Today's Situation

BETWEEN ANNAPOLIS AND JERUSALEM, October 31, 2007

After the drama of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's 'prostate speech,' the Israeli press focuses Wednesday on a different kind of drama - the disturbances in the early hours of Tuesday morning the Druze Galilee village of Peki'in.

While Yedioth Ahronoth describes the incident - which was sparked when police entered the village to arrest several locals suspected of torching a cellular communications antenna in the village - as 'Civil war' in its lead headline, Maariv leads with Public Security Minister Avi Dichter's assertion that 'Police did not live up to expectations.' Haaretz follows a similar line, quoting senior officers who described the arrest operation as 'a failure from the outset.'

Haaretz leads, however, with a report that the United States is renewing its pressure on the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to evacuate West Bank outposts, as part of its preparations for next month's planned summit in Annapolis.

According to the paper, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told Israeli officials during talks in Jerusalem late last week that the U.S. expects Israel to take measures that will assist Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Hadley reportedly told his Israeli interlocutors that if Israel wants to delay the discussions on the core issues - refugees, Jerusalem and borders - it must help the Palestinians change the situation on the ground and evacuate the outposts.

The paper adds that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to return to the Middle East nest week, and it now appears that the outposts will be on the top of her agenda, despite Olmert's fragile support in the coalition.

At the same time, Haaretz also reports that the Shin Bet has warned Israeli leaders that the Palestinian Authority is demanding that Israel acknowledge the 'Peres Letter,' which accompanied the Oslo accords of 1993, and which promises to allow Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem to operate there.

The issue of Jerusalem was also raised by former Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, Natan Sharansky, who charged that the Olmert administration's plan to divide Jerusalem will damage Jewish identity as well as endanger the country against attacks.

In other news, The Jerusalem Post reports that a de facto construction freeze on the West Bank separation face has been in place since early July. According to the exclusive report, officials said the government has told contractors not to begin work on the barrier in the Hebron Hills, despite signed contracts.

According to the report, the Defense Ministry said that the delay was due to lack of funds, but a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office told the Post that NIS 500 million of the 2007 budget for the barrier remains in the Defense Ministry's coffers.

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