Yediot Aharonot comments on the selection process for the post of IDF Chief-of-Staff.
The author says that „In the most senior ranks, the gap between officers is not great, and in many cases they are similar to each other in character, and in their abilities and service record. What is left? It is left for the Defense Minister, and to a large degree, the Prime Minister as well, to choose that candidate with whom it will be easiest to work. That is how it has been and that is how it – apparently – will be.”
Ma’ariv discusses US President Barack Obama’s decision to take center stage in informing the American public about the abortive plot to bomb two Chicago synagogues via international express delivery services. The author believes that „It could be that putting the terrorism issue on the agenda will likely damage the Democrats,” in Tuesday’s elections, and enunciates two reasons: „The first reason, of course, is that Obama is a Democratic President and, in any case, is suspected by Republican – and some independent – voters of taking a compromising policy towards Muslims. The second is linked to the preferences of Americans, who are currently not focused on terrorist threats but on economic and unemployment threats.”
Yisrael Hayom refers to the recent case of Amir Makhoul, a noted Israeli Arab writer, intellectual and political activist, who pled guilty – inter alia – to charges of espionage regarding his contact with a foreign agent, i.e. Hezbollah. The author avers that while many of the Israeli Arab community’s grievances may be justified, Makhoul’s actions play into the hands of those voices calling for the citizenship of those convicted of such offenses to be revoked.
The Jerusalem Post discusses the lack of progress in the building of the security fence along Israel’s southern border through which illegal African migrants flock into Israel, and finds that „It is simply untenable that an urgent, authorized, budgeted project is going nowhere, and that Israel’s southern border remains inadequately protected in the face of a relentless illegal influx.”
Haaretz calls the hearing in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee last week on the issue of revoking the citizenship of accessories to terrorism ‘a disgraceful and worrying display.’ The editor expresses reservations regarding the emphasis placed by the committee on the supportive remarks by the Shin Bet security service’s legal adviser, in which he claimed that revocation of citizenship can serve as a deterrent factor, and declares that „Even if revoking citizenship could deter potential terrorists, deterrence cannot serve as a justification for everything.”
BreuerPress-info
