8. Golan bill

ARUTZ7 1/26/99: "The Knesset will also vote today on the Golan bill. If passed, the law will forbid the transfer of any part of the Golan and Jerusalem to a foreign power without an absolute majority of 61 Knesset Members and a popular referendum."

9. Hareidi recruits

ARUTZ7 1/25/99: "A group of 30 hareidi youth enlisted in the IDF today. Named Netzach, which stands for the Hebrew words Hareidi Army Youth, the group will serve for three years, combining combat training and activity with Torah study. In addition, they will start a new settlement, like other Nachal groups, possibly in the Jordan Valley.

This is the first hareidi-Nachal unit of its type in over 20 years. Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Yehuda Duvdevani, Head of the Nachal and Youth Wing in the Defense Ministry, told Arutz-7 today:

"These are boys who have stopped learning in yeshivot over the past year or so. There are others, but we chose a select group of 30 that will lead the way for others to follow in their footsteps...

There will be rabbis who will accompany them during their service. We will study the situation, and get to know the boys and whatever problems they may have, and we will try to provide the best solutions that we can.

They are great guys, with a lot of motivation and desire to contribute, and they realize that they have a mission."

Special arrangements will be made for the new soldiers, such as all-male units, food meeting the highest kashrut standards, and the like."

10. Likud politics

HA'ARETZ 1/26/98: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Moshe Arens are to meet this morning to discuss Arens taking over the portfolio vacated by Yitzhak Mordechai, whom Netanyahu fired Saturday night.

The meeting follows Netanyahu's easy and expected victory over Arens in a Likud leadership primary last night that drew barely 30 percent of the estimated 160,000 Likud members across the country. Netanyahu won 75 percent of the vote, according to a telephone poll. Conceding to the prime minister, Arens said the turnout was less than he hoped for. Netanyahu said turnout was more than he expected.

In on-air interviews last night with Channel One and Channel Two, Arens reiterated that he planned to back whoever leads the Likud, and that his challenge to Netanyahu proved that the Likud is "an open party, and not monolithic."

Netanyahu, accepting Arens's congratulations, said the vote proved "there's massive support for the Likud and its way, and not for the way of the left." He called the new centrist party, which united yesterday at a Tel Aviv press conference, "leftists no different than the Labor Party."

...The Netanyahu victory over Arens was predicted by a poll taken by the Tzemach polling company. Other polls, including one by Gallup published last night, showed that if elections were held yesterday, Barak and Netanyahu would make it to the second round, where Barak would defeat Netanyahu by a four point margin, while if Mordechai were to reach a second round against Netanyahu, the former defense minister would win by a much larger spread.

But Gallup pollster Ya'acov Levy said last night that only 57 percent of the public has made up its mind about whom to vote for, and more than 38 percent were undecided. He warned that all polls nowadays bore little relevance, because of the state of flux in the political spectrum.

Likud spokesmen predicted last night that as the election draws nearer, the centrist party would join Barak, "proving what Barak said last night: 'there are only microscopic differences'" between the centrist grouping and Labor's platform. Barak has made a consistent call for the centrists to line up under the "One Israel" political umbrella that Barak wants to run under...

Most attention now in the Likud focuses on the primaries for the Knesset list with 86 candidates seeking realistic positions in a vote to be held on February 8. Current polls show that only the first 25-30 slots on a Likud list can be considered realistic.

Dropping out of the Likud - and politics - is Knesset Speaker Dan Tichon, while among the new faces running for parliament are Tzipi Livne, a Herut "princess" whose father served as a Herut MK, and Dr. Yuval Steinitz, a former member of Peace Now and University of Haifa academic, who in recent months has aligned with Netanyahu..."

11. Center politics

HA'ARETZ 1/26/99: "Ousted Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai will be the new center party's candidate for the prime ministership, the party's four senior members announced last night at a press conference.

Mordechai will be followed on the list of the as-yet unnamed party by former Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, MK Dan Meridor and former Tel Aviv Mayor Roni Milo. Mordechai opened the Tel Aviv press conference by outlining the basic principles of the party's platform.

He said a government under his leadership will strive to reach a "reasonable compromise" with Israel's neighbors, adding that he and his colleagues support the idea of a "territorial compromise" on the Golan Heights and an agreement on Lebanon to be reached in talks with Syria.

Shahak, like Meridor, had earlier announced his own candidacy for the prime ministership. But that was before the advent of Mordechai, who was virtually hurled into the arms of the centrists when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired him on Saturday. Shahak said he decided to forgo his candidacy to enable Mordechai to lead the nascent party.

"We all gladly agreed with that decision, with great hope and much faith," Shahak said. He said Mordechai's arrival "generated the momentum we were all expecting..."

12. Economic news

HA'ARETZ 1/26/99: "Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel decided yesterday not to lower interest rates for the month of February, leaving the nominal rate at 13.5 percent for the fourth month running.

Officials at the central bank explained yesterday that Frenkel had opted to let things be in order to give the economy a chance to firmly stabilize itself, and to encourage the economy's progress toward an inflation rate of 4 percent - the government's target for 1999.

The officials emphasized that the market held relatively steady around a similar rate last year, up until the sharp price increases of September through November, which were spurred by the instability of global markets. That rocky period last fall, of course, also led to a sudden devaluation of the shekel.

Bank officials maintain that it is their policy which broke the shekel's fall a couple of months ago, and their policy which makes 4 percent inflation rates a realistic target. Bank officials yesterday also cited the successful integration of the Israeli economy with global markets as another of the fruits of their policy.

They also said it was critical that any public sector wage agreements be consistent with market stability, as wages have a direct and significant impact on the budget and on inflationary market pressures.

Bank officials also said renewed economic growth, the real solution to the high unemployment rate, cannot occur until the government passes its budget and economic arrangements bills - measures that are not based on election economics..."

13. Trade with Jordan & Egypt

GLOBES 1/20/99: "The Israeli and Jordanian Trade and Industry Ministers Natan Sharansky and Muhammad al-Hurani have recently agreed to meet soon so as to extend the preferred-trade-partner status accord, which is part of the two countries' bilateral trade agreement.

Gabi Bar, the Trade and Industry Ministry's Middle East desk director, has revealed that the 1998 Israeli exports to Jordan amounted to $25 million -- 25 percent up from 1997. The exports mainly consisted of fertilizers, industrial chemicals, and mechanical equipment. The import from Jordan rose by 40 percent, reaching $17 million.

It mostly consisted of sand, concrete, and industrial air conditioners. The volume of export to Egypt -- a total of $54 million -- remained unchanged in 1998. The import from Egypt dropped by 40 percent, amounting to $18 million."

14. Cyprus trial

Nicosia's O FILEVTHEROS 1/22/99: "The Israeli Attorney General visited Cyprus three times recently to persuade the government and his Cypriot counterpart not to prosecute the two Israeli Mossad agents.

He based his request on the argument that the Israeli agents were acting not to harm Cyprus' interests but to protect their country. The Israeli official's arguments did not convince Cyprus and the government referred the two suspects to court. According to O Filelevtheros, the suspects and the Israeli Government officials claim the two agents came to Cyprus to avert terrorist activities that Hizballah might carry out in the area.

They also mentioned that the two came to Cyprus to attend a gathering of foreigners at a coastal area and referred to three foreign terrorists who were acting on behalf of an Arab state.

The examination of 24 pieces of evidence submitted by the police came to a halt during the trial since the Larnaca Court Registrar did not release the evidence as there were no relevant orders from the Criminal court.