| Today’s issues: Muzzling the muezzin, Netanyahu, the cowardly leader, Trump’s win puts a smile on al-Sisi and Assad’s faces, and a diplomatic opportunity.
The Jerusalem Post criticizes the proposal, approved on Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, to ban ‘religious institutions’ from using outdoor loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayer, and asserts that it “is misguided, and liable to become a needless source of tension between Muslims and Jews.” The author notes that overly zealous muezzins and interminably long calls for prayers can be an annoying feature of living in the Middle East, but argues that “while fighting noise pollution is important as part of a larger effort to protect our environment, it should be tempered by sensitivity to religious freedom and the need for equality before the law.”
Haaretz slams the shortcomings and distortions that characte rize the state’s handling of the illegal outposts in the territories, citing as an example the so-called ‘regularization bill,’ aimed at retroactively legalizing illegal outposts that were built on private Palestinian land, and states: “Netanyahu’s surrender to settlers proves him a cowardly leader.” The editor explains: “Under the proposed law, the state will expropriate the right to use such land, but not actually seize ownership of it, assigning those rights to settlements the government was involved in establishing – such as the outpost at Amona,” and declares: “The regularization bill must be rejected immediately, because it is immoral and contradicts the interests of most of the country’s citizens. We must not surrender to the whims of a handful of loud extortionists.”
Yediot Aharonot notes that the Egyptian leader expects Washington to stop nagging Cairo on human rights issues, and the Syrian president believes his problem will be solved once the new American president teams up with Russia’s Putin, but notes that the big losers are the women in the Arab world: “Clinton’s defeat catches them in the middle of a journey. Trump won’t try to upgrade their status. Behind the veil and without one, they have no one to turn to and no one to trust.”
Israel Hayom comments on President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks to the Wall Street Journal regarding his desire to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and states: “There is now an opportunity for the close ties between Jerusalem and Washington to result in steps toward peace, or at least interim agreements that will not harm Israel’s security and other interests, and we can hope this is what the president-elect was referring to in his interview.”
[Smadar Perry and Zalman Shoval wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Israel Hayom, respectively. |
