Summary of Editorials from the Izraeli Hebrew Press
Three papers discuss issues relating to the proposal that the Likud and Yisrael Beitenu parties run on a joint list in the forthcoming elections for the 19th Knesset:
Yisrael Hayom suggests that there is little chance that the Likud conference will reject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed joint list with Yisrael Beytenu and offers two reasons: „One is that the aspiration to create large blocs serves the state well. Even if this was not the motive – from not being for its own sake, it will be for its own sake. The other reason is that rejecting the proposal now would humiliate Netanyahu, for whom the members of the conference intend to roll up their sleeves in order to convince the public that he is fit to lead the country. The Likud has no interest in bashing him, even according to those who believe that he has acted improperly.”
The Jerusalem Post comments on the surprise announcement by PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman that the Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties would run on a joint list in the elections for the 19th Knesset, and states that “The formation of a large right-of-center list – which might inspire the left-of-center parties to do the same – could bring much-needed political stability and a higher level of governance to our political system.”
Haaretz remarks that the formation of Likud Beiteinu (the new party to be formed as a result of the decision by the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu parties to run on a joint list in the coming elections) “requires all of Israel’s political players to regroup and make some clear and binding statements to their voters, right now.” The editor calls on the leaders of the center-left bloc, and those in the Likud who are terrified at what awaits Israeli democracy as a result of making Avigdor Lieberman such a central force in the party, to act responsibly and announce unequivocally that they will not participate in a government formed by the new party, and concludes: “This is a test for those who are not part of Israel’s extreme right. This is a moment of truth for Israeli politics.”
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Yediot Aharonot suggests that Syria is in the process of breaking up into ethnically-based zones and notes that the Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria have already achieved de facto autonomy. The author claims that „The break-up of Syria may go on for years even after the fall of the Assad regime because the hatred there is so great, the outrages so horrific (for example, Shi’ites have etched Shi’ite verses on the foreheads of Sunni fighters), the acts of mutual slaughter so widespread (approximately 35,000 dead as of now, hundreds of thousands of wounded and hundreds of thousands of refugees) and the ethnic cleansing on all sides so significant, that the possibility of continuing to live together does not exist anymore.” The paper concludes by wondering what those who advocated returning the Golan Heights to Syria would say now, especially if the foregoing were happening on the Heights, „right next to the Galilee.”
Ma’ariv criticizes those who would not vote, ostensibly because there is no one to vote for, no party that they feel adequately represents their views, and believes „There are many such people in Israel, especially on the Left, people who sit in their ivory towers and are certain that not voting is an expression of principle.” The author asserts: „Around the world, there are people who sacrifice their lives for the right to elect and be elected,” and concludes: „Whoever does not go to vote is destroying the regime in Israel with his own hands … Not voting means taking democracy for granted. This is not only idiotic; it is presumptuous, arrogant, stupid and – mainly – hedonistic.”
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