Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press
Today’s issues: From Houston to the Kotel, the Supreme Court should ignore all the ‘noise,’ Hezbollah’s future is still bright, and vanquish the enemy.

The Jerusalem Post comments on the central Jewish value of mutual responsibility, and praises the announcement by Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett, who holds the Diaspora Affairs portfolio, that “the State of Israel would provide $1 million in aid to Houston’s Jewish community, which has suffered disproportionately in the wake of superstorm Harvey.” The editor adds: “Sticking up for one another is not just about money though. Israel has an obligation to make the world’s only Jewish state a place that is welcoming for all Jews, regardless of their denomination or affiliation,” and asserts: “The government must realize that it has an obligation not only to the Jews of Israel but also to Diaspora Jews, whether it be donating to Houston’s flooded community or providing a welcoming enviro nment at holy sites such as the Kotel for Jews visiting from around the world.”
Haaretz discusses Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s best efforts to delay the appointment of Justice Esther Hayut as the next president of the Supreme Court, and opines: “It’s regrettable that the justice minister seeks to reap political capital among her electorate even at the price of ongoing harm to the judiciary and its senior justices.”
Yediot Aharonot comments on the IDF’s massive combined arms exercise in Israel’s northern region, which the author contends is grounded in the IDF’s conclusion that Hezbollah is an organization that isn’t growing nearly as much as it would have liked, thanks in part to the loss of life and resources invested in fighting the Syrian civil war alongside Assad, not to mention the frequent covert assaults against the organization, attributed to Israel, and states: “While losing both men and money in the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah and its beleaguered leader Hassan Nasrallah seem to be tiptoeing towards becoming the Middle East’s second strongest army, after the IDF. Its cooperation with Iran and Russia has made it part of a growing Shiite axis in the region.”
Israel Hayom notes that the wide-scale military exercise launched by the IDF two days ago in northern Israel is an attempt to simulate the next war, and states that the challenge at the center of the IDF’s current drill “is not just to train the combat soldiers and junior officers on the ground; it is not even to help senior IDF commanders be more cognizant of the possible scenarios, which they were not prepared for in the summer of 2006. The main challenge was and still belongs to the political echelon — to specify the desired objective in a new round of fighting with Hezbollah. In this regard, it would be wise for cabinet ministers, not just military commanders, to partake in such an exercise.”
[Yoav Zitun and Eyal Zisser wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Israel Hayom, respectively. |