Vezércikkek az izraeli napilapokból angolul

The Jerusalem Post comments on the reduction in tax on alcohol products, which rendered the Israeli alcohol taxation rate commensurate with the OECD average, and notes that while a folly has been removed from the marketplace, “Nothing occurred that is liable to change drinking habits in this country.” The editor criticizes the Finance Ministry’s intent to resort to any opportunity to boast of its benevolence to the common man,  and asserts that “Less fanfare was called for and an admission that all that is afoot is a return to how things were a couple of years ago, when taxes on alcohol were still higher than in much of the developed world.”

Haaretz comments on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement last week in Britain that he is willing to resume direct talks with the Palestinians — without preconditions and immediately, and declares: “if [the prime minister] has a position on the most central issue to Israel’s future — its relationship with the Palestinians — he hides it. What he says depends on who he’s talking to. He sends one message to his voters and the opposite to the Europeans.” The editor argues that the prime minister owes strategic answers to Israel’s people and the country’s friends around the world, and urges him, in his upcoming trip to address the UN General Assembly, to refrain from useless fighting against international recognition of the Palestinians and the powers’ agreement with Iran, and instead to “use his spee ch to present a vision to resolve the conflict”.

Yediot Aharonot believes that the latest “deadly stone-throwing attack makes it clear that we need to find new ways of fighting this growing epidemic,” and suggests several modes of action, “chief among them the deployment of uniformed and undercover police,” equipped with riot dispersal equipment, and also to employ checkpoints on the entrances and exits of Palestinian neighborhoods that are likely problem areas. The author notes that “The combination of a clear uniformed presence and undercover activity of officers in the field, monitoring by cameras, and blocking the entry and exit points of problematic neighborhoods, will no doubt calm the situation,” but nevertheless contends  that “The waves of riots and stone-throwing at the temple mount will come back again, and again, and again.”

Israel Hayom comments on the astonishing ascent of Jeremy Corbyn, who was recently elected to head the British Labour Party, and remarks: “If, heaven forbid, he manages to win the premiership, he will remove England from the NATO alliance, support Russian aggression in Ukraine, and maintain ties with his ‘friends’ from Hezbollah and Hamas, and England will be led by a man who donated money to the organization of a Holocaust denier.” The author notes: “Considering the circumstances, a quarter of a million Jews in England have reason to be fearful. Anti-Semitism is raising its head, and support for boycotting Israel will only grow with Corbyn as opposition leader,” but adds: “Perhaps at the very least his newfound success will help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remind the Jews of England as well that Israel’s doors are open to them, and that the sooner they come the better. Perhaps something good can come of this after all.”