1. JERUSALEM MUNICIPALITY CHANGES POLICY: HALTS DEMOLITION OF ILLEGAL STRUCTURES IN EASTERN PART OF THE CITY.
Under American pressure, Mayor Barkat formulates plan to legalize about 80% of structures which did not receive building permits. The remaining buildings will be evacuated by agreement. Deputy Mayor to Ha'aretz: Municipal policy drove residents to build illegally.
2. MOSSAD SHAKE-UP: MEIR DAGAN'S DEPUTY DIRECTOR QUITS
Extension of Mossad Director's term by another year, to eight years, drove T. to leave his position.
3. RESERVE OFFICER WHO LEAKED OUTPOST EVACUATION TO SETTLERS BEING PROMOTED
4. TULKARM ROADBLOCK: WORKERS ALLOWED TO BRING ONLY FIVE PITAS
Modi'in Ezrahi company, which runs the road block, limits amount of food and water entering Israel – procedure that even the IDF doesn't recognize.
MA’ARIV
1. Again: Meir Dagan's deputy quits.
MOSSAD SHAKE-UP.
Following Netanyahu's decision to extend Meir Dagan's appointment by an additional year, T., Mossad Deputy Director, quits the intelligence agency with a door slam.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. Conflicts at top of Israel's intelligence agency.
DEPUTY MOSSAD DIRECTOR QUITS WITH A DOOR SLAM
Third time in three years: Mossad Director, Meir Dagan, will have to find new deputy.
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. Kadima stormy: Ramon quits, Mofaz: "Livni is nice, but this is not a club."
SARKOZY: "LIVNI WAS MISTAKEN WHEN SHE STAYED OUT OF GOVERNMENT"
French President, unprecedentedly attacks Kadima Chairwoman's handling of coalition formation. In a meeting with Netanyahu and Israeli VIPs he said: "She should have considered the good of the nation, and not only political concerns; after Bar-Ilan speech – she needs to join the cause."
2. MOSSAD SHAKE-UP: MEIR DAGAN'S DEPUTY QUITS
Reason: Tired of waiting for Mossad Director to go.
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Aharonot suggests that, "What feeds the hatred of Israel among the ruling circles in Iran (conservatives and reformists alike) does not stem from either Israel's policies or its actions but from the threat that the western culture poses to their preferred way of life," and asserts that Israel is scorned as the West's agent in the region.
Yisrael Hayom believes that, "After six months in power, the picture arises that in the White House sits a man whose vision lays in his desire to reconcile with the bad guys at any price, even at the expense of the good guys." The author suggests that "Obama's conciliatory policy towards Iran" has already caused North Korea "to smell weakness" and has emboldened Pyongyang, which was relatively quiescent during the Bush administration, "to thumb its nose at the US and the entire world." The paper points out that "While Ahmadinejad is massacring demonstrators, Obama has decided to return his country's ambassador to Syria, Iran's prominent ally and main partner in the axis of evil," and adds, "Six months after assuming office, it is difficult to attribute Obama's mistakes to inexperience; it seems that this is intentional policy."
Haaretz writes: "The efforts to jump-start the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians pass through a long, winding route between Damascus and Cairo, and from there to Ramallah. Though the details are not yet clear, the peace plan's outline indicates that a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah is being sought. If Israel erred when it allowed the Palestinian Authority elections to be held in 2006, it made more mistakes by refusing to recognize Hamas' elected government and later by alienating the Palestinian unity government. Israel must make clear that, like Obama, it is ready to talk to a united Palestinian government - about releasing abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, but also about a comprehensive peace move."
Ma'ariv questions the rush to embrace a project whereby water would be channeled from the Gulf of Eilat to the Dead Sea (the so-called "Red-Dead" canal) and says that there are, as yet, many environmental, ecological and other issues that should be resolved first. "But," the author notes, "politics is hovering over everything: Jordan desperately needs desalinated water," and suggests that if Israel were to veto the idea of a Red-Dead canal, it would provoke a crisis with Amman.
The Jerusalem Post also warns against the dangers of implementing the Red Sea - Dead Sea canal project: "All the benefits can be accrued from conventional desalination plants, some of whose liquid byproducts would be diverted to replenish the dying Dead Sea. Salty as the Dead Sea is, it is supplied with fresh water from the Kinneret, via the Jordan River. The Red Sea is briny and so chemically different that it might turn the Dead Sea's consistency and composition into a gypsum-like lumpy paste. Environmentally, the safest bet is to pipe Mediterranean water from Israel's northern shores to desalination plants in the Haifa area, providing 1.9 billion cubic meters of desalinated water to be channeled to Naharayim, and thence both to revive the Dead Sea and meet all regional needs. This plan would assure the Dead Sea of the sort of water it has been receiving from time immemorial."
[Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, Aviv Lavi, and Uri Heitner wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]
(Courtesy of Israel GPO)
