1. BARAK DECIDES: YOAV GALANT WILL BE NEXT CHIEF-OF-STAFF

Defense Minister surprises yesterday when, during the Cabinet meeting, he announced C-O-S appointment only 60 hours after police cleared senior officers of involvement with Galant document.  Ashkenazi, who is slated to end his term in February, considers advancing his departure.

 

2. ABBAS IN MESSAGE TO OBAMA: IF WEST BANK CONSTRUCTION FREEZE IS NOT EXTENDED – WE WILL QUIT DIRECT TALKS

 

1. Defense Minister announced the appointment yesterday, even though investigation of [document] affair not yet over.

DESPITE THE STORM: GALANT (20^TH C-O-S)

 

2. NOT EXPECTED TO LEAVE

 

1. Commando will become 20^th IDF C-O-S.  Galant:  "Unify military in against threats that face us"

AFTER HIM

First task for Yoav Galant: Calm generals who lost race.

 

1. Barak "cut" Ashkenazi: Announces appointment of 20^th Chief-of-Staff

CHIEF-OF-STAFF GALANT

From within the document storm waves burst out the first veteran Commando C-O-S: Yoav Galant, 52.

 

1. "CONVINCED THAT NEGOTIATIONS WITH ISRAEL WILL COLLAPSE"

Sources in PLO Executive Committee claim that the Palestinian Authority Chairman is convinced that direct negotiations with Netanyahu will "fail" the moment that Israel renews settlement construction.

 

2. ARAB WORLD: "BUTCHER OF GAZA" APPOINTED CHIEF-OF-STAFF

Defense Minister's decision to appoint Yoav Galant the next C-O-S is receiving wide coverage throughout the Arab World.  The emphasis is on his role as G-O-C Southern Command in planning the operation in Gaza.

 

1. ABU MAZEN PRESENTS ULTIMATUM: 30 DAYS FOR SUCCESS OF NEGOTIATIONS

Al-Quds Al-Arabi quotes Palestinian sources that PA Chairman announced to the PLO Executive Committee that he is giving a one month "chance" to the direct negotiations efforts.  His confidants say that he does not expect the talks to succeed.

 

 

 

Three papers discussing the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians:

 

Yediot Aharonot, relating to the upcoming Washington peace summit, opines that "Each of the six [participants; Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Hosni Mubarak, King Abdullah II and Tony Blair] will sit down and tell what really troubles them, and they will immediately find a common denominator: The Iranian Ayatollahs and the encroachment of the Revolutionary Guards into moderate territories."  "A Palestinian state?" asks the author, "Don't make the six laugh!"

 

The Jerusalem Post describes the rather bleak starting point of the forthcoming direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but says that "the resumption of direct talks does offer a few, faint reasons for cautious optimism." The editor advises his readers that PM Netanyahu is the most able of any Israeli leader to 'sell' concessions to the Israeli public, and adds that "The Israeli government, with mainstream support, has signalled that it will consider the painful concessions necessary for a viable accord – provided that the PA, for the first time, both internalizes Israel’s sovereign legitimacy and emphasizes that legitimacy to its own people, creating the climate for mutual compromise and long-term reconciliation."

 

Haaretz discusses the direct talks about to begin between Israel and the Palestinians, with no preconditions as per PM Netanyahu's insistence, and states that "Soon it will be clear to all whether [PM Netanyahu's] maneuver was an empty one, designed to buy time and ease international criticism of Israeli actions in the territories, or whether he is ready for a compromise that will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel." The editor feels that the continued freeze of construction in the territories is imperative if the talks are to succeed, and says that "If the suspension of construction was necessary to get the talks started, it clearly must continue while they are underway. If Netanyahu wants his peace declarations to be believed, they must also be seen in his actions on the ground."

 

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Ma'ariv notes that "According to media reports, one week ago we were talking about 20 million homeless Pakistanis.  ...The Pakistan flood victims erased from the headlines the thousands who perished in mudslides in China and in another week we will forget them as well."  The author argues that "As long as Pakistan, China and also Gaza continue to prefer to manufacture weapons instead of civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, the billions that come from the West are valueless.”

 

Yisrael Hayom calls post-Zionism "a genuine danger to the future of the country."  The author contends that "Opposition to Israel throughout the world is nourished, not insubstantially, by post-Zionist writing which is enlisted against Israel as a Jewish State."

 

[Smadar Perry, Udi Manor and Prof. Haim Shine wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]