Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press
Today’s issues: The French initiative, not every attempt at diplomacy is a threat to Israel, the apartheid myth, and a display of maturity.
Two newspapers discuss the French initiative to convene an international conference to jump-start the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians:
The Jerusalem Post declares: “The problem is that the French unwittingly sabotaged hopes for fruitful talks by adding their caveat: Should the talks fail, they will unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.” The editor adds: “By threatening to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, the French announcement only ensures the Palestinians will dig their heels in further in their rejectionist stance” and states: “National self-determination is a privilege that must be earned. Palestinians have a lot of work to do before they are ready.”
Haaretz links Israel’s rejection of the French proposal to yesterday’s terror attack, and declares: “This is not the first time that Israel’s opposition to an attempt to advance a diplomatic solution has led to frustration, accompanied by violent responses of despair.” The editor adds: “Instead of finding ways to scuttle every effort that might lead to a solution, France should be congratulated on its initiative in the hope that other countries, especially the United States, join it,” and argues that “Recognition of a Palestinian state that will live in peace alongside the State of Israel is not a threat to Israel. It is a welcome contribution to its peace, security and morality.”
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Yediot Aharonot takes issue with the “miserable demagoguery” of the BDS claim that Israel is an apartheid regime, and states: “The Palestinians not only have a parliament, but also independent higher education institutions, a police force, security forces, a justice system and prisons. Is this apartheid? Thanks to Israeli control, the Palestinians went from zero higher education institutions to being first among university graduates in the Arab world. Is this apartheid? Is this oppression?” The author points out “The apartheid campaign achieves results. It doesn’t promote peace or reconciliation, it creates the opposite results. It raises the rate of anti-Semitism, encourages the hooligans that support the BDS movement, bolsters Palestinian intransigence, and makes the chances of peace smaller and smaller still,” and declares: “A democratic state does not silence those who spread libels. All that can be done is to expose them in order to fight their destructive results.”
Israel Hayom praises the government’s decision on Sunday to approve an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which, in essence, “heralds the implementation of the ‘separation plan’ between the different streams of Judaism.” The author asserts: “the agreement heals an open wound between Israel and large Jewish communities abroad, mainly in the U.S., where many Jews have perceived Israel’s policy on the matter as ungrateful, exclusionary and out of place,” and adds: “What is new in the agreement is the establishment of a new entrance to the Western Wall plaza, common to all denominations. There is room for everybody, but inside, groups will split to go their separate ways.”
[Ben-Dror Yemini and Shlomo Cesana wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Israel Hayom, respectively.
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