Izraeli lapok vezércikkeiből angolul

The Jerusalem Post comments on the sweeping victory of Turkey’s Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) in last Sunday’s elections, and, in an attempt to detect a bright side to Erdogan’s spectacular victory, notes that “the AKP victory and the relative stability this brings to Turkish politics might actual contribute to the re-normalization process that began after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara incident.”

Haaretz contends that a new bill proposed by Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich is intended solely to mark, reject and silence groups critical of the Israeli government and asserts that beyond the hypocrisy emanating from the bill, it “constitutes a new stage in the incitement and delegitimizing campaign that the right is conducting against the left.” The editor declares that “The funding of NGOs by foreign governments is not ‘interference in internal Israeli affairs’ and a distortion of democracy, since governments and their policies are determined by the will of the people as expressed through elections,” and cautions: “If this right-wing government continues to mark its ideological ‘enemies,’ it will eventually eradicate Israel’s democracy.”

Yediot Aharonot reminds readers that in 1996, the slogan that brought PM Netanyahu to power was ‘No peace, no security, no reason to vote Peres,’ and wonders: “Where is the Bibi of the Left, who can voice the exact same slogan today: ‘No peace, no security, no reason to vote Netanyahu?’” The author notes: “This is the opposition’s time to attack, but it’s sleeping,” and warns that while the left is dumbstruck, parties from the radical right “are succeeding in convincing some of the public that what cannot be achieved through force, can be achieved with even more force.”

Israel Hayom discusses Russia’s involvement in Syria and the dilemma it poses to the West, and declares: “Everyone wants the war to end; everyone wants to preserve and even strengthen the Syrian state; but the question of this state’s character, specifically who will control it — Assad and his Russian and Iranian masters or opposition forces supported by the Saudis and Turks.” The author points out that Israel only has minimal influence over the deal the superpowers are concocting around Assad, and adds: “a deal that positions Assad’s Syria as a country under the thumb of Iran and Hezbollah, and with Washington’s blessing, would require Israel to orientate itself accordingly.”