Two papers discuss various aspects of the latest WikiLeaks affair: Yediot Aharonot says that „If WikiLeaks did not exist, Israel would have had to invent it. The massive leak of American diplomatic cables gives one clear and sharp picture: The entire world, and not just Israel, is in a panic over the Iranian nuclear issue.” The author declares that „It is doubtful if Israel’s foreign and defense policy has received as significant an objective backing as it did last night. At least on the Iranian issue, and it seems on more than a few other issues as well, the leaders of the world, including the Arab world, think like us but are ashamed to admit it.”
Yisrael Hayom asserts that „Israel is coming out pretty well from the first wave of the greatest leak in history,” what may yet emerge notwithstanding.
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Ma’ariv suggests that it was the right-wing that pushed for last week’s law requiring a referendum (or a Knesset majority of 80) on any peace agreement that involves ceding part of any area to which Israeli law and jurisdiction have been applied (inside the Green Line, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights) because it knows that the public as a whole tends to hold more right-wing views. The author believes that „The referendum law greatly complicates the idea of an exchange of territories – another reason for the celebrations on the right,” and suggests that it is for the above reasons that certain right-wing MKs are promoting legislation granting expatriate Israelis the right to vote.
The Jerusalem Post discusses the Fifth Fatah Revolutionary Council held over the weekend, and which „derogatorily rejected recognition of ‘the so-called Jewish state’ or any ‘racist state based on religion.” Additionally, „It reasserted the ‘right of return’ which, if implemented, would facilitate the end of a Jewish majority within the pre-1967 Green Line by allowing about four million Palestinian refugees and their offspring to settle in Israel proper.” In short, the editor notes, „Fatah essentially articulated its intent to do everything short of relaunching an armed struggle to undermine the existence of the Jewish state.” The editor points out that the vast majority of local and international news outlets have so far refrained from reporting at all on Fatah’s hard-line declarations, and adds that „When news reporters and editors fail to give the proper space to revelations of Palestinian extremism and intransigence, they help perpetuate prejudices against Israel.”
Haaretz refers to the stance adopted by PM Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the African labor migrants who cross into Israel via the Egyptian border, and states that „He sees them as a great danger to ‘the character and future of the State of Israel’ and a threat to the employment of Israelis.” The editor feels that while Israel, like any other country, has the right to decide who comes in and who settles here, „The government must insure that the human rights of illegal migrants are protected, transparent and subject to judicial review, as behooves a democratic country.”
BreuerPress-info
