minister Begin’s contacts with Migron settlers have failed and settlers are refusing to move their homes. Begin set to announce his resignation as mediator.
2. BANGKOK: THREE MORE IRANIANS BEING INVESTIGATED, ANOTHER APARTMENT FOUND.
(…).
3. OSCARS: „FOOTNOTE” LOSES TO IRANIAN FILM.
NANA10
1. ONE MONTH BEFORE EVACUATION: RUPTURE IN CONTACTS ON MOVING MIGRON.
After reaching agreement on moving outpost’s structures to adjoining state lands, settlers announced rejection of compromise yesterday following consultations with rabbis. Reason: Lack of agreement regarding structures to be demolished after evacuation.
2. BOMB EXPLODES NEAR RAMALLAH.
Tension in Judea and Samaria continues to rise. Gas balloon placed inside burning tire explodes near demarcation fence. No casualties.
3. THREE MORE IRANIANS ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF INVOLVEMENT IN BANGKOK EXPLOSION.
(…).
[Headlines for Walla! and Nana10 are from their websites as of 10:55.] ______________________________
SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot says that, „In Israel, nobody is asking if non-conventional weapons, such as chemical weapons, or other strategic weapons, such as advanced anti-aircraft missiles or the latest Scuds, will be transferred to Lebanon, they are asking when this will happen. According to assessments in Israel, it is only a question of time and opportunity before such weaponry falls into Hezbollah’s hands.” The author believes that, „From Israel’s point-of-view, the transfer of weapons systems such as SA-8 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to Lebanon would constitute a threat to the air force’s freedom of action in the north,” and adds that, „This would require Israel to make decisions in order to neutralize this threat.” The paper avers that, „The likelihood that Assad would use strategic weapons against Israel in a situation in which his back was pushed to the wall is low,” partly because, „The use of missiles and heavy rockets against Israel would require a series of actions that the Syrian regime, which is on the verge of crumbling, would find it difficult to carry out.” The author concludes by cautioning that further collapse in Syria might lead to Sinai-like anarchy in the regions bordering on the Golan Heights.
Ma’ariv suggests that the ultra-orthodox rabbinical and political leadership is beginning to digest the full import of last week’s High Court of Justice decision to overturn the Tal Law. The author speculates that, „The ultra-orthodox will try to formulate a new law that will hardly differ from its predecessor,” but adds that, „The problem is that most parties are already looking at elections, a High Court test would be difficult and the story will be complicated if not impossible.”
Yisrael Hayom refers to Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen’s remarks in Doha yesterday<www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/Spokesman/2012/02/spokemazen260212.htm> and says that, „For two decades now, the Palestinians have been reinventing the history of Jerusalem.” The author reminds his readers that the Palestinian leader accused of Israel of seeking to erase the symbols of the city’s Islamic and Christian past and declares that, „It is hard to sink lower than this.” The paper strongly criticizes the Arab record in eastern Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967<www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFjerusalem.html#6> and the destruction of artifacts from the Temple Mount<www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFjerusalem.html#15>, and notes the increasing Islamization of Bethlehem since the advent of Palestinian Authority control. The author contends that, „The ‘Al Aqsa is in danger’ libel that Abu Mazen and his cohorts repeat ad nauseum is not just an abominable lie but the opposite of the truth,” and says that, „On the Temple Mount, Israel made an unbelievable concession when it delivered de facto control of Judaism’s holiest site to Muslims even though it is only Islam’s third holiest site.” Lastly, the paper points out that, „The neighborhoods [over the pre-1967 Green Line] in which 200,000 Jews live today were built by Israel on mostly open areas,” and adds that more Arabs currently live in the city’s Jewish neighborhoods than Jews in its Arab neighborhoods.
BreuerPress-info
