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BBC Monitoring Quotes From Israel's Hebrew Press 27 Sep 05

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 06:00 CDT

The following is a selection of quotes from editorials published in 27 Sep editions of Hebrew-language Israeli newspapers available to BBCM.

Sharon wins Likud vote

"Victory is sweet and sweeter is the sight of defeated opponents. Yesterday Ariel Sharon had several reasons to rejoice. First, [Binyamin] Netanyahu. There is no greater pleasure for Sharon than to see Netanyahu humiliated. [Education Minister] Limor Livnat, [Health Minister] Danny Naveh, who jumped on Netanyahu's wagon in the last moment are the second. Third, the parade of faction members who voted against him, from Gideon Sa'ar downwards, who stood before microphones in the capacity of errant students and promised to obey the majority decision\ The split has been delayed but not prevented. Sharon won but it should not be ruled out that the state has lost. Long months of political instability lay ahead\" [From commentary by Nahum Barnea in centrist, largest circulation Yediot Aharonot]

"Ariel Sharon was not the only winner in the Likud central committee last night. Healthy logic, which, at the last minute, prevented the party in power from decapitating itself, also won, along with the desire to rule, and the interests of party branch heads who want to be elected to the next Knesset. The inoperative microphone won, and so did the theory of `never before': Never before has a prime minister been ousted by his own party. On the way, without noticing, the Likud became a more pragmatic, more moderate party, more connected to the desires of most of its voters\ As for the prime minister himself, if he was pleased yesterday, it was only because Binyamin Netanyahu was humiliated. Sharon knows full well that last night's victory does not remove the roadblocks from his path in the Likud. It is still a party in strife; it is hard to imagine Sharon and Uzi Landau, Tzipi Livni and Reuven Rivlin, Ehud Olmert and Yisrael Katz, moving ahead together\" [From commentary by Yossi Verter in left-of-centre, independent broadsheet Ha'aretz]

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ostensibly won a few more months in power when the Likud central committee decided against advancing the party's primaries on Monday, but there is no guarantee that his tenure in the Likud or the Prime Minister's Office has actually been extended. Sharon's political opponents were weakened by the vote, but no one doubts that Binyamin Netanyahu, MK Uzi Landau and the Likud rebels will continue to do everything possible to topple Sharon\ Sharon's advisers are divided over whether the prime minister should remain in the Likud\ If Sharon does decide to leave the Likud, there could be no better time than now, when he is at the peak of his popularity after disengagement... But if Sharon decides to remain in the Likud, he will likely try to extend his tenure in the Prime Minister's Office to become only the third prime minister in Israel's history to complete his term, against all odds\" [From commentary by Gil Hoffman in English-language Jerusalem Post]

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked last night: `Ah, something happened?' when one of his men called to inform him of the victory\ What happened is that Sharon defeated [Binyamin] Netanyahu against all the odds with one tied hand, a shut mouth and opposite a hostile [Likud] Centre\ There is no pro Bibi public than members of the Likud Centre and those were the people who turned Netanyahu into the new Shimon Peres\ the ultimative loser\" [From commentary by Ben Kaspit in centre-right Ma'ariv]

"Yet, Sharon's clear victory over his opponents bears also an overt ideological character. Despite the withdrawal from Gaza, despite the evacuation of settlements, despite the speech at the UN in which Sharon recognized the Palestinians' national rights, the majority at the Likud Centre expressed personal confidence in him. Sharon will lead the Likud until the next elections and it is reasonable he will it also to the elections themselves if he wishes. Netanyahu lost but a hair separated him from victory. Sharon indeed won but only a hair separated him from defeat. Both cannot continue to live under the same roof, in one party\ Between `Primaries Now' and `Peace Now' the latter won at the Likud Centre. This is the truth and on it Prime Minister Sharon should base his leadership of his party and carry out the vital ideological shake-up in it \" [From editorial of centrist, largest circulation Yediot Aharonot]

Pakistan

"The September 17 meeting in New York, at which Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf addressed the Jewish community under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress, was characterized by many observers as `historic'\ On the substantive level, however, Musharraf's speech was thin in innovative thoughts\ He knows quite well that the major obstacle to peace in the Middle East is not Israel's presence in the West Bank nor the final status of Jerusalem but the issue of Palestinian refugees and the continuing Arab rejection of the historical legitimacy of Israel\ Musharraf also knows that the vast majority of Muslims today still view Israel as an outpost of European colonialism\ He could, therefore, have made a bold historical move by declaring Israel the legitimate historical homeland of the Jewish people\ Instead Musharraf advocated the old theory that the Palestinians' aspirations are limited to an independent state within the 1967 borders while skillfully skirting the issue of Israel legitimacy\ Musharraf has thus missed the historic opportunity of being the first Muslim leader to jolt his countrymen from the pit of rejectionism to the height of mutual acceptance..." [From commentary by Dr Judea Pearl in English-language Jerusalem Post]

Sources: as listed

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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