HEADLINES FROM THE IZRAELI HEBREW PRESS
HA’ARETZ:1. PM RAISES BUDGET DEFICIT INSTEAD OF TAXES
(…).
2. SENIOR ISRAELI OFFICIAL: EGYPT WILL RESPECT THE PEACE
3. NETANYAHU PRESSURING PLASNER COMMITTEE DUE TO CONCERN THAT ULTRA-ORTHODOX PARTIES WILL BOLT
MA’ARIV
1. WEIZMANN INSTITUTE PRESIDENT: WE WILL BOYCOTT ARIEL UNIVERSITY Two weeks before decision to determine the future of the Samaria academic center, Prof. Daniel Zajfman, who heads the most important research center in Israel, threatens: If it is recognized as a university, I will resign from the Committee of University Heads and I will sever cooperation.
2. THE FIRE THAT PARALYZED THE CAPITAL
(…).
3. TAL LAW: NETANYAHU WEIGHS ASKING HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE FOR AN EXTENSION PM wants more time to find compromise that will allow for ultra-orthodox to be drafted. Today: Will meet with Shas ministers Yishai and Atias.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. ULTRA-ORTHODOX DRAFT
– THE AGE AND THE RUSE
Plasner committee: Ultra-orthodox draft age will be 22-23. Significance: Most will be married and fathers. Integration into the army will be limited, and the cost to the country will be high: NIS 5,000 a month per recruit. Protestors: Ultra-orthodox draft is being buried.
2. ELECTION ECONOMICS
Against view of the Bank of Israel and [Finance Ministry] Budget Division: Netanyahu and Steinitz increase deficit instead of enacting cuts and raising taxes.
3. FIRE UNDER CONTROL: FIRES AROUND JERUSALEM EXTINGUISHED IN TWO HOURS
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. SUSPICION: ARSON
Week after Carmel report published, its conclusions were tested on the ground. (…).
2. THE NEWS: DEFICIT WILL INCREASE, TAXES WILL NOT In surprising step, PM decides to increase deficit target to 3%. Significance: Channeling of NIS 15 billion to state coffers and avoiding program of cuts. (…).
3. CALM IN SOUTH VIOLATED: FOUR ROCKETS FIRED AT NETIVOT Iron Dome intercepted two GRAD rockets, two others fell in open areas. No injuries.
WALLA!
1. APPARENT: PLASNER COMMITTEE WILL PROPOSE DRAFT EXEMPTION FOR ULTRA-ORTHODOX UP TO AGE 22
2. NEW INITIATIVE IN SDEROT: KASSAM ROCKET MUSEUM
NANA10
1. ISA UNCOVERS DFLP CELL IN JERUSALEM
2. CALM IN SOUTH VIOLATED: BARRAGE OF FOUR ROCKETS AT NETIVOT, TWO INTERCEPTED
3. PLASNER COMMITTEE TO RECOMMEND: SERVICE FROM 23 AND NIS 5,000 SALARY
[Headlines for Walla! and Nana10 are from their websites as of 11:55.] ______________________________
SUMMARY OF OP-EDS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Two papers discuss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz’s decision to raise the 2013 deficit target to 3%<www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/EventsDiary/eventOtsar260612.htm>:
Yediot Ahronot reminds its readers, „When the Government has a deficit, it needs loans to finance the gap. The decision to increase the deficit means increasing the public debt.” The author notes that the Bank of Israel recently predicted 3% growth in 2013 and avers, „There is no economic need to increase the deficit.” The paper proceeds to ask, „What could be the reason?” and answers, „It is called an election year. Elections will be held in the fall of 2013. The Knesset will decide on the 2013 budget at the end of December 2012. The economic measures included in the budget will be carried out over the course of 2013, i.e. on a timetable which the voters could well remember.” The author recalls that, „Over the last two years they have promised to carry out so many things,” and adds that yesterday’s decision will reduce the projected shortfall in the 2013 budget from NIS 30 billion
– „a major headache” –
to a more manageable NIS 14 billion without requiring either major cutbacks or increased taxes.
Ma’ariv suggests that the Prime Minister, „blinked first,” and believes that instead of either cutting spending or raising taxes, „Netanyahu, who is the economic super-minister, doubled the deficit target in the 2013 budget from 1.5% to 3%.” The author likens the situation to a household that decides it cannot cut expenses and elects to double its monthly overdraft instead. The paper asserts, „There is no doubt that the Prime Minister was compelled to decide to increase the deficit under pressure from the social protest demonstrations and the fear of growing public criticism of the [reported package of] cuts that will [now] be withdrawn,” and reminds its readers, „The 2013 budget will be approved near the end of 2012
–
a relatively short time before the elections, the official date of which is November 2013.” The author suggests that, „Netanyahu was afraid to make the right decisions such as cutting items in the budget which were liable to arouse the public against him.” The paper dismisses the ministers’ promise to reduce the deficit in the future and concludes, „It is easy to be tempted to live at the expense of the future, as any family addicted to an overdraft knows.”
__________
Yisrael Hayom discusses the Israel Police’s response to the latest round of social protests. While the author expects the police to show due prudence and caution, he nevertheless declares, „Whoever assaults a police officer or throws garbage bins in the street, and occasionally shatters the windows of businesses and banks, needs to find opposite him the strong hand of the rule of law.” The paper adds, „The attempt to howl that the police are being violent
– sometimes this is correct, but not automatically –
is intended to deter them from fulfilling their duty in the next round.” The author calls on Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Israel Police Inspector-General Yohanan Danino to instruct police personnel how to act in the future and to remind them that, „The worst failure from a public point-of-view is allowing anarchy to prevail.”
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