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Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press
Today’s issues: Less heat, more light, the police chief is obligated to tell the truth, decades-long Jerusalem activity going down the drain, and Islam’s war for Al-Quds.
The Jerusalem Post urges Likud ministers and party strongmen to exercise restraint in their political discourse and to stop publicly insulting their colleagues on the backdrop of recent outrageous personal insults against Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Nadav Argaman by notoriously outspoken Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev and Likud coalition chairman David Bitan. Recalling the behavior of Likud founder Menachem Begin, who was always known for his dignity and public decorum, the editor declares: “Begin above all was a democrat who championed Israel’s role as the only democracy in the Middle East, but did so respectfully and with civility. It’s time the current members of the Likud learn from their former leader.”
Ha aretz addresses the integrity of Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on the backdrop of his decision to retain Maj. Gen. Roni Ritman as commander of Lahav 433, the police’s anticorruption unit, even though there was a sexual harassment complaint lodged against Ritman, and Alsheich’s contradictory versions of events submitted to the court regarding this issue, and asserts: “It would be appropriate for the head of the organization responsible for enforcing the law to be a person guided by the truth, and only the truth.”
Yediot Aharonot bemoans the end of the decades-long dialogue between the Muslim religious leadership in Jerusalem and the Israeli authorities, and states: “In the not-so-distant past, the Muslim religious leadership in Jerusalem held a regular pragmatic discourse with the Israeli establishment. Many fires were put out in those meetings. After the Temple Mount crisis, it turned out the contacts on the Israeli side had either been erased, debilitated or become dysfunctional, and that the Waqf is no longer interested in a dialogue.”
Israel Hayom comments on the obsession with Jerusalem of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an umbrella group that unites 57 Muslim countries across the globe and currently under Turkish presidency, and its call to the Muslim world to come together to address Israeli ‘aggression’ against the Palestinians, and states: “it’s obvious that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is an existential threat not only to Israel, but also the entire West. So Israel, rather than justifying itself in the face of the group’s plan demands about Jerusalem, should emphasize that the organization’s battle for the city is a stage in its plan to impose Islamic rule everywhere in the world. Many experts are afraid to call a spade a spade, as we all know that religious wars are bloody. But we didn’t declare this one, and denying the reality does nothing to change it. In fact, it only makes it worse. To win, we must present the problem truthfully.”
[Alex Fishman and Ephraim Herrera wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Israel Hayom, respectively. |
