Summary of Editorials from the Izraeli Hebrew Press
Yediot Aharonot cites recently released documents from the
IDF archives that, in effect, show how then Foreign Minister Abba Eban was out of the defense-intelligence loop in the period before the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and suggests a parallel to the current situation. The author claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are similarly managing defense-intelligence affairs and relations with the US vis-à-vis Iran while Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman „jets about the skies of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tanzania and the Ivory Coast.” The paper calls on „the Netanyahu and Barak dream team to decide if they trust the opinions of the third-most important man in the Government hierarchy and allow him in on the decision-making – and if they do not accept his views, why did they appoint him to this important position?”
Ma’ariv criticizes Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz’s recent remarks about alleged
bias in the Israeli media on economic issues and US-Israeli relations. Regarding the former, the author says: “Steinitz brings the low CPI to show that there were no price increases and that everything is a baseless fabrication. Mr. Steinitz, why don’t you take this CPI to the grocery store and try to buy something with it?” Regarding US-Israeli relations, the paper claims that Defense Minister Ehud Barak was dispatched to Chicago to meet with Rahm Emmanuel, who is still close to President Barack Obama, „in order to persuade him that Benjamin Netanyahu is not interfering in the US elections,” and says that American analysts almost universally refer to the Prime Minister as „Mitt Romney’s campaign manager.” „But,” the author adds, „Our Yuval lives in a different atmosphere.”
Yisrael Hayom discusses Friday’s firefight with terrorists on the Egyptian border in which Cpl. Netanel Yahalomi (20) was killed, and asserts that the role played by woman fighters from the mixed Caracal Battalion should end any debate over whether women can be good soldiers. The author refers to security problems in Sinai and says that „While the Egyptians have done much more in Sinai in recent weeks, it is still a grain of sand in a desert of terrorism.” The paper says that Friday’s incident re-raises the issue of possible counter-terrorist operations in Sinai, and calls for greater intelligence efforts.
The Jerusalem Post recalls the saga of Salmon Rushdie, “which in 1989 brought fanatic Islamism’s intolerance to the Free World’s attention,” and stresses that while the assault on Rushdie and on the freedom to speak, write and print was taking place, “there was marked hesitancy throughout the democratic realm to point fingers at those who declared themselves the ultimate arbiters of sanctity and propriety.” The editor asserts that due to the distinct reluctance to draw red lines, “the long arms of Islam were allowed to reach far and impudently into the liberal home turfs where forward-thinking and multiculturalism are famously celebrated,” and maintains that a continued reluctance to resolutely address the issue “only invites more riots and more assassinations.”
Haaretz discusses the current repercussions of the report issued by the Agranat Commission, which was set up by Golda Meir’s cabinet in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and states: “Due to the Agranat Report, the impression that the main failure of the 1973 war was an intelligence failure took hold. The studies and the transcripts of the testimonies to the Agranat Commission released last week prove that this is not so. The biggest failure was that of the political leaders.” The editor believes that the transcripts prove that the political leadership, not the military leadership, was primarily responsible for the toll the war took, and concludes: “The Agranat Commission, which totally ignored the war’s political background, disbanded when it finished its work. The questions it did not ask at the time have returned to haunt us – with clear lessons for current governments and wars.”
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