1. OBAMA TO NETANYAHU AND ABBAS: I'M STARTING TO LOSE PATIENCE
Three leaders met yesterday as expected. They did not succeed in reaching understandings. Netanyahu: There is agreement on renewing the negotiations. Abbas: Talks will resume only after Israel agrees to withdraw from the West Bank. US President made clear to Netanyahu: Negotiations will not begin from scratch. We will not agree to throw the historical record in the trash.
MA’ARIV
1. An achievement nevertheless: Obama compelled agreement to start negotiations without preconditions.
THE REPRIMAND.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. Obama: Stop talking and start making progress. Netanyahu: He demands to rein in – not freeze – construction.
THE CHILLY SUMMIT.
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. Obama reprimands: Start speaking. Praises construction restraint, freeze not demanded.
"WE WILL CONDUCT NEGOTIATIONS WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS"
Netanyahu says after summit. "No commitment to Olmert accords." Palestinians: Disappointed with Obama
WALLA!
1. MKS TOUR WEST BANK: ETZION BLOC IS WITHIN THE CONSENSUS
Members of Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee visited an illegal outpost in the Etzion Bloc and heard from a Civil Administration official that, "There is four times as much illegal construction by Palestinians than by settlers."
2. NETANYHU: "WE WILL NEVER CONDUCT NEGOTIATIONS WITH HAMAS"
PM, in an interview with Fox, made it clear that as long as Hamas was in power, Gaza would not be part of future accord with Palestinians. He reiterated the claim that Israel is willing to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority without preconditions.
NANA10
1. EGYPTIANS TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL: SUPERVISE ISRAELI NUCLEAR REACTOR
In a letter from Egyptian Foreign Minister to members of the UN Security Council, "It is unimaginable that Israeli nuclear capabilities will remain outside of the world's notice." Only last week, IAEA members called on Israel to allow agency inspectors to visit its nuclear reactor sites.
[Headlines for Walla! and Nana10 are from their websites as of 13:00]
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SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Four papers discuss various issues related to yesterday's meeting in New York between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas:
Yediot Ahronot believes that both Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA Chairman Abbas are hamstrung by their respective internal politics and asserts that, "The one's maximum does not even come close to the other's minimum and vice-versa, and the gaps between their positions are unbridgeable in the foreseeable future." The author says that, "The current meeting passed 'quietly.' When there's nothing, there can be no mishaps. President Obama's matter-of-fact and somewhat tiresome closing remarks attested to this unnecessary event's lack of any significant content. The true crisis will wait for the next opportunity."
Ma'ariv suggests that, "It has been a long time since so many people made so much effort for such a long time to drag two people into a corridor leading nowhere," and adds that, "Netanyahu and Abu Mazen are now at the head of this corridor, looking at the dead end before their eyes." However, the author believes that Abu Mazen's, "situation is much more complicated," than Netanyahu's since the former's legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian public is at stake. The paper speculates that Prime Minister Netanyahu will have to either go towards Abu Mazen and risk his own coalition or wait to deal, or not, with his successor and risk Israel's relations with the US.
Yisrael Hayom avers that President Obama was less kind – in his remarks – to the Palestinians than to Israel and suggests that, "this slight change," is the result of both Netanyahu's flexibility, and Abu Mazen's lack of flexibility, in the contacts on some kind of construction freeze. The author believes that this bodes well ahead of Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the UN General Assembly tomorrow.
Walla! claims that the American public is too involved in the domestic healthcare debate to pay much attention to the Middle East peace process.
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The Jerusalem Post discusses the enlistment of Haredi men into the IDF, calling it "a positive trend that, if supplemented by a greater emphasis on requiring those who do not enlist to perform alternative forms of national service, can do much toward healing some of the deepest rifts in Israeli society."
Haaretz discusses the discipline problem in the IDF, brought to light in an investigation of hazing in an Armored Corps battalion, and reveals that "[Hazing] is a major problem prevalent in several units and branches." The editor argues that legal measures should be taken to deal with extreme cases, and declares that "This is primarily a command problem. As the army managed to limit operative accidents in the last decade, so it must enforce the rules in other areas." Now, says the editor, the army must deal with strengthening discipline.
[Dov Weisglass, Ben Caspit, Dan Margalit and Matthew Silver wrote today’s articles in Yediot Ahronot, Ma'ariv, Yisrael Hayom and Walla!, respectively.]
(Courtesy of Israel GPO and the MFA)
