February 4 Headlines
Monday
HA’ARETZ
1. EGYPT ADVANCING: HAMAS AND FATAH TO JOINTLY OPERATE RAFIAH CROSSING.
2. GOVERNMENT APPROVES COMMUNITY IN WADI ARA.
"Ein Iron" to be established despite opposition of Environmental Protection Minister and without planning permits.
MAKOR RISHON-HATZOFEH
1. Not just weapons and rockets – Hezbollah's economic strength is greater than ever.
FOR FIRST TIME SINCE WAR: EXCHANGES OF FIRE ON LEBANESE BORDER.
IDF captures drug smugglers near Ghajar. American study: Hezbollah taking over banks, building neighborhoods, rehabilitating infrastructure and making capital from drug deals.
2. DESPONDENT REBELLION.
Anger at Barak in Labor, but they will stay in the Government.
MA’ARIV
1. Arab sources: Additional sign of life delivered to Shalit family.
GILAD'S SECOND LETTER.
Arab sources close to negotiations with Hamas: Israel recently received additional letter from Gilad Shalit. After authenticity was checked, it was delivered to abducted soldier's family. Sources in Egypt reveal: This is the development that led to acceleration of contacts ahead of deal.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. For Gilad Shalit: Olmert decides against ISA Director's position.
PRISONERS WITH BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS TO BE RELEASED.
Decided last night: Israel to agree to include terrorists who participated in murders of collaborators and members of terrorist cells that did not perpetrate murders with their own hands, on lists of those to be released.
2. THE NEW REBELS.
In wake of Barak's decision to stay in Government: Seven coalition MKs to vote against it. The result: Majority in danger.
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot characterizes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as a chronic procrastinator, both in action and in comprehension, who waited until the last moment to decide to remain in the Government. The editors doubt if he could have decided otherwise. Now, says the paper, "The time has come for him decide where he is going."
Ma'ariv warns that, "We are being fooled…Our presence in Gaza, so they told us, prevents Kassam [fire]. Then they told us: Evacuation will prevent the firing. And now they're telling us – only invasion will prevent Kassams."
The Jerusalem Post declares that survival is now the name of the political game. With opinion polls underlining the firm public sense that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should have tendered his resignation over his mishandling of the Second Lebanon War, Ehud Barak's decision to stay put, allied with Tzipi Livni's silence in the face of the final Winograd Report, underlines the corrosive spread of the new, devalued political norms. Dangerously, these declining norms are in turn exacerbating the political listlessness and alienation that have overwhelmed the Israeli public.
Makor Rishon-Hatzofeh refers to Defense Minister Ehud Barak's political adversaries' claim that the Labor Party leader changed his mind about leaving the coalition due to his desire to, "continue in his position as Defense Minister in the failing Olmert Government."
[Nahum Barnea and Kobi Niv wrote today’s articles in Yediot Ahronotand Ma'ariv, respectively, Haaretz was unavailable today.]
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