Today's Situation

BACK TO THE FUTURE, July 3, 2007

With the Moshe Katsav case back in the hands of lawyers and justices, and as ceremonies were held across the country to mark the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, attention in the Israeli press returned to conflicts past, present and future.

Yedioth Ahronoth leads with the recommendations of the committee set up by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to implement the interim recommendations made by the Winograd Committee. According to the paper, the panel, headed by former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, has advised the government to invest the National Security Council (NSC) with extensive and far-reaching powers.

The committee recommends a complete overhaul of the NSC, by placing it at the center of the decision-making process on security and state matters. The committee submitted its report to the Prime Minister's Office last week, and its proposals will be discussed by a special ministerial team this week. If ministers approve the proposals, the paper reports, the NSC will relocate to the Prime Minister's Office and its director will report directly to the prime minister.

Shahak also recommends the establishment of a national emergency-management team at the Prime Minister's Office as well similar but smaller teams at the Defense and Foreign Ministries, all of which will report to the National Security Council at times of war and crisis.

Another committee established in the aftermath of last summer's war- the Eitam Committee that has been examining the level of training of IDF officers- has found serious flaws in the process, according to Maariv's NRG Internet site. According to the report, which was submitted to IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi on Tuesday morning, there are also serious problems with the selection process for top IDF brass, which played a key role in the army's lack of readiness for the conflict.

All the daily papers carry extensive coverage of the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, with many commentators focusing on Olmert's decision not to attend the official ceremony on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl. While Olmert's office cited security concerns, bereaved families, political rivals and media pundits were less charitable in their analysis. In Haaretz, Tom Segev described Olmert as 'the man whose refusal to resign in the wake of the war placed him at the top rung of Israeli cynicism' and accused him of 'acting like a coward' by not attending the ceremony.

At the ceremony, acting President Dalia Itzik appealed to Hizbollah to be humane and provide a sign of life from IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who were abducted exactly one year ago. Chief-of-Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said the army has spent the last year implementing the lessons learned from the war in Lebanon.

In the Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, Haaretz website reported Tuesday that security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank and confiscated a considerable amount of weapons. Quoting a senior Palestinian security official, the paper says that the arrests are part of broader efforts to dismantle a growing Hamas network in West Bank.

At the same time, Israel Radio that Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the ongoing violence by Hamas and other groups in the Gaza Strip cannot be used as an excuse to cut off ties with the West Bank-based government led by Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Olmert told the committee that for the first time, a Palestinian government is acting against terrorism. And therefore, the prime minister said, he is willing to take calculated risks such as removing roadblocks on the West Bank. But Olmert warned that if President Abbas embraces Hamas again, Israel will cut off ties. A leading think-tank in Israel says there are already signs of a Palestinian desire to re-connect the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, wire services report that Hamas gunmen on Tuesday took up positions around the stronghold of the shadowy group holding kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston, stepping up the pressure to secure the correspondent's release.

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