Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press
Today’s issues: US Jewish leaders opposed to far-right Jewish violence, Haifa restricts freedom of expression, US cannot defend Israel against a nuclear attack, and cutting UNRWA aid to the Palestinians: the first step on their path to independence.
The Jerusalem Post comments on the efforts American Jewish leaders are making to distance themselves from heinous actions of Jewish extremists, acts of extreme violence that obviously reflect badly on Israel’s image in the world, and states: “American Jewish leaders have achieved their goal of conveying a message to Americans, Israelis, and the world that American Jews are strongly opposed to the crimes of hatred perpetrated in Israel in recent days by extremist elements in the name of a warped interpretation of Judaism.” The editor adds: “As the prime minister made clear in his conversation with American Jews on Tuesday night, Israel is spearheading this battle,” and concludes: “Now, perhaps more than ever, it needs support from US Jewish groups in this endeavor.”
Haaretz criticizes the Haifa municipality and its mayor, Yona Yahav, for undermining the freedom of expression in the city. The editor stresses that while both the municipality and the mayor frequently brag about coexistence in Haifa, “terming it a ‘beacon in the darkness’ of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” “it now turns out that the Haifa municipality is one of the standard-bearers in the cultural war of gagging and censorship that has been declared against Israeli artists.” The editor asserts: “A mayor who was leading his city to true coexistence would have stood like a fortified wall,” to protect a theater’s right to freedom of expression, thought and artistic creation, and concludes: “A mayor who believes in pluralism also wouldn’t have volunteered to serve as a cultural commissar who encourages nat ionalist censorship.”
Yediot Aharonot discusses a recent statement made by a senior American security official that the US will defend Israel in the event of a nuclear attack, and contends that “there is no chance that the US will be able to defend us against such an attack, especially a nuclear attack, unless the Americans deploy a significant amount of forces on Israeli territory – tens of thousands of soldiers with missile batteries, radars and other measures, who will be on constant alert and ready to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and planes arriving with a deadly cargo from Iran or from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Iran’s allies.” The author expresses his hope that with all the doubt relating to the official’s statement, “the Israeli government will finally sit down with the Americans to discuss the fulfillment of the promises that the Obama administration is now throwing around so generously.”
Israel Hayom reports that “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency recently announced that it will have to decrease the financial support given to Palestinian refugees over its $101 million deficit, which will result in the closing of some 700 schools in refugee camps across the Middle East,” a fact that constitutes a major cause for concern for the Palestinians, “who have become addicted to dollars and have no real interest in resolving the refugee issue, neither in the Arab countries where many of them reside, nor in the future Palestinian state that would be established alongside Israel.” The author points out that being a refugee is a lucrative endeavor for the Palestinians, and notes Palestinian warnings that any decrease in the agency’s budget would encourage Palestinian affiliation with terrorist groups, but nevertheless contends: “Ending [UNRWA’s] operations in the Palestinian sphere would constitute the first Palestinian step toward independence.”
[Ron Ben-Yishai and Reuven Berko wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]
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