HEADLINES FROM THE IZRAELI PRESS
HA’ARETZ:
1. HAMAS FIRES ROCKETS FROM SINAI AT SOUTHERN NEGEV AT REQUEST OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
First time: GRADs fall in Ovdat and Mitzpe Ramon areas. Security sources: This was at the initiative of senior figures in the Egyptian organization.
2. SOUTH SUDAN MIGRANTS: THEY ARE DEPORTING US BEFORE WE RECEIVED OUR SALARIES
MA’ARIV
1. FIRST TIME: ROCKET ON MITZPE RAMON
On the day on which millions of citizens voted in fateful elections in Egypt, two rockets were fired from Sinai toward Ovdat and Mitzpe Ramon in the second attack in two months. Residents: „There is consternation in the town. The question is whether we are prepared like the area adjacent to Gaza.”
2. TONIGHT: DEPORTATION FLIGHT
120 South Sudan citizens will be flown at midnight to their new country. 258 [new] migrants have infiltrated since the operation began.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. EGYPT’S MOMENT OF TRUTH
(…).
2. GRAD [ROCKET] NEAR MITZPE RAMON
First time: Two rockets landed in the Negev mountains and north of Eilat. Assessment: Fire from Egypt.
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. Day of historic decisions, which will directly affect Israel as well.
SECURITY: EGYPT TEST; ECONOMICS: CONCLUSION IN GREECE (…).
2. FIRST TIME: GRAD ADJACENT TO MITZPE RAMON Range of terrorist organizations expanding: GRAD remnants also found in Ovdat region. Assessment: Fired from Sinai.
3. BACK TO SOUTH SUDAN: FIRST FLIGHT
– TONIGHT 120 infiltrators to leave Israel voluntarily. This week: Implementation operations will expand.
WALLA!
1. NETANYAHU AHEAD OF DEPORTATIONS TO SOUTH SUDAN: „WE WILL TREAT THEM WITH DIGNITY”
NANA10
1. NETANYAHU AHEAD OF DEPORTATION OF MIGRANT INFILTRATORS: „WE WILL TREAT THEM WITH HUMANITY AND DIGNITY”
2. ROCKET REMAINS IN MITZPE RAMON AS WELL; ASSESSMENT: FIRING
–
AT REQUEST OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
[Headlines for Walla! and Nana10 are from their websites as of 11:20.] ______________________________
SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Yediot Ahronot says that whoever wins today’s presidential election in Egypt will have to deal with the following: „Egypt is approaching 90 million citizens. Every nine seconds a baby is born who must be fed. When he grows up, he will join the 12% of Egyptians who are unemployed, 20% of whom are university graduates. 14.2 million Egyptians live on $1-1.5 dollars a day…Whoever talks about open markets and a free economy must take into account the 45% (at least) of Egyptians who are illiterate. What will the millions eat? How will they earn a living? There are no tourists. The investors fled a year ago. The banks are fighting to halt the decline of the Egyptian pound and reassure the stock exchange, which plummets after every upheaval. Egypt’s external debt has long since surpassed $200 billion. Thirty years of Mubarak’s corrupt dictatorship has spawned sharp class divisions.” The author asserts, „Without assistance, Egypt will collapse,” and adds, „The deeper the crisis gets, the more dangerous it will be for us.” The paper concludes, „Without a leader, without a constitution, without a government that is expected to resign and without a parliament that received a court order to dissolve, but with enraged masses without hope, Egypt presents a long list of challenges for the new president. The economic challenge will be the most difficult.”
Ma’ariv questions why it was necessary for State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss to investigate the Government’s handling of the 2010 seizure of the Mavi Marmara. The author asks, „Were there mistakes and problems in decision-making, intelligence, tactics and cooperation between the various government bodies?” and answers, „Sure there were. It is clear to everyone that tactical and systemic lessons must be learned, mainly regarding the risk to the soldiers. State and military bodies are indeed doing so. But the mistakes were not terrible. They were within the range of the reasonable… The damage to Israel’s image was negligible. In Europe and the Islamic countries, and among human rights organizations, they were shocked to the depths of their souls, but the world understands that proportionate force was used
– enough to halt the flotilla and create deterrence, without harming innocents.” The paper wonders, „What was the State Comptroller looking for here? Why did he invest the taxpayers’ money and his own resources in another investigation of an operation that succeeded?” and responds, „In the spirit of the activism that is blowing through the entire judicial bureaucracy in Israel, the State Comptroller decides what, why and how to criticize… It was in the State Comptroller’s decision-making process that fault may be found. If there were shortcomings here, it is in the infuriating waste of state resources on an unnecessary investigation, the main purpose of which was to inflate the ego, media image and budget of the State Comptroller and his office.”
Yisrael Hayom asserts that, „The pair of GRAD rockets that were fired over the weekend from Sinai<www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=274070> brought good news and bad news. The bad news: The summer may have just begun, but the clouds in the south are darkening fast and threaten to bring with them a major storm. The good news: Despite everything, the communications pipelines between Jerusalem and Cairo are functioning normally.” The author says that while Egypt is officially denying that the rockets were fired from Sinai, „Discreetly, they know the situation. Sinai is not under control, is plagued by terrorist gangs and wavers on the border between partial anarchy and a total loss of control. The quantity of weapons there is insane, including advanced rockets and anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.” The paper observes that, „The shipments arrive from Iran and Libya and serve not only the terrorist organizations in Gaza, but also their agents in Sinai who operate sometimes against Israel, sometimes against the Egyptian government, but usually against both of them together. The assessment is that these were behind the weekend firing.” The author speculates that those behind the attack want to heat up the border, provoke an Israeli response and embarrass the military regime in Cairo,” and concludes: „As Sinai fills up with Al Qaida fighters who were forced to retire in Iraq following the American withdrawal and are now looking for new action
–
this is a cause for great concern in both Cairo and Jerusalem. But whereas Cairo is dealing with a host of other troubles which are stealing time and attention away from neutralizing the danger in Sinai, we are increasingly looking northward, where the rest of the Al Qaida veterans are streaming, to join the rebels in the war against the Assad regime. And if one adds to this northern stew, chemical weapons, long-range missiles and a long common border, one gets a much greater danger than Sinai, which seems like a kindergarten in comparison.”
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