Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Negotiation Purim carnival - Netanyahu suspicious as coalition-building race continues // Yossi Verter
• Shas and Yehadut Hatorah likely to agree to draft of 2000 ultra-Orthodox a year
• Sabra and Shatilla documents reveal how the second Begin government fell apart
• Scars of Australian Jews over the Maccabiah disaster reopened with the Zygier affair // Chemi Shalev
• Dozens killed in terror attack in Damascus
• IAEA: Iran using research reactor to produce nuclear arms
• Best way to silence criticism: libel suit
• Discovery of the healing properties of plants of land of Israel

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Political knot
• If going to elections - Lapid jumps forward, Bennett gets stronger and the Likud gets weaker - Poll by the Knesset Channel
• Naftali against the naphthalene // Nahum Barnea
• Who will text first // Sima Kadmon
• Dramatic turn in Pistorius case
• Say good by to the brown envelope  - Orders for reserve duty to arrive by email
• Teva Pharmaceuticals to be revolutionized
• Pleasant Purim - Weather today: dry and warm

Maariv

• Fear in Likud: If we go to elections - we will crash (Hebrew)
• Bennett: Personal debt (to Lapid) // Shalom Yerushalmi
• Netanyahu: Self-inflicted failure // Uri Elitzur
• Tzipi Livni: The new Mofaz // Ben-Dror Yemini
• Poll: Who would you vote for in another round of elections?
• "Obama, come with Pollard" - 50,000 people signed petition calling for US President to arrive in jail with spy rotting in jail 28 years (Hebrew)
• Setting the area on fire - Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated yesterday near Ofer Prison where Palestinian prisoners are hunger-striking (Hebrew)
• Obama readiness // Amir Rappaport
• Secret protocols on government discussions over Sabra and Shatilla revealed: Defense Minister Sharon: "Put me on trial if you want...but don't demand of me that I volunteer to commit suicide";  Prime Minister Begin: "I speak from great pain...but with this pain, we cannot reject the recommendations
• IAEA report: Teheran closer than ever to a bomb, capable of enriching uranium at triple the rate (Hebrew)
• Missing since 1994 - Investigation into disappearance of Sasha Brandt reopened, her mother claims: "I saw her" (Hebrew)

Israel Hayom

• PM: "Iran quickly getting closer to the red line" - IAEA report: Teheran installing 180 advanced centrifuges
• Now it's a three-way alliance: Bennett demands the Treasury, Lapid the Foreign Ministry and Mofaz the Defense Ministry
• Costumes and smiles
• Stormy day in Judea and Samaria (W. Bank): Demonstrations and stone-throwing
• Discussions following Sabra and Shatilla exposed: Sharon warned - "They will accuse us of genocide"

News Summary:
The possibility of new elections and an even larger Yesh Atid party, the IAEA report that Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear bomb and the release of secret government protocols about Sabra and Shatilla were top stories in today's papers. Also high in the news was the increasing rage in the West Bank over the refusal to release hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners - and one apparent judicial result of that rage.

The coalition-forming conundrum has made the possibility of another round of elections move from theoretical talk to actual poll taking. According to two polls, Yesh Atid would surgein popularity and Likud-Beiteinu would lose strength.
The Knesset Channel poll:
30 Yesh Atid (11))
22 Likud-Beiteinu (-9)
15 Habayit Hayehudi (3
13 Labor (-2)
9 Shas (-2)

Maariv Poll:
28 Likud-Beiteinu (-3)
24 Yesh Atid (5)
13 Habayit Hayehudi (1)
12 Shas (1)
11 (Labor (-4)

The seemingly unbreakable alliance between Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi may have another partner: Shaul Mofaz with his two mandates from Kadima.  The three met Thursday to unite forces against what they consider to be too lax a framework for drafting the ultra-Orthodox proposed by Likud as part of the coalition negotiations, writes Haaretz. But Ynet wrote that Habayit Hayehudi said that its first demand in joining a coalition government would be to deny Tzipi Livni the role of chief negotiator with the Palestinians. On Wednesday, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid slammed Livni for agreeing to divide Jerusalem and withdraw from Ariel settlement city.

 
Yedioth's Sima Kadmon writes in Musaf supplement that with since Netanyahu only has 55 mandates in his hand he can either give up the Shas party and bring in Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi and give in to all their demands or he can go to elections. But he knows that his party will be weaker after another round of voting. Maariv writes that Likud officials fear their party will be devastated if it goes to elections.
 
Palestinians held their third day of rage in a single week yesterday, with 1,000 people marching to the Ofer military prison in support of the four hunger striking prisoners. Tear gas and stones crossed through the air. Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti said that Palestinians would "rise up should anything bad happen to them."  One of the men, Samer Issawi, who has been on hunger-strike since August, has repeatedly called to be put on trial. It appears that one military judge listened. Yesterday, he was given a retroactive eight-month sentence, meaning he will be released in two weeks.

Quick Hits:

• **Sharon in 1983: Israel could be accused of genocide - State Archives release protocols from dramatic cabinet meeting discussing Sabra and Shatila report on same day Emil Grunzweig was murdered in Peace Now protest. 'They say we disregarded intelligence, that includes you Mr. Prime Minister,' Defense Minister Sharon says to PM Begin as news of murder breaks. (Ynet)
• Visiting U.S. Senator Marco Rubio: U.S. shouldn't dictate policy on settlements - The rising Republican star, who sparked speculation that he might be running for president in 2016 by embarking on a tour of the Mideast, meets with Peres and Netanyahu. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Arab lawyer representing Beitar fan who was arrested on suspicion of racist slurs - Adv. Muhammed Khalailah was appointed by public defender's office to represent the fan who shouted racist statements against the acquisition of two Muslim players.  The suspicion of racism did not prevent Khalaila from fighting for his client in court and bringing his immediate release from detention. (Yedioth Jerusalem supplement, p. 66)
• Report: 'Israeli drone' shot down in Lebanon was a Syrian missile - IDF unmanned aircraft shot down along Syria-Lebanon border, media in both countries reported Wednesday. Thursday morning, Lebanese military sources say it was Syrian anti-aircraft missile. No response from Syrian military. (Ynet)
• UNHRC drone-strike investigator: Israel would be wise to cooperate - British lawyer Ben Emmerson promises his report on the use of drone strikes will be fair and says it is in Israel's strategic interest to cooperate. (Haaretz)
• Al-Quds Marathon - Palestinian Authority Chairman (Mahmoud Abbas) decided to sponsor a Palestinian marathon that will take place this year at the same time as the Jerusalem marathon. It will take place beyond the fence in land belonging to the PA. The marathon is a " response to Israeli arrogance, that insists on allowing runners to run in a marathon that crosses the E. Jerusalem neighborhoods," said Ahmed Rawidi, an advisor to Abbas. (Yedioth Jerusalem supplement, p. 40)
• Israel's attorney general decides against criminal investigation of Haaretz for breach of censorship in Zygier affair - In a letter to Haaretz's editor-in-chief, Weinstein, concerning breach of censorship, Attorney General warns against future violations. (Haaretz)
• Beit Safafa: Ticking time bomb in the heart of Jerusalem - What began as an (Arab) neighborhood protest against the paving of a highway right through it, could quickly turn into a violent conflict that will incite the city.  "They are taking a (neighborhood) that was a model of co-existence and turning it into a center for Israel haters," said a senior security official in the capital. Meanwhile, representatives from the US consulate arrived in the neighborhood to examine the dispute. (Yedioth Jerusalem supplement, p. 36)
• Arab couple denied medical care - Beit Safafa (Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem) resident calls Natali medical services company to order doctor's visit for feverish husband only to be told: 'No doctor will go to an Arab area.' (Ynet)

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