HA’ARETZ
1. OLMERT TO BE QUESTIONED THIS WEEK. CONFIDANTS: POLICE HANDLING OF AFFAIR -- DISGRACEFUL.
Police demand interrogation of PM prior to Moshe Talansky deposition, out of concern that Olmert will alter his version; PM confidant: Request "strange".
2. Barak and Livni en route to Mubarak.
BUSH, IN SHARM: STILL COMMITTED TO PALESTINIAN STATE BY 2009.
3. GOOGLE NEGOTIATING WITH ISRAELI FIRM.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin, estimates that company will make purchases in Israel this year.
MA’ARIV
1. Battle over deposition tomorrow: Deliberation in High Court of Justice.
OLMERT PLAYING FOR TIME. TALANSKY DEMANDS: DEPOSITION WITHIN WEEK.
PM refuses to respond to Police request for questioning within 48 hours. Key witness threatens to leave country.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. Police: Olmert should be questioned immediately.
BATTLE OVER INVESTIGATION.
PM's lawyers: He will be questioned only after High Court of Justice deposition deliberation.
2. DOLLAR: NIS 3.36
Eleven years since rate was this low.
[MAKOR RISHON-HATZOFEHwas unavailable today.]
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Ma'ariv says that nobody, not even those who believe that a large-scale IDF operation in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, "have an answer to the main question, which is, of course, the question of the day after" the operation is concluded. The editors believe that, "Force will not bring quiet," and wonder why nobody is advocating dialogue with Hamas.
Haaretz remarks on price increases caused by inflationary pressures, and states that the main losers are the people in the two lowest economic deciles, because the price increases were mainly on food products.
The Jerusalem Post reflects on the recent natural catastrophes in Myanmar and China, and points out that the two Asian disasters ought to remind us that we face menaces of our own which are, by and large, being routinely ignored. Stating that even unavoidable calamities can be mitigated, the editor calls on the government to take whatever steps necessary to quakeproof buildings all over the country.
Yediot Ahronot believes that the way the various law enforcement authorities and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conduct themselves during the current investigation into the latter is highly significant: "The current test will fashion Israeli democracy no less than that long night on which a Prime Minister was murdered."
[Ravit Tzemach and Ofer Shelah wrote today’s articles in Yediot Ahronotand Ma'ariv, respectively. Makor Rishon-Hatzofehwas unavailable today.]
