Summary of editorials from the Izraeli Hebrew press
BreuerPress
Ma’ariv believes that „Even if the court acquits MK Avigdor Liberman tomorrow and thereby allows his immediate return to the Foreign Ministry, Netanyahu must not return him to the post,” and adds: „A man with militant views and remarks such as Liberman cannot be the one who leads Israel’s foreign relations and conducts dialogues with heads of state.” The author asserts that at present, „There is a need for a strong, efficient and involved Foreign Ministry which will deal in public diplomacy, implementing policy and cultivating and strengthening [Israel’s] international relations, led by an appropriate minister and not someone for whom the ministry is a kind of after-hours job.”
Haaretz calls on the government to stop funding ultra-Orthodox “educational institutions that condemn their students to ignorance,” and asserts that the State “shouldn’t fund schools that don’t teach core subjects such as Hebrew, English and math.”
The Jerusalem Post comments on a new bill, sponsored by MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua), that is supposed to make it easier to convert to Judaism for over 300,000 non-Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. The editor notes that “even if the bill is passed as is, it will not result in a significant increase in the number of converts to Judaism,” mainly because “it makes little sense for the secular Jewish Israeli majority to expect non-Jewish immigrants to convert to Judaism . . . as a condition for being considered fully integrated into Israeli society.”
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Two papers discuss various issues regarding the peace process:
Yediot Aharonot asserts: „From the prime minister on down, even the settlers in Judea and Samaria know very well that one of these days there will be an American proposal for an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” and reminds its readers that since 1967, the US has never recognized „the occupied territories,” as part of Israel. The author suggests that anyone planning a social event in certain communities in Judea and Samaria for the summer of 2015 ought to reconsider.
Yisrael Hayom suggests that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen might be amenable to an American proposal for an interim agreement, especially given that „Israel very much wants to avoid a break-off in the talks.”
