Yediot Aharonot refers to the Knesset’s 51-28 rejection yesterday of a bill that would have required young women who request an IDF exemption on religious grounds to not only submit a declaration that they are religiously observant but to also prove that they studied at a religious school for at least two years prior to submitting the declaration. The author declares that „Once again, petty politics overcame what was right and proper,” and claims that the current procedure, in which young women requesting exemptions on religious grounds are taken at their word, „has created an opening for every opportune shirker, for any young woman who is looking for an easy excuse to evade her civic duty.”
Ma’ariv suggests that the controversy over Shas MK Rabbi Haim Amsalem „again proves that there is no real successor to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in the Shas leadership,” and adds that „It is doubtful whether the party will survive after him.” The author says that Rabbi „Yosef has not responded to [Rabbi] Amsalem’s claim that Judaism has never encouraged a culture in which the vast majority of men learn and do not work,” and believes that for all its ostensible championing of Sephardi Jewish culture, Shas – under Rabbi Yosef – is really „a branch of the ultra-orthodox, Ashkenazi-Lithuanian Jewish culture.” The paper ventures that if Shas wants to survive after Rabbi Yosef, it must embrace voices like Rabbi Amsalem’s.
Yisrael Hayom reminds its readers that Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen received his doctorate from a Russian college when the latter was a Soviet Communist institution and notes that his dissertation „is entitled ‘The Links between Nazism and Zionism, 1933-1945′.” The author asserts that „This is an example of Holocaust-denial with an academic veneer in the service of Palestinian nationalism,” and says that „The new study produced by the Palestinian Information Ministry is following the Chairman’s personal example. The study determines that the Jews have no right whatsoever to the Western Wall, that it belongs to Muslims as an inseparable part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is the property of the Waqf and was never part of the Temple.” The paper says that „The system of using lies with an academic veneer against the Jews and Israel, especially over Jerusalem, is not new,” and believes that the study is designed to „undermine the Jews’ right to Jerusalem,” even as it ignores many classical Islamic sources.
The Jerusalem Post refers to the near-mega-disasters that occurred in two major Israeli urban centers in the past few days, and points out that the country’s infrastructure for disaster management is extremely inadequate. The editor notes that Israel „lacks about 250 fire-trucks, while many of the now in-service vehicles are antiquated,” and opines that „In each case we are dealing with eminently avoidable or reducible risks. Such risks must urgently be internalized and countered.”
Haaretz claims that the Shin Bet’s security methods are reminiscent of third-world countries, and, citing a plan to pave a road through a nature reserve to afford easy access to PM Netanyahu’s weekend home as an example, states that „Since Rabin’s assassination, the Shin Bet has adopted sweeping and exaggerated security methods that convey belligerence and decisions known as ‘covering your ass.'”
BreuerPress-info
