Front Page News:

Haaretz

• “Bibi-Tours” affair: Netanyahu secretly questioned by State Comptroller
• Beniziri upon his release from jail: My pain greater than Shalit’s in captivity
• Capital back on snow watch as mercury plummets to new low
• Israeli-led project to map the brain would be biggest in history

• Office secrets – “Netanyahu is convinced that the comptroller is planning to destroy him. Hence, the feeling of the commander is that it’s okay to lie to the comptroller” – Uzi Landau, the director of Council for National Security who was forced to resign
• White morning – On the coldest day of the year, Israel looks like Europe
• “We tried to commit suicide because of Facebook”

• Beniziri’s shamelessness: It hurt me more than Shalit – In order to be released from jail, former minister Shlomo Beniziri had to express regret for his actions. Yesterday, after his release, [he said he was framed] (Hebrew)
• We missed the date – So saysOlli Heinonen, Al-Baradei’s #2 at the IAEA, in an exclusive interview with Maariv
• Stormy weekend, waiting for snow in the capital (Hebrew)
• Two 8th-graders tried to commit suicide because they were harassed on Facebook

• Climactic winter
• Anger at Beniziri: Compared himself to Gilad Shalit
• “Decisive meeting between Netanyahu and Obama”
• “Return Shachar to the police”
• Because of the gasoline: tax on cigarettes and alcohol to increase
• Migron: Understandings reached, signature still missing
• Touring on Israeli side, massacring on Syrian side: Assad loyalists kill 15 in Quneitra next to border in Golan

News Summary:
The Israelis newspapers today celebrated snow, expressed shock over the comparison by a former minister released from jail to the pain of Gilad Shalit, and shared the Israeli Prime Minister’s biggest stresses: his meeting with the US President over Iran and an internal investigation against him. Meanwhile, the Migron outpost may have come to an agreement with the state, but not with the court, the Attorney General ordered a criminal investigation into other illegal settlement construction, a right-wing report reveals MKs coming to settlement aid and Maariv reports on a settlement that refuses to have female soldiers guard it. Finally, a call for electoral reform.
 
With the ‘decisive’ meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama only three days away, the gap between the two leaders regarding the Iran issue is as big as ever, Maariv reports, so much so that the two sides have decided not to make a joint announcement on the subject, as the US had requested. Israel Hayom reports that the Israeli prime minister will tell his counterpart that “the sanctions did not change Iran’s behavior” vis-à-vis its nuclear project. Maariv writes that Netanyahu wants to know what assurances the US will provide if Israel holds back from attacking Iran and what are the US ‘red lines’ that would cause the US to take military action against Iran, if Israel gives up its intention to attack. US sources told Yedioth that Obama would not make a declaration threatening Iran. Dennis Ross told reporters yesterday that such a declaration “would not be good for Netanyahu,” because “it would narrow his freedom to maneuver.” Meanwhile, the director of Israel’s National Security Council Yaakov Amidror is working with his US counterpart Tom Donelin “to try to prevent the meeting from exploding,” Maariv writes. Yedioth writes that the argument between Israel and the US is at what point Iran passes what Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak termed the ‘zone of immunity,’ at which an attack on Iran is no longer effective. The Israeli government believes that point is when Iran has the capability to build nuclear weapons, while the US believes that it is when the Ayatollahs decide they want to build the weapons, which they have yet to decide. Based on the Israeli point of view it’s already too late, Olli Heinonen, Mohammed Al-Baradei’s #2 at the IAEA. In an interview with Maariv’s Musaf Shabbat he says about the Iranians: “They already passed the point of no-return, an attack can no longer destroy Iran’s nuclear potential.” Heinonen says that within a year Iran can build a nuclear weapon and it is just a matter of making that strategic decision. Ofer Shelach notes in the same supplement that a former prime and defense minister Ariel Sharon, a determined hawk, said: “I agree with those who say that it won’t be possible to prevent nuclear weapons from the Arab countries forever.” Shelach writes that “Sharon expressed what most Israelis are afraid to: The fact that Israel is considered in the world as a nuclear-weapon armed country assures that one day our bitter enemy will have its own bomb.” According to Yedioth, Brig. Gen. Amikam Norkin will be the one to make the operational plan to strike Iran, if that happens.

Besides the stress of Netanyahu’s upcoming meeting the Israeli premier also faces some significant internal problems. Haaretz’s front page reveals that the State Comptroller has been secretly questioning Netanyahu over what is known as the ‘Bibi Tours’ affair. Read more here. Possibly more embarrassingly, Yedioth ran a cover story in its Musaf L’Shabbat where former National Security Council director Uzi Arad reveals some dirty laundry about the prime minister, his wife and the decision-making processes. Arad, who was forced to resign for allegedly leaking information, claims Netanyahu believes the State Comptroller is out to destroy him, so he lies to him.
 
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in Bulgaria to meet with the president and the heads of the Jewish community in Sofia. Israel Hayom writes ‘this is another meeting of a senior Israeli official in the Balkan states in the framework of strengthening the new Israeli alliance with countries of the region: Greece, Cyprus, Romania, and Hungary.
 
**Migron outpost settlers finally agreed to leave their homes after the state agreed to write that they would ‘give’ their homes to the Civil Administration and not that the homes would be destroyed. According to the agreement, the settlers will have till November 2015 to move to the new location 1.5 km away. Israel Hayom explains the significance of the wording change: it gives the settlers another 2+ years to take other legal actions. Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer told Yedioth that the agreement is “a knockout to the rule of law and the vision of two states.”  Now the state is waiting for all the Migron residents to sign the dotted line. But Sima Kadmon points out in her column in Yedioth’s Musaf L’Shabbat that the state and the settlers are forgetting one thing: that the High Court already ruled on the question of postponing the departure of the settlers till new houses are built. The answer was no. The deadline, March 31st, remains.  The question now is whether the settlers will succeed in bending the court even more. This week, Peace Now and the Meretz party held a joint conference on the subject of Migron outpost, the largest one in the West Bank, with 48 families living in built (not caravan) homes. The most interesting speaker, writes Kadmon, was the government’s representative, Minister Michael Eitan, who repeatedly said the state will respect the High Court ruling. When asked how that sits with the compromise between the state and the settlers, Eitan answered that the compromise only if the court agrees will the agreement be valid. But there is no judicial way to bring something to the court for another discussion after it has already made a ruling and Kadmon wonders who will be the judge who will take responsibility for changing or striking down a ruling made by the former chief justice Dorit Beinisch. “The question is whether the string of moves the right-wing made recently that ensured that the new Chief Justice would be of their choice and that the appointment of judges would be according to the increasing politicization, was meant to deal with exactly just such a legal situation that we are in now, which requires legal virtuoso in order to turn over a final High Court ruling."

In a dramatic development, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ordered a criminal investigation into the illegal building in Shilo settlement, Israel Hayom reported. The order follows a Peace Now petition to the High Court that the construction be stopped and the buildings be destroyed. Peace Now’s Oppenheimer praised the move , but said it’s just a drop in the bucket. “There will be no significant deterrence until those involved are indicted.”

Speaking of settlements, Haaretz writes that a right-wing NGO has prepared a report that shows there has been a 50% rise in political actions that have aided West Bank settlements. Read more here.

Maariv reports that the ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement of Haresha, which Maariv refers to as a ‘yishuv’ – community – rather than ‘hitnachlut’ – settlement – that has become pejorative, refuses to have female soldiers guard its gates and make patrols. Details in Hebrew here.
 
Finally, Yedioth’s Musaf L’Shabbat interviews Professor Amnon Rubinstein who claims that Israel’s electoral system is the most corrupt scandal ever. Rubinstein says it paralyzes the government, makes the minority kingmakers, and frustrates the youth. He calls to raise the threshold to 10%, choose one quarter of the MKs from one’s own region, cancel political party primaries, and allow voters to write on the ballots who they would like to see in the Knesset.  All this so that the majority can rule.

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