Today's Situation

STILL MAKING WAVES , December 08, 2006

The publication Wednesday of the Iraq Study Group's report into U.S. policy in the Middle East continues to make waves in Israel, with local media carrying extensive coverage of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first public reaction to the report.

Speaking to a meeting of newspaper editors in Tel Aviv, Olmert insisted that, despite the finding of the report, the time was still not right to talks with Syria.

"I don't know what the president decides to do with the report,' Olmert said, 'I can only say that the views I've heard from the president and senior administration officials on the Syrian issue were that they did not see a possibility for an American-Syrian negotiation or an Israeli-Syrian negotiation. I count on his judgment and responsibility.'

However, Olmert added that "in my view, Syria's subversive operations, its support for Hamas - which may be what's preventing real negotiations with the Palestinians - do not give much hope for negotiations with Syria any time soon. The question what we'll give to the Syrians interests me less than the question what they'll give to us," he stated.

Olmert also objected to the report's attempt to create linkage between the Iraqi issue and the broader issue of the Middle East.

The Jerusalem Post, meanwhile, spoke Thursday to Edward Djerejian, a senior member of the Iraq Study Group, who was closely involved in writing the report.

Djerejian denied that the Baker-Hamilton report constitute a bid to force Israel into concessions in order to solve the Iraq crisis. "That is not the thrust of the report," said Edward Djerejian, although he added that he was "not surprised" that some in Israel regarded it in that light.

Following publication of the report, Army Radio reports that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in on her way to Washington, where she will meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. According to the radio, the report will form the main subject of discussion for the two women.

Elsewhere, Maariv reports that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in Iran on Friday that his Hamas-led government would never recognize Israel - one of the key conditions set by the international community for the lifting of a boycott of the PA imposed when Hamas was elected to power.

"We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem," Haniyeh told thousands of worshippers in a speech at Tehran University.

Elsewhere, the investigations into the army's handling of the war in Lebanon continue to make headlines. Haaretz reports that, because of a dispute between the offices of the prime minister and the state comptroller, the Prime Minister's Office delayed by over three months the transfer to the comptroller's of documents pertaining to cabinet and security cabinet meetings relevant to the war in Lebanon

The above text was written and compiled by Simon Spungin using newpaper, radio and wire reports, in English and Hebrew.

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