Thursday, December 1, 2005

HA’ARETZ

1. PERES LEAVES LABOR: JOINS SHARON.

Peres and Sharon: Will hold joint press conference on Sunday.  Reactions: "Peres will be remembered as someone who abandoned his home," being said in Labor.  Kadima: Ronit Tirosh joins Sharon's party.  Labor: Aryeh Amit with Peretz; assessment – slated for Public Security portfolio.  Omri Sharon: Knesset House Committee doesn't suspend PM's son.

2. LIKUD'S CAMPAIGN: YOU VOTED FOR SHARON, YOU GOT PERES.

3. Special Dialogue poll:

ONE-THIRD OF THE PUBLIC: PERES'S QUITTING INCREASES CHANCE THAT WE'LL VOTE FOR SHARON.

4. SUPREME COURT: ZEEV ROSENSTEIN TO BE EXTRADITED TO THE US FOR TRIAL.

5. PLEA BARGAIN FOR TALI FAHIMA.

According to deal, she will be released in 11 months; aiding enemy erased from amended indictment.

HATZOFEH

1. After 46 years in Labor Party, Peres announced that he is quitting.

PERES ANNOUNCES HIS SUPPORT FOR SHARON.

Yesterday: Peres announced that he reached conclusion that Sharon is only one who can bring peace.  Ronit Tirosh joins Kadima, Aryeh Amit joins Labor.  Likud increasingly concerned over polls that forecast total collapse.

2. ROSENSTEIN TO BE EXTRADITED TO US.

Thus decided Supreme Court.

3. MK OMRI SHARON ILL NOT BE SUSPENDED.

Knesset House committee postponed discussion of suspension.

4. UPROOTED SHOUT AT SHARON: HAVE YOU EXPELLED AND ALSO ABANDONED?

5. PLEA BARGAIN IN FAHIMA AFFAIR.

Fahima to admit to being in contact with foreign agent and three years will be taken off her sentence in return.

6. UEFA CUP: HUMILIATING DEFEAT FOR MACCABI PETAH TIKVA.

4-0 loss to Lokomotiv Moscow; no chance of advancing to next stage.

7. SERIES OF LAWS GRANTING BENEFITS TO RESERVISTS APPROVED.

MA’ARIV

1. Senior security source to Ma'ariv:

"WE WILL HAVE TO GET USED TO NUCLEAR IRAN."

Source added: We cannot deal with Tehran alone.  OC Intelligence: We can halt Iranian bomb only before March.

2. "I AM WITH SHARON."

Last night: Shimon Peres, member of Labor party leadership for 50 years, announced that he was quitting.  In shaking voice, he sat before microphones and said: "Arik is the best man to bring peace."

YEDIOT AHRONOT

1. ISRAELIS TRAINING FIGHTERS IN IRAQ.

Dozens of combat unit veterans training Kurdish fighters at secret military installation in northern Iraq.  They were sent by Israeli companies that built airfield in Kurdish area capital.  Leading company established by former Mossad Director MK Danny Yatom.  Yatom: "I have cut ties with company."

2. GOOD-BYE TO LABOR.

"Sharon is best leader and I will support him," Peres said with sad face – and quit his political home and the Knesset after 46 years.

3. AND GOOD-BYE TO MERETZ.

Tomorrow: Yossi Sarid to announce his retirement from politics.  Plans to write books and teach.

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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

Hatzofeh is unimpressed that journalist Shelly Yachimovich and Prof. Uriel Reichman have joined Labor and Kadima, respectively.   The editors believe that the former is an extreme leftist and the latter an extreme secularist.  The paper calls on leading religious Zionist rabbis to become actively involved in brokering a deal between the NRP and the National Union on a joint Knesset list.

Yediot Ahronot compares Ariel Sharon's political career to that of Charles DeGaulle.

Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, comments on developments in Meretz and says that Labor Chairman MK Amir Peretz's expected tacking to the political center in order to attract moderate voters, "is the reason why Meretz is vital as a party."

Haaretz comments: "Some see the results of the Barcelona Conference, which ended this week, as a sign of essential changes in Europe's attitude toward Israel: Arab states demanded adding in the final communique of the Euro-Mediterranean Code of Conduct on Countering Terrorism the right to self determination and objection to the occupation. Israel refused. When the attempt was made to include wording to the effect that the right to self determination does not justify terror and violence, it was decided to renounce an agreed declaration and make do with a chairman's statement condemning terrorism 'in all its forms and manifestations.' ...One must remember that despite the warming up, the Europeans have not changed their basic concepts: the European chairman's statement in Barcelona also calls on the parties to conduct a direct dialogue, expresses commitment to the road map and the idea of territories for peace, and even mentions the Beirut Declaration of 2002 (which the Palestinians interpret among other things as a recognition of the 'Right of Return')."

The Jerusalem Post writes: "Who is a convert? This is the question facing the High Court of Justice, thanks to a petition brought this week by the Israel Religious Action Center to have the state recognize non-Jews converted in Israel by Reform and Conservative rabbis as Jewish... In essence, the Israel Religious Action Center, which represents the Israeli branches of the Reform and Conservatives Movements, is challenging the near monopoly of the official rabbinate over religion in Israel. It is not clear that it is the court's job to break this monopoly, which is a cornerstone of the religious-secular status quo. But it is also not clear why the Knesset, which has legislated on such matters, should pretend that maintaining the rabbinate's monopoly is the solution to the genuine problem of differing standards of conversion... Accordingly, we welcome Rabbi Eric Yoffe's rededication at the Union of Reform Judaism's biennial conference last month to the goals of the late Alexander Schindler, who 27 years ago advocated actively encouraging non-Jewish spouses of Jews and anyone sincerely interesting in joining the Jewish people to become a Jew by choice."

[Yaron London wrote today’s editorials in Yediot Ahronot.]