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Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press
Today’s issues: Teaching the startup nation, the new modesty police at the Knesset, losing US public opinion support, and bolstering democracy with political appointees.
The Jerusalem Post is appalled by the consistent low ranking of Israeli high school students on international scholastic assessment tests, and asserts: “A systematic reform in the education system is desperately needed, beginning with revamping the way we choose and train our teachers.” The editor adds: “This must change. We must raise the standard of teaching by making it more difficult to receive accreditation to teach. In parallel, the salaries of teachers must be raised,” and concludes: “Only with excellent, well-trained teachers can we hope to train the next generation of the startup nation.”
Haaretz slams the Knesset administration for issuing a new dress code that prevented several female parliamentary assistants from entering th e building, and argues that the humiliation they suffered, “like some of the requirements of the dress code itself, reflect another attempt to undermine women’s freedom under the cloak of ‘modesty’ or “offending people’s sensibilities.’” The editor contends: “This trend, which is also reflected in efforts to ban women from singing in public and keeping them from serving in the army in the name of ‘modesty,’ is part of a broader process of religionizing the public space and chauvinistic coercion,” and states: “The Knesset guards should stick to doing their job – which is to maintain the building’s security and order – instead of serving as a modesty police. Attempts to make women disappear from public spaces, or cover up when they enter them, must stop.”
Yediot Aharonot notes the growing support for anti-Israel sanctions over the ongoing expansion of settlements by the American public, which should be setting off alarm bells in Israel, but believes that PM Netanyahu is doing nothing about it because “he is once again a puppet in the hands of Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett.”
Israel Hayom advocates for the acceptance of the proposed changes to the Civil Service Nominations Committee, which, according to the author, could help restore sanity to Israel’s democracy by ending the ban on high-level political appointments in the public sector, and asserts: “Any decent human being should hope the committee filters out this background noise as it goes about addressing the folly that was introduced by self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusaders who threw away the baby with the bath water and created, perhaps unwittingly, a grave distortion in our democratic system.”
[Ben-Dror Yemini and Shlomo Zadok wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Israel Hayom, respectively |
