Yediot Aharonot opines that „What has been going on between Israel and Hamas,”
Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press
Yediot Aharonot opines that „What has been going on between Israel and Hamas,” in the negotiations over the release of Gilad Shalit, „in the last few weeks, since Israel submitted its latest offer almost one month ago this Friday, is injury-time play. This is occurring, unlike the rest of the negotiations that were held in secret, primarily in the public eye. As during added-on injury-time play, so it is now, the chance for a dramatic breakthrough for change is small.”
Ma’ariv says that „It would be fitting to praise the Prime Minister’s announcement on our moral obligation, as a people and a state, to the 1,200 children of foreign workers, who were born here in Israel.”
Yisrael Hayom suggests that „We ran away from the Gaza Strip and, as the bumper sticker says, ‘Gaza is running after us.’ It runs after us with missiles from over the fence. It runs after us with tunnels dug beneath it…We abandoned the Philadelphi corridor. We ran away from a strip of land, and we left behind an enemy imprisoned between fences. What exactly did we think would happen?” The author chides: „Whoever thought that the solution to bombs was to uproot communities, received bombs on the beaches of Ashdod.”
The Jerusalem Post wonders if the explosive-laden barrels that washed ashore in Ashdod and Ashkelon recently herald the opening of a new terror front from the sea. Remarking that the Palestinians view their war with Israel in zero-sum terms, the editor notes that „Ideologically, a chauvinistic Palestinian nationalism has combined with Islamist fanaticism to oppose the right of Jews to enjoy sovereignty anywhere in this land,” and adds that „This bleak picture will change only when the Palestinian leadership acknowledges and internalizes Israel’s legitimacy and re-educates its people toward the idea of coexistence – the sooner the better for their sake and ours.”
Haaretz discusses the recent statement by Defense Minister Ehud Barak that if Israel does not reach a peace agreement with Syria shortly, „we are liable to enter a belligerent clash with it that could reach the point of an all-out, regional war.” The editor declares that if he does not leave his ministerial post because the Netanyahu government is not moving forward on peace, then „Barak, even more than Netanyahu, may be responsible for the all-out and unnecessary war he warned of.”
