Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press
Today’s issues: The problem of rising real-estate prices, the threat of expulsion from FIFA, the problem with Herzog’s election campaign and a call to put an end to the self-hatred of the Israeli Left.
The Jerusalem Post discusses a lecture given recently in Israel by US Federal Reserve Vice Chairman and former governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer, in which he argued that the low interest rate is pushing real estate prices ever higher, a fact common to countries that have “zero inflation and a functioning banking system,” and warns that warns that there is no simple solution to the problem. The editor opines that “The primary impediment to quick fixes is the fact that Israel is a tiny country where demand will always exceed supply,” and concludes: “The best we can do is to prevent the injurious interaction between rising real estate prices and record low interest rates from getting entirely out of hand.”
Haaretz warns of excessive complacency after staving off Palestinian FIFA expulsion bid, and states that while the fear that the country would be expelled from this important sporting federation has dissipated, “Israel must not think that this means it is no longer under threat, or at risk of suspension from the family of nations.” The editor asserts: “FIFA spelled out to Israel what other, more important, international organizations have so far been unable to explain: that the occupation is unacceptable to any country in the world, and its continuation will result in a series of penalties and boycotts whose cost would be unbearable to Israel,” and declares: “That is the lesson Israel must learn from the FIFA affair.”
Yediot Aharonot reflects that the problem with Isaac Herzog’s recent election campaign was its message, and states: “In a country with a low unemployment rate and zero inflation, an opposition party which seeks to rise to power shouldn’t focus its campaign on the economy. It shouldn’t direct its criticism at areas in which the government actually succeeded, thanks to its policy or luck or both.” The author asserts: “his campaign managers are not to blame for the fact that this chance wasn’t fulfilled,” and states: “The withdrawal into the economy bubble and the escape from the results of the occupation distorted Herzog’s perception of reality and disconnected him from his possible electorate.”
Yisrael Hayom comments on a documentary movie production based on tapes made just weeks after the end of the Six-Day War, which gathered testimonies and conversation of combat soldiers from a kibbutz that shows a different side to the heroic narrative of Israel’s victory in 1967, and asserts: “The Israel Defense Forces is the most moral army in the world. That morality has pulled through many complicated challenges during wars and military operations from the War of Independence to Operation Protective Edge. Human dignity as the key for compassion is embedded deep in the soul of every IDF fighter.” Calling to put an end to self-hatred, the author opines that “Frustration and desperation has led the Israeli radical Left to repeatedly try and convince us that the IDF is a horrible army that abuses innocent civilians and violates international treaties,” and declares: “This has always been the way of self-hating Jews who would not forgive those who had removed them from the leadership’s helm.”
[Sever Plocker and Haim Shine wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]
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