Front Page News:

Haaretz

• In Netanyahu's kitchen - Prime Minister has limited time to cook a coalition that is edible and will give him immunity from being dismissed. But what do you do when the ingredients (Lapid, Der'i, Bennet and Sara [Netanyahu]) don't mix well with each other? // Yossi Verter
• This time it's serious - Even the IDF understands the budget cut is unavoidable // Amos Harel
• Not just smiles - Obama will explain to Israel what are its interests // Chemi Shalev
• We are brothers, more or less - The ultra-Orthodox rabbis courting the religious-Zionist rabbis
• Netanyahu met again with Lapid, Bennett will wait for next week
• Prime Minister's Office: We are not considering a (settlement) freeze
• Diskin at Turkel Committee: Shin Bet interrogations must be videotaped
• The forefathers of backgammon, chess and checkers
• May we not know - The sensitive and complex battle against sex offenders in the ultra-Orthodox community
• Who is Hillel Koberinski, the strong man in Yesh Atid?
• Behind the scenes at Attorney General Weinstein's office

Yedioth Ahronoth

• The financial edicts the Treasury is preparing - 'Headache' of the next government: Next week Netanyahu will receive the plan to deal with the enormous deficit, which is expected to have difficult sections for the coalition partners
• Middle class in the crosshairs again // Sever Plotzker
• Iron Dome soldiers: Pride in the sky, conditions on the ground terrible
• (Actress) Gila Almagor tries to calm: I feel fine
• Grandpa Ben-Gurion - Process of restoration of archive materials and transfer to digital archiving at IDF archive in Defense Ministry revealed small treasure: rare family photos of first Israeli prime minister David Ben Gurion and of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
• Maccabi's 40th (win)

Maariv

• Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox in effort to break-up Lapid-Bennett alliance (Hebrew)
• "Netanyahu ready to compromise in negotiations with the Palestinians" - say senior officials in Prime Minister's Office (Hebrew)
• Meir Porush: "If the ultra-Orthodox are forcibly drafter, there will be a second Tahrir Square in Israel"
• Sirens in heart of Damascus, echoes of shelling at the presidential palace
• Lebanese holiday resort on the border with Israel - Only 15 minutes from Kiryat Shmona, on the banks of the Hatzbani River and at an investment of $35 million, the construction of an enormous resort being completed now.
• Convicted pedophile who was expelled from the US to Israel was arrested on suspicion of continuing his activities in Israel (Hebrew)
• When (far-right religious MK Moshe) Feiglin came to a gay youth bar

Israel Hayom

• End to cut in relations: Netanyahu to meet Bennett for first time since elections
• Strike of flu: Three premature babies infected with the swine flu at Rambam hospital
• Song of the valley - Winter weather replaced with spring weather, Israelis expected to make trips to see flowring
• The noose is tightening: battles in heart of Damascus
• Fraud of real estate agent in north Tel-Aviv: Even (basketball coach) Pini Gershon was stung
• Exporters concerned: Dollar rate at lowest in 15 months
• For 40th time: Maccabi Tel-Aviv won the State Cup

News Summary:
The ultra-Orthodox attempt to break an alliance that threatens to draft their yeshiva boys to the army, a meeting will take place between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his rival Naftali Bennett and the question of whether Netanyahu will or will not make efforts to come to a compromise with the Palestinians were top stories in today's Israeli papers.

Not much came of the meeting between Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid yesterday. Netanyahu hoped Lapid would be more flexible about his plan for drafting the ultra-Orthodox. But after the meeting, senior members of the Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi parties told Maariv they will not change their plan. The big news is that next week Netanyahu will meet a man he - and his wife - dislike intensely: Naftali Bennett, leader of Habayit Hayehudi. Netanyahu has met individually with many party leaders, but has given Bennett the cold shoulder. He even met yesterday with Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On, who said her party would remain in the opposition, but support the government on peace efforts. One Likud source told Haaretz: "He's humiliating him."
 
Fearing Lapid's hardline on the draft of ultra-Orthodox young men, the ultra-Orthodox parties are trying hard to woo Habayit Hayehudi's rabbis, the papers report. (Haaretz article) They have been traveling to places associated with the religious-Zionist movement. Yesterday, Shas Minister Eli Yishai attended the fifth anniversary of the attack on the settler-associated Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Shas leader Arieh Der'i did a tour of settlements in the Samaria region of the West Bank and said that "the first law that needs to be passed is that every child make a Bar-Mitzvah trip to Samaria at the expense of the State," Maariv quoted. The ultra-Orthodox leaders of usually warring factions also held a joint emergency meeting in Bnei Brak demanding that Netanyahu not change the historical status quo and enlist yeshiva students. Some top ultra-Orthodox politicians have been warning through the media of chaos if the yeshiva boys are enlisted. Shas Minister Eli Yishai told Israel Hayom that without the ultra-Orthodox agreement to a universal IDF draft law, the ultra-Orthodox Jews will break out in civil disobedience. Yishai said that if Yair Lapid does not become more flexible about the law, his party will be decimated like Kadima
 
Ahead of US President Barack Obama's arrival here on March 20th, confidantes of Netanyahu in the Prime Minister's Office told Maariv that their boss "would be willing to make compromises in the negotiations with the Palestinians, but it would depend on the price Israel would have to pay." Moreover, "Netanyahu understands that things need to advance, he is committed to that and he is able to show progress," one said. Next week, Netanyahu's special envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, travels to the US to discuss ways of renewing the negotiations with the Palestinians. But Haaretz reports that Netanyahu aides deny the Prime Minister is considering a settlement freeze, which is a basic condition of the Palestinians to restart negotiations.

Israel Hayom writes that the right-wing are concerned that Netanyahu will agree to a settlement freeze and that the Prime Minister's Office is not willing to comment on the issue. The Yesha Settler Council wants to meet with Obama in order to share the settlers' perspective directly with him, Maariv reported. 
Two Netanyahu associates gave Yedioth's esteemed political affairs commentator, Nahum Barnea, completely contradictory predictions about Netanyahu's future acts. One said that Netanyahu will go far to appease Obama and the European Union on the Palestinian issue. The other, who has completely opposite political views, said Netanyahu's big act this year will be war against Iran's nuclear project. A Palestinian official told Israel Army Radio that if anyone can change Israel's attitude, it's Obama.

Quick Hits:

• Former Shin Bet head: All interrogations should be videotaped - Yuval Diskin's statements led Turkel Committee on how Israel investigates alleged crimes by its security agencies to recommend full visual documentation of all interrogations. (Haaretz)
• **Video shows IDF unit causing nocturnal disturbance in West Bank village - WATCH: A video, taken by a local resident, shows an Israeli army unit driving through a Palestinian village and causing a disturbance in the middle of the night, apparently without cause; IDF: force commander was reprimanded. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Lebanese holiday resort on the border with Israel - Only 15 minutes from Kiryat Shmona, on the banks of the Hatzbani River and at an investment of $35 million, the construction of an enormous resort being completed now. Main attraction: Biggest pool in Lebanon. Israeli security establishment following, but not worried. (Maariv, p. 1)
• Israel indicts four Beitar Jerusalem soccer fans for racism - The four (or six, according to Yedioth), who are part of the hardcore extremist group of fans known as 'La Familia,' were indicted yesterday in the wake of the racist protests of the signing of two Muslim players from Chechnya. The police's goal is to break-up the group.  (Haaretz and Yedioth, p. 5)
• Young Palestinians go 'Gaza Style' - Gazans join global trend, using South Korean 'Gangnam Style' hit to tell world about their daily hardships in Hamas-ruled Strip. (Ynet)
• Israeli Arab parties balk at making Lapid opposition leader after 'Zouebis' jibe - In a phone conversation Wednesday with MK Ahmed Tibi, Lapid admitted that his remarks election that he was not prepared to form a majority with the "Zouebis' - referring to MK Hanin Zuabi (Balad) - was an unfortunate choice of words. Despite the apology, they are not lining up to support him if he ends up not joining the government. (Haaretz)
• Without conjugal visit, security prisoners smuggling out sperm - Ghazan Medical Clinic in Nablus announced that four wives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails got pregnant through artificial insemination of sperm they succeeded in smuggling out from their husbands. Israel prevents Palestinian security prisoners from having conjugal visits with their wives. Clinic offers service free as part of battle against the occupation. (Maariv, p. 9/NRG Hebrew)
• Defense Ministry suspends ties with six firms over alleged fraud - Noncommissioned IDF officer admits to defrauding military out of millions of shekels over a number of years. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Fighting in Damascus area: 'Fiercest shelling in months' - Syrian army warplanes fire rockets at southern parts of route where rebels have spent past 36 hours overrunning army positions, roadblocks encircling heart of capital; opposition says battles reached central Damascus. (Agencies, Ynet)
• Syria says 'no truth' Israel targeted convoy - In letter to Ban Ki-moon, Syria's UN ambassador says alleged Israeli airstrike 'caused destruction and substantial material damage' to Jamraya military research center; claims Security Council's failure to condemn 'Israel's grave aggressions' would undermine regional, international peace. (Agencies, Ynet)

Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.