HEADLINES FROM THE IZRAELI PRESS
HA’ARETZ
1. ISRAEL: CANCELLATION OF GAS AGREEMENT HAS NO BEARING ON PEACE AGREEMENT WITH EGYPT
Head of Egyptian gas company says „This was business, not politics.” Cancellation not expected to lead to electricity price hike.
2. PERES: POSSIBLE TO REACH PEACE WITH ABBAS
President: „He is a worthy partner who could supply the goods. Netanyahu knows all the details.”
3. TEL AVIV MUNICIPALITY SEEKING TO OPERATE SEVEN NEW TAXI LINES ON SHABBAT
MA’ARIV
1. EGYPTIAN GAS COMPANY CANCELS AGREEMENT WITH ISRAEL
Assessment: Economic move that is designed to pressure shareholders in Yossi Maiman’s company, which has sued Egypt.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. EGYPT CLOSES THE GAS TAP
Little emotion in Israel over Egyptian announcement: Commercial, not diplomatic, dispute.
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. Jerusalem trying to reassure: Halt in Egyptian gas
– not a political step.
BUSINESS DISPUTE, DIPLOMATIC CONCERNS
Egyptian gas company unilaterally announced that gas agreement with Israel is cancelled. Significance: Economic damage
–
mainly to businessman Yossi Maiman. Minister Landau: We prepared in advance for this possibility.
2. NAVAL COMMANDOS TAKE OVER SHIP ON HIGH SEAS Naval commandos searched for weapons on the ‘Beethoven’, which was sailing towards the Gaza Strip
–
but did not find any.
WALLA!
1. GRAFITTI AT AMMUNITION HILL: „GUNTER GRASS WAS RIGHT”
During week of Remembrance Day for the Fallen
–
graffiti sprayed at memorial site: „Zionism is the mother of all sins” and „Miserable Zionists.” Police open investigation and Jerusalem Mayor condemns incident.
2. CITATION FOR SOLDIER WHO ELIMINATED TERRORIST DESPITE HAVING BEEN STABBED IN THE NECK
During Kfir Brigade arrest operation in Yatta village last month, two terrorists attacked St-Sgt. Gal Weingarten and stabbed him in the neck. Soldier still managed to eliminate one terrorist and wound the other.
3. HAGAI AMIR, WHO ASSISTED IN MURDER OF YITZHAK RABIN, RELEASED FROM PRISON
Hagai Amir, brother of assassin Yigal Amir, went free after serving full sentence that was passed on him in 1995. He was convicted conspiracy to commit murder and threats against Ariel Sharon.
4. „UNILATERAL ABROGATION OF GAS AGREEMENT
–
NOT A GOOD SIGN”
FM Liberman expresses hope that gas dispute with Egypt will be resolved in business sphere, and said that this was an important commercial agreement that expressed stable relations. On [Egyptian] elections, he said, „One must honor any decision.”
NANA10
1. SOURCES IN JERUSALEM: „EGYPT HAS WANTED TO CANCEL GAS AGREEMENT FOR SOME TIME”
After cancellation of Egyptian gas agreement, sources in Israel claimed that that was an additional effect of Mubarak ouster. However, diplomatic sources claim that Cairo made it clear that this was an economic dispute only.
2. APPARENT: STATE ATTORNEY’S OFFICE AND LIBERMAN TO REACH PLEA BARGAIN
3. TIGHTENING ALLIANCE: LIBERMAN LEAVING ON DIPLOMATIC VISIT TO AZERBAIJAN
[Headlines for Walla! and Nana10 are from their websites as of 10:25.] ______________________________
SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot asserts that, „There is no connection, not even a weak one, between the recommendations of the report of the committee to limit cartelization in the economy and prices levels. To present the committee’s recommendations as a solution to high prices
–
is to deceive.”
Ma’ariv discusses an „Independence paradox.” The author suggests that, „An Iranian nuclear bomb could place Israel in an existential danger for the first time since 1948. In the Holocaust, the Jewish People’s wide dispersion throughout the world saved it from annihilation. Does, paradoxically, its centralization in the Israeli-Jewish State place it before a potential possibility of fatal nuclear strike? We should not avoid such hard questions on the eve of our 64th Independence Day celebrations.”
Yisrael Hayom remarks that, „There are those who claimed last night that stopping the flow of [Egyptian] gas to Israel is solely a ‘business dispute’. One need not be a prophet in order to predict events Egypt since the Tahrir revolution. Under Mubarak it would not have happened.”
BreuerPress info
