The Jerusalem Post comments on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s criticism of Israel for withholding tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority regardless of causality, and observes that “the PA that it can do no wrong in Washington’s eyes, while Israel willfully refuses to do right (by Obama administration definitions).” The editor believes that this attitude as well as the fact that “Kerry has failed to take Abbas to task for a host of moves that scuttled negotiations,” has emboldened Abbas “to escalate his provocations.& rdquo; The editor asserts that Kerry’s “non-too-concealed subtext is that somehow Israel is to blame for all that ails the entire Middle East,” and adds that until Kerry stands up and challenges that PA’s penchant of provocation and pinning culpability on Israel, “he will remain as unheeded as Cassandra.”
Haaretz discusses the state comptroller’s report on the housing crisis, and asserts: “Netanyahu is main culprit in Israel’s housing crisis.” The editor declares that since becoming prime minister in 2009 “he has had nearly six full years to do something about skyrocketing housing costs,” and contends that while the Likud would have us believe housing report shouldn’t have been released so close to election, nevertheless “the public deserves as much information as possible.”
Yediot Aharonot attacks the Netanyahu government’s determination to increase housing starts in the occupied territories, and alleges: “The Netanyahu governments (even when they included members of the Labor Party and Yesh Atid) are post-Zionist governments which are disassembling the Zionist project of the ‘Jewish and democratic’ state.” The editor asserts: “Anyone who takes a look at the map of the West Bank territories realizes that the State of Israel has intentionally created on them a network of communities, which the only logic that can be found in them is turning the separation between us and the Palestinians from a difficult task into an impossible one.”
Yisrael Hayom believes that “The U.S. is so eager to strike a deal with Iran that it seems willing to forgive and forget all of Tehran’s crimes.” The author wonders whether the Obama administration has forgotten the many American soldiers and civilians that were killed by the Iranian regime and its henchmen, and speculates whether these crimes “have been forgiven and forgotten in favor of realizing the vision of reconciliation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at any price?” The author adds: “Surely, a reconciliation of this nature should also include an Iranian admission as to its involvement in global acts of terrorism, which have claimed so many lives,” and states: “there is no doubt as to the severity of the deal’s nuclear dimensions, which are anchored in the fact that its very existence will forgive Iran’s moral debt not only to Israel, but to the U.S. and the international community as a whole.”
Globes op-ed was not available today.
[Aviad Kleinberg and Abraham Ben-Zvi wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]
