1. 150 ACADEMIC LECTURERS JOIN CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ARIEL CITIZENS

In a publicized declaration, the lecturers announced that they would not take part in any cultural activity in the West Bank.  At the same time, a number of writers and intellectuals signed declaration of support for performers who refuse to appear in Ariel.  A.B. Yehoshua: Boycott has to do with the place, not the people.

 

2. PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU TO DEPART TODAY FOR WASHINGTON SUMMIT ON LAUNCHING DIRECT PEACE TALKS.

 

1. Document affair

ASHKENAZI'S VERSION

 

1. Disclosure: The summit before the Washington summit.

SECRET SUMMIT IN JORDAN: BARAK AND ABU MAZEN

Defense Minister flew the night before last to private home in Amman.

 

1. C-O-S's version: Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi presents his side of document affair to IDF commanders.

"I DID NOT KNOW, I DID NOT APPROVE"

 

2. NETANYAHU: DON'T WORRY, NO ONE HAS TO TEACH ME TO LOVE THE COUNTRY

PM departs this morning for Washington summit.  US: Starting to lower expectations.

 

1. MINISTER BARAK AND ABU MAZEN MEET SECRETLY IN JORDAN

Moment before launch of renewed direct negotiation with Israel, DM Barak met in Jordan with PA Chmn. Abu Mazen.  In the meeting, in which the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories also participated, the sides discussed the diplomatic process.

 

1. BEFORE WASHINGTON SUMMIT: BARAK MEETS SECRETLY WITH ABU MAZEN IN JORDAN

DM, who met with Jordanian King on Sunday, used his visit to Jordan for another meeting.  Barak and Abu Mazen met in a private home in Amman and discussed security arrangements in the West Bank ahead of Thursday's direct talks.

 

2. WHITE HOUSE: IT WILL TAKE TIME TO RESOLVE ISSUES WHICH HAVE PREVENTED PEACE FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS

On eve of Washington summit meeting, White House Spokesman says that both Israelis and Palestinians are serious about their intentions for comprehensive peace, but we will have to wait for all of the issues to be resolved.  In contrast, US State Department Spokesman assessed that it is possible to conclude negotiations within a year.

 

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Yediot Ahronot comments on the upcoming start of US-brokered direct negotiations and suggests that, "As with Nixon, the Obama administration believes that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would balance other failures in the region.  Therefore," the author adds, "even though the chances of securing an agreement within a year are low, Obama will make a great effort and will use everything he has in order to achieve an agreement and, through it, build an Israeli-Arab strategic alignment to counter the opposing radical axis."  The paper avers that, "The Israeli Government needs to at least understand Obama's motives and try – as much as possible – to take them into consideration."

 

Ma'ariv criticizes the recent announcement by over 30 performing artists that they would refuse to appear at the dedication of the new cultural center in the Samarian community of Ariel and says that their decision merely, "provides ammunition to artists from around the world who refuse to set foot in the Holy Land for political reasons."  The author urges the aforesaid Israeli artists, "to act like composer Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Cohen or many other artists.  See fit to appear at the cultural center in Ariel and, if it is really important to you, put on shows in Ramallah or Nablus as well."

 

Yisrael Hayom admits that, "It is true that international law bars an occupying state from settling civilians in areas that have been occupied," but asserts that, "According to international law, the territories are not occupied."  The author reminds his readers that no country enjoyed recognized sovereignty over Judea and Samaria prior to 1967 and he claims that this stemmed from Jordan's illegal and internationally unrecognized occupation of the areas in 1948.  The paper cites the 1922 League of Nations decision establishing the "Mandate for Palestine" as declaring that, "the Land of Israel will be designated for the re-establishment of the Jewish national home."

The Jerusalem Post discusses the relationship between Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's personal prayer to make the enemies of Israel vanish and for God to smite them with the plague to the current round of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, and examines what each side is doing to prepare its people for peace.  The editor states that while PM Netanyahu "has repeatedly shown a willingness to engage in direct negotiations with the PA without preconditions," Mahmud Abbas, by contrast, "is barely able to justify his consent to participate this week in US-sponsored direct talks with Israel before his public, which is still being fed a relentless diet of Israeli delegitimation in the PA media he controls." The editor declares that Abbas has failed to encourage sufficiently toward moderation, and calls attention to the recent prayers offered in homage by Abbas and PA Prime Minister Fayyad at the PA sponsored funeral glorifying Amin al-Hindi, one of the masterminds of the September 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. The editor states that "the implications of Abbas’s heavenly appeal are almost certainly far more central than that delivered by the Shas leader to the prospects of success in the direct talks."

Haaretz claims that the Ministry of Education is raising Israeli schoolchildren on censorship and indoctrination, and blames the head of the ministry's pedagogic secretariat for trying to do away with 50 years of open, critical study of Zionism and the state's history. The editor declares that "students are given a patronizing version of the past, one that insults their intelligence and diminishes their ability to understand complex historical developments and identify with the society in which they live, despite its many problems."

[Eytan Gilboa, Yehuda Sharoni and Zeev Jabotinsky wrote today’s articles in Yediot Ahronot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]