1. U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE SHARPLY CRITICIZES ISRAEL GOVERNMENT

Report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which examined the administration's assistance to West Bank police, concluded: Israel is preventing the establishment of anti-terror units and is delaying the transfer of equipment.

 

MA’ARIV

1. "HE PLANNED IT ALL"

 

YEDIOT AHRONOT

1. WHO WILL CALL ME MOTHER?

 

YISRAEL HAYOM

1. MURDERING FATHER'S FAMILY: BRING HIM TO JUSTICE

 

NANA10

1. "WE ARE PREPARED TO COMMENCE DIRECT TALKS NEXT WEEK, THE PALESTINIANS ARE EVADING"

In a discussion in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee the Prime Minister expressed willingness to open in direct contacts with the Palestinians, but warned that the negotiations would be difficult.

 

2. REPORT: WEST CONDITIONS AID TO NEGOTIATIONS

Senior Palestinian Authority figure told Alquds Alarabi that heavy pressure is being put on Abu Mazen to start direct talks with Israel.  According to him, a number of western nations threatened that if he didn't, they would halt aid to the PA.

 

WALLA!

1. BARAK: IF HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS WE WILL STRIKE THE LEBANESE GOVERNMENT

On eve of his departure to Washington, Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivers clear warning in an interview with the Washington Post. "Israel will hit Lebanese government targets if Hezbollah attacks us with missiles."

 

2. PM: "THE PALESTINIANS ARE TRYING TO AVOID DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS"

Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of trying to recruit the Arab League in order to avoid direct negotiations.  "There is a clear Palestinian effort to shirk this step."

 

[Headlines for Nana10 and Walla! are from their websites as of 11:20.]

 

SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS

 

Yediot Ahronot says that, "Like the neighborhood bully, Hassan Nasrallah threatens that if an international policeman will come to punish him, he will set everything ablaze, not only Beirut and its environs, but all Lebanon.  The author believes that, "Behind all of Nasrallah's hysteria, hides a riveting situation regarding the peace [process]: The King of Saudi Arabia, patron of Lebanese government, is embarking this weekend on the first official visit in Beirut.  The elderly Abdullah would not bother himself if he was not convinced that he had with whom and about what to talk.  The fresh alliance between the rulers of Syria and Lebanon has the potential of upsetting the axis of evil, And Saudi Arabia will cut no corners in its efforts to mess things up for the Ayatollahs."

 

Ma'ariv relates to the opposition by the citizens of the Carmel to the laying of the gas pipeline, "Utilization of natural gas is a national interest, many times bigger than the inherent interest of Carmel region's citizens to transfer the problem to someone else's back yard."

 

Yisrael Hayom declares that, "Israel must make it clear that it is possible to enter goods into Gaza.  The UN, in its wisdom, - and to the anger of Hamas – proposed to those of goodwill to do so by land, either through Ashdod or through El-Arish.  But the organizers of the new flotilla are not of goodwill.  They do not want to do something good for the Palestinian population of Gaza, but rather to do evil to the state of the Jews."

The Jerusalem Post opines that as Shas and United Torah Judaism have rejected the proposal to a six-month moratorium on all legal and legislative action aimed at changing the religious status quo regarding conversions to Judaism, and have vowed to continue to back the conversion bill that would anchor in law the haredi-dominated Chief Rabbinate’s de facto control over conversions, the delegitimacy of non-Orthodox conversions, and the very Jewishness of all non-Orthodox converts, "Religious extremism and narrow parochialism have, for now, once again gotten the better of reason." As the question of 'Who is a Jew' has remained open since the establishment of the state, the editor feels that "If it is to be resolved, it must be through dialogue and compromise, not through coercion or unilateral acts."

Haaretz informs its readers that "The Supreme Court's decision last week to double the prison term of a police officer who was convicted of killing a car thief elicited a verbal assault on the court from law enforcement figures, chief among them Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Police Commissioner David Cohen." The editor declares that "The actual responses to the verdicts constitute defiance of the law and an undermining of the rule of law, the sole interpreter of which is the court. In a state that aspired to democratic life in which the rule of law is a critical value, the minister and police chief would now be ending their terms.

[Smadar Perry, Udi Manor and Dan Margalit wrote today’s articles in Yediot Ahronot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]