Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press

20 Nov 2005
Haaretz comments: „Amir Peretz already has two clear achievements
The Jerusalem Post writes: „The unequivocal acquittal of Captain R last week won brief mention in Israel’s media, without causing much of a stir.
Yediot Aharonot suggests that ethnic motivations have little to do with how Israelis of North African and Middle Eastern origins vote.


Haaretz comments: „Amir Peretz already has two clear achievements: He breathed new life into a moribund party, and he managed to move up the elections. The latter move will prevent a whole year of inactivity and election economics. But elections must now take place as soon as possible. There is a debate over whether to hold them in February or March. February is preferable, since the sooner they are held, the more the country saves and the less precious diplomatic time wasted. If in the United Kingdom the prime minister can dissolve parliament and declare new elections within three weeks, there is no reason not to do the same in Israel within three months. The less time the government has, the harder it will be to implement election economics and the smaller the chance the budget framework will be breached. In any case there is no likelihood that the state budget will be passed before the elections, and it is clear that the important reforms – the splitting of the Electric Corporation, the splitting of Mekorot Water Company, the splitting of the Oil Refineries and the privatization of Israel Military Industries, a comprehensive reform of the Israel Lands Authority and the Israel Airports Authority – will be postponed until after the elections. Whether Ariel Sharon stays in the Likud or establishes a new party, it is clear that the main battle will be between him and Peretz.”

The Jerusalem Post writes: „The unequivocal acquittal of Captain R last week won brief mention in Israel’s media, without causing much of a stir. It was duly reported but quickly glossed over. That in itself is unfortunate because the court-martial of Captain R generated near-hysteria a year ago when charges surfaced that he had shot into the lifeless body of Rafah 13-year-old Iman el-Hams in a superfluous sadistic „verification” of her killing on October 5, 2004… R, who is from Israel’s Druse community, spent three months in jail and was only released last February after one of the soldiers confessed that the unit framed him because he was a strict disciplinarian and hence highly unpopular… It is more than appropriate that the IDF punish any soldier who violates its stringent efforts to avoid non-combatant Palestinian casualties. It is no less important that we all remember that moral responsibility for all non-combatant casualties, even those that might have been avoided and certainly those that could not have been, must be placed on the terrorists themselves, who not only deliberately target Israeli civilians, but who routinely hide behind and exploit their own people.”

Yediot Aharonot suggests that ethnic motivations have little to do with how Israelis of North African and Middle Eastern origins vote.
Yediot Aharonot, in its second editorial, notes that inflation rose by an annual 5.2% between May-October 2005 and says that the shekel-US dollar exchange rate, the increase in the domestic money supply, and the prices of petroleum products, are responsible.

Hatzofeh calls on the right-wing parties to unite ahead of the upcoming elections, especially since, “Ariel Sharon is the greatest danger to the Jewish future of the state and to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and on the Golan Heights.”
(BPI-Info)