HA’ARETZ
1. OLMERT: NEGOTIATIONS WITH SYRIA ARE A HISTORIC BREAKTHROUGH.
Agreed in secret talks this week between Israel and Syria: Indirect negotiations to be opened in a few weeks on comprehensive bilateral peace.
2. ZAKEN WROTE IN HER DIARY: "I GAVE URI 23,950 FROM TALANSKY."
MA’ARIV
1. INVESTIGATION AND PEACE.
Secret talks in Turkey, revealed yesterday in Ma'ariv, have become historic fact. After eight years of rupture, Israel and Syria simultaneously announced: Peace negotiations underway. Damascus hastens to clarify: "Israel has promised to withdraw from the Golan Heights." Olmert's aides pressing him to submit any agreement to a referendum.
2. WHERE DID $300,000 DISAPPEAR TO?
In Trade, Industry and Labor Minister's bureau, in restaurants and in New York hotels: Shula Zaken's diaries reveal the method.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. PM to Yediot Ahronot: "Negotiations with Syria are more important than any investigation." Yediot Ahronot and Dr. Mina Tzemach/Dahaf poll: 48% ready to withdraw from the Golan Heights. 49%: Negotiations are spin.
INVESTIGATION AND PEACE.
Breakthrough: On-off negotiations held for a year. Assad softened only after bombing of reactor. Behind the scenes: Israelis and Syrians did not meet face-to-face; Turks shuttled between the sides. Price of Peace: Israel – No commitment to withdraw from Golan Heights but price is known. Residents – "Olmert is dangerous." Livni bombshell: Foreign Minister updated only yesterday morning, short time before announcement.
2. "I RECEIVED $40,000 FROM 'THE LAUNDRY MAN'. WHAT TO DO WITH IT?"
Thus Shula Zaken emailed Olmert after receiving cash from Talansky.
[MAKOR RISHON-HATZOFEHwas unavailable today.]
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Both papers comment on yesterday's announcement that Israel and Syria are holding Turkish-brokered peace talks:
Ma'ariv believes that, "Peace with Syria is important but cleaning out our reeking political stables is no less important," and asserts that, "We must investigate as if there were no peace and make peace as if there were no Talansky." The editors hope that, "We should wake up to a reality in which there is peace and no Talansky," but fears that, "We are liable to awaken to a situation in which there is Talansky but no peace."
Haaretz reacts to the official announcement published yesterday about the opening of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel with great hope but also with suspicion. The editor suggests the announcement may be a spin aimed at extracting PM Olmert from the quagmire of police investigations, but calls on the Prime Minister to leave no stone unturned. "Let the investigations continue as if there were no peace talks, and let the peace talks continue as if there were no investigations - and perhaps it will turn out to be a blessing in disguise".
The Jerusalem Post recalls that when Bashar Assad took over from his father in 2002, he was portrayed as the leader who would transform an autocracy into a forward-looking polity. The editor states that "If he now seeks that path, and truly seeks to lead his country, and by extension the Arab world, to full normalization with Israel, we urge him, as a vital step toward persuading Israelis that we have entered an era of reconciliation, to come to the Knesset and tell us about it".
Yediot Ahronot fears that, "The international price that the State of Israel will pay if it becomes clear that Olmert exploited the Turks and Syria for his domestic needs will be so heavy that even the current Prime Minister's successors, who may damn Olmert in every way possible, will not dare to halt these talks except for a substantial reason." The editors predict that, "Spin or not, the talks will go on and on until they bear fruit or until they are halted for tangible reasons, not because of spin."
[Eitan Haber and Ben Caspit wrote today’s articles in Yediot Ahronotand Ma'ariv, respectively. Makor Rishon-Hatzofehwas unavailable today.]
