Tuesday

HA’ARETZ

1. Five killed and dozens wounded in Islamic Jihad suicide attack in Netanya.

IDF TO SHOOT AT STRUCTURES IN GAZA AFTER THEY ARE EVACUATED.

The response: Gunners will shell populated areas if Kassams are launched from them.  Islamic Jihad: Organization accepts responsibility for attack; IDF to expand operations against it.  The investigation: Terrorist was identified before explosion; police checking why guards didn't shoot him.  The dead: One, Haim Amram, 26, was mall security guard.

2. LANDAU QUITS RACE AND JOINS NETANYAHU.

Despite having promised that he would compete "until the end"; Hanegbi to rebels: You drove Sharon out.

HATZOFEH

1. Policemen's courage prevented greater disaster.

SAME PLACE – THIRD BOMB.

Five killed and 76 wounded in suicide attack next to Sharon Mall in Netanya.  Terrorist was identified by passers-by – policemen prevented him from entering mall and he exploded in the street. 

2. LANDAU QUITS LIKUD LEADERSHIP RACE – JOINS NETANYAHU.

MA’ARIV

1. Five killed in Netanya.  IDF directing forces to Samaria.

BROTHER COMMANDS SEAM LINE, SISTER WAS KILLED IN ATTACK.

2. ONE-THIRD OF PENSIONS GONE.

Study made by Bank of Israel Deputy Governor determines: Without telling anyone, Netanyahu's reform cut 30% from our pensions.

YEDIOT AHRONOT

1. Senior security establishment official: After series of successes – we missed this one.

"OUR FAILURE."

Security establishment knew of ticking bomb but missed vital piece of information.  Policemen identified terrorist but did not manage to shoot.  Only security guard Haim Amram jumped towards him, prevented greater disaster and paid with his life.

2. Elections on a full stomach.

SHARON WANTS TO CANCEL VAT ON FOOD.

Goal: Help weaker strata.  But rich will benefit more.

3. European court to determine:

ARE WOMEN DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IN RABBINICAL COURTS?

Outrage in State Prosecutor's Office: Interference in Israeli legal system.

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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

Yediot Ahronot discusses the Iranian nuclear threat and doubts that the UN Security Council will be able to take effective action.  The editors believe that, "In the end, Israel will have no choice but to implement a military option to prevent the realization of the nightmare of fanatical Islam armed with nuclear weapons," and aver that, "While bombing the Iranian nuclear facilities from the air is neither practical nor desirable, Israel cannot permit itself to rule out some other significant strike at Iran's nuclear capability, such as eliminating the main links in the manufacturing and supply chain."  The paper declares that, "Israel must disrupt the Iranian nuclear race, with or without the help of the enlightened world; it has no option of coming to terms with it," and reminds its readers that, "The Iran of 2005 is an obscurantist, violent, dictatorial state that openly calls for the elimination of Israel."

Hatzofeh comments on corruption in the political system and asserts that, "The time has come to purge society of the undesirable elements that are besmirching the honor of the state of Israel in the Land of Israel before it is too late."

Haaretz comments: "The election campaign has barely begun and MK Binyamin Netanyahu has already managed to drag into it one of the most sensitive security issues: Iran's ceaseless efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Whereas other candidates have chosen their words carefully on this delicate matter, Netanyahu, who is running for the Likud leadership, threatened on Israel Radio this week that if elected prime minister he would weigh military action to prevent Iran's attaining nuclear capability... Whoever publicly recommends an Israeli military option sins doubly. He incites the Israeli public unnecessarily; presents Israel as pushing the U.S. into a major new war; drags this sensitive subject into the overheated rhetoric of an election campaign; and invites Iranian threats and various anti-Israel reactions. Israel must go about making its preparations quietly and securely, not at election rallies."

The Jerusalem Post writes: "It is hard to imagine a people for whom blowing oneself up in a crowd of innocents is not considered an act of barbarism. Yet it is hard to escape the impression that the Palestinians, even today, remain such a people... The notion that Palestinians arrogate to themselves the right to impose and execute a death sentence on any and every Israeli man, woman and child says to us that, in Palestinian eyes, we have no right to exist. What the president of Iran and the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah say openly - that Israel should be "wiped off the map" - the terror attacks clearly attempt to put into practice... If the Palestinian public feels moral revulsion at the terror perpetrated in its name, it has yet to make that condemnation plain."

[Sever Plocker wrote today’s editorial in Yediot Ahronot.]