Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press


Yediot Aharonot suggests that „Abu Mazen is not especially interested in concessions on the ground, a police station here, an IDF checkpoint there; that is his Prime Minister Salam Fayad’s department.  He and Fayyad are not cut from the same cloth.  He is much more concerned with his place in history and in the Arab League, and on the Arab street.  According to past experience, when he faces a tough decision, he runs away, usually to Qatar, his second home.  If he runs away this time, he will push Obama deeper into Netanyahu’s arms.  And indeed, Netanyahu won this time.  While this victory has prolonged his Government’s life by several months, it has not advanced the settlement.  As Pyrrhus, the Greek king who beat the Romans said, another such victory and we are undone.”
Ma’ariv comments on the relevance of the recent Russian-US spy swap to the case of Jonathan Pollard: „Pollard has not been released because…Israel is not Russia.  It has nothing to offer the US…and it can neither threaten American interests, nor cause damage to Americans, nor arrest Americans in Tel Aviv, so that there will be someone to exchange for Pollard.  It has no ability to exact from the Americans a price for the release of one spy or ten, even if they are all beautiful redheads.  Indeed, Israel has nothing left to do but beg for Pollard and in international relations, begging is far less persuasive than a position of strength.”
Yisrael Hayom discusses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to the US and US President Barack Obama’s interview on Israel TV Channel 2 and ventures that „The change that has come over Obama is too fresh to analyze in depth but it is logical if one considers him as having strategically sobered up from his failed effort to reconcile with the Muslims since being elected.”
The Jerusalem Post mourns the passing of Rabbi Yehuda Amital, „The rabbi of intellectual openness,” and states that „Amital embraced liberal democracy as the best form of government in a contentious Jewish state and entered into dialogue with secular and non-Orthodox Jews.” The editor adds that „[Amital’s] impact on what could have been a very monolithic religious Zionist society is undeniable. Thankfully, Amital’s legacy is alive in hundreds of students.”
Haaretz claims that the package of confidence-building measures that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to offer the Palestinians is no moiré than camouflage netting whose purpose is to conceal Israel’s avoidance of any responsibility in the peace process, and declares: „The steps Netanyahu is proposing are not policy, nor a substitute for it. He cannot ignore his commitment to the peace process and attempt, once again, to portray the Palestinians as the ones refusing peace.”

 

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