Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Abu Mazen to Haaretz: If the stalemate continues after elections, I will invite Netanyahu to the Muqata and give him the keys
• 2012 - Haaretz reporters sum up the year
• Shamir, Yarkoni, Houston - Parting from icons // Ofer Aderet
• New journalism, new rules // Aluf Benn
• Stem cells are already an inseparable part of our lives // Dan Even
• The woman that is likely to replace Assad // Tzvi Bar'el
• 60 years since Stalin's death, 50 since Kennedy's: The round numbers of 2013 // Tom Segev
• The Americans will pay in dollars for their hatred for Obama // Chemi Shalev
• After all, the air superiority still makes the difference // Amos Harel
• From Texas to New Delhi, the Women's Spring is already here // Tzefi Saar
• Berlin, a city of refuge // Moran Sharir
• Weinstein made harsher indictment against Lieberman
• Housing crisis: They took Yelena's home and with it her right to public housing
• Ari Shavit talks with Naftali Bennett on the plan for a million settlers, his meteoric jump in polls and the storm over refusing orders
• In Likud they don't understand where (Arthur) Finkelstein's 45 mandates disappeared to
• "Bibitours" affair - State Comptroller send 30 ministers and deputy ministers a draft of the report on their travels
• 1/4 page ad: Prize in the name of Yeshiyahu Leibowitz - Invitation for offers of candidates. The prize was founded by the "Yesh Gvul" movement and will be awarded annually. It will be given for extensive public service in the fields that interested Yeshiyahu Leibowitz, such as struggle against the occupation, separation of state and religion, and more.  Details: Leibowitz.prize@gmail.com

Yedioth Ahronoth

• "Housing got more expensive because of Netanyahu and Steinitz" - (Shas') Atias returns fire
• The main witness against Lieberman: Danny Ayalon - Indictment against Lieberman
• Bibi's boomerang // Sima Kadmon
• Fighting for the beauty crown - Risal, 19, from Gan-Shomron, will soon go from dispersing demonstrations in the Border Police to designer clothes. She is one of 20 finalists in a beauty pageant

Elections 2013 - 25 more days - Yedioth and Dahaf poll:

Likud-Beiteinu               33
Labor                            17
Bennett                        12
Shas                             11
Livni                              11
Lapid                            11

Maariv

• Danny Ayalon: Liberman pressured for the appointment of the ambassador - Resigning foreign minister to be indicted Sunday with fraud and breach of trust; Key witness: His deputy (Hebrew)
• In his path - The grandfather was shot down with his plane in the Yom Kippur War and was declared missing, his granddaughter became a combat navigator this week
• Shelling in Aleppo - 156 people killed in last few days of fighting, Rebels say Assad using phosphate shells (Hebrew)
• "Housing Ministry will stay in our hands" - Der'i told Shas activists (Hebrew)
• Maariv/Maagar Mochot Poll :

Likud Beiteinu            37
Labor                          18
Bennett                       13
Shas                           11
Livni                            9
Lapid                          8

Israel Radio poll quoted in Haaretz:
Likud-Beiteinu 34 seats. Labor 16,  Habayit Hayehudi 15, Shas 13, Hatnua 11, Yesh Atid 9, United Torah Judaism 6, Meretz 5, Hadash and Raam-Taal 4 seats each, and Balad 3 seats. Kadima and other parties would not pass the electoral threshold and will remain outside the Knesset.
 

News Summary:
A much harsher indictment against former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, the rise of Naftali Bennett and the Shas party's fight for the housing ministry were top stories in Friday morning's papers.
 
The papers emphasized how it was Lieberman's deputy, of all people, who served as the key witness against his boss causing the Attorney General to rewrite the indictment making it much harsher. The new indictment states that Lieberman told Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who chaired the appointments committee, to get the appointment of Ze'ev Ben Aryeh as ambassador to Latvia through the committee. This came after Ben Aryeh helped out Lieberman by notifying him about an Israeli police request for help from the Belarus authorities in an investigation against Lieberman. In the rewritten indictment, the charges of fraud and breach of trust against Lieberman remain the same, but the amended indictment may mean his acts involved moral turpitude, in which case, if Lieberman were convicted, he would be barred from politics for the next seven years.  Yedioth quoted Ayalon saying, "It's not revenge, I am just not willing to lie." Lieberman kept Ayalon off the list of candidates in the upcoming elections.

The case against Lieberman has not prevented him from battling it out with Shas over who will get the Housing Ministry after elections. After Lieberman sent Shas leader and Housing Minister Ariel Atias 'to travel the world' as the next Tourism Minister, Shas' Arieh Der'i shot back saying Likud-Beiteinu is the party of the "Russians and the whites." (He later apologized.) Atias told Yedioth that, "all the housing reforms that the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were responsible for did not happen."

All the polls found that Habayit Hayehudi led by Naftali Bennett is gaining strength. Yedioth looked at the polls of each of the last three weeks and found not only that Bennett gained a mandate a week, but Likud-Beiteinu lost one weekly.

Maariv's weekend magazine ran a feature titled 'Arafat file opened' on the question whether former Palestinian president was poisoned to death or died from a virus. A 'senior Israeli  security source' said he was infected with AIDS during his hospitalization in Libya. The Palestinians accuse the Mossad of poisoning him. The reporter interviews numerous people, mostly Israelis in the security establishment asking how they thought he died. Of the Israelis, only Dr. Menachem Klein, a political science lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, said that it could have been Israel, which according to foreign reports had prepared to assassinate him, and that there were no Palestinians who hated him so badly they wanted to kill him, while the Israelis had reason to. (NRG Hebrew)

Quick Hits:

• Clashes erupt as High Court debates disqualification of Israeli Arab MK - Right-wing MK says if judges were to allow Hanin Zuabi (Balad) to run for 19th Knesset, he 'would send them all to Gaza.' (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Britain against Ariel University: "Illegal settlement" - Minister in UK's Foreign Ministry attacked the recognition of the institution and the construction approvals across the Green Line: "A provocative act that contravenes the Geneva Convention." (Yedioth, p. 15 and NRG Hebrew)
• Lieberman: Only Abbas' resignation could renew negotiations with Israel - After Palestinian president says that if stalemate continues, Netanyahu can take back the keys to the West Bank, Lieberman responds, 'We are eagerly anticipating Abbas' resignation.' (Haaretz)
• 3 settler youth indicted for West Bank 'price tag' attack - Youths are accused of setting a Palestinian-owned car on fire and spraying graffiti near Dahariya, south of Hebron. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Vandals desecrate north Israel church abandoned in 1948 - Committee of town of Baram says it would contact the Vatican and complain that Israel was shrugging its duty to protect the holy site, after in the past similar attacks went unpunished. (Haaretz)
• Israeli post office says Palestinian cannot send package abroad - When B.M. displayed a 'green' ID card, issued to residents of the territories, the clerk asked if he had any other identification, and eventually refused to send his package abroad. (Haaretz)
• Poll: Gaza op not Israeli victory - Survey results seem to indicate widespread dissatisfaction with government's decision not to proceed with ground invasion to eliminate rocket arsenal. (Ynet)
• The gatekeepers - A rare meeting between the six last heads of the Shin Bet took place yesterday at the Tel-Aviv Cinemateque where the  premiere screening "Gatekeepers," a documentary film by Dror Moreh, was screened. (Yedioth, p. 10)
• Netanyahu: Israel's 'long arm' will strike those who threaten it - At Air Force graduation event, PM says Israel will stop at nothing to defend itself against Syrian threats, makes veiled threat against Iran; speech comes after reports of secret meeting with Jordan's king over Syria. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Palestinian suspected of having sex with yeshiva students - Suspect serves as Shabbos goy in Bnei Brak; suspected of paying teens to have sex with him. (Ynet)
• New IDF brigade to protect Eilat - IDF establishes Eilat Territorial Brigade to tackle Sinai terrorist threat. Fence to be completed by mid 2013. (Ynet)

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