Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press (in Israel)

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs ^ | 24 November 2003 | Israel Government Press Office

[anotherview]

Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press

(Government Press Office)
Jerusalem, 24 November 2003

Haaretz - http://www.haaretzdaily.com
Ma'ariv - http://www.maariv.co.il
Yediot Aharonot - http://www.ynet.co.il
Globes - http://www.globes.co.il
Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com

The Jerusalem Post writes: "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is reportedly responding to international and internal pressure to come up with a plan. That plan bears a great similarity to a particularly popular idea: build a fence and pull back behind it. The line Israel is drawing with a security fence is not necessarily supported by the US, let along the UN, and therefore Israel will be given no credit for any withdrawal associated with it. Yet Israel will be giving up something concrete: any claim to the land it withdraws from. In theory, a sort of muscular unilateralism is conceivable, whereby Israel draws a line as far east as possible to include as many settlements as possible in Israel, while leaving as many Palestinians as possible outside. The current route of the fence, however, seems to hug the Green Line quite closely, and does not even unambiguously include all of the settlement blocs that most Israelis presumed would never be bargained away, such as the city of Ariel."

Yediot Aharonot compares recent demonstrations in Georgia with the Israeli democratic experience and says, "Life in Israel is more comfortable than in Georgia. Israeli democracy … is substantially more stable and real … but when have we really seen a similar demonstration in Israel with such civilian power? When did we last see people who have had enough expressing that peacefully but with such decisiveness that it couldn't be fought? When have we seen Israelis demonstrating in the streets?" The editors suggest, "Everyone knows that Sharon has no intention of evacuating settlements or forming a diplomatic initiative" and venture that his recent statements are all a bluff. Despite this, "the nation hears but does not even belch, let alone take to the streets."

Ha'aretz writes: "The activity of the Bach Committee, which is vetting candidates for the position of attorney general, conceals a danger: Instead of conducting a low-profile, substantive discussion, it is exposed to pressures from interested parties, who have even recruited the media to their side. Thus a process that was originally supposed to have resembled the work of the Judicial Appointments Committee is taking on more and more of the character of haggling in the marketplace. Governmental wrongdoing appears today to be the number one threat to the rule of law and proper administration. More than in the past, the attorney general must be someone who is straight as an arrow, whose integrity nobody can doubt."

Hatzofeh comments on Attorney General Eliyakim Rubinstein's recent attack on the media.

[Ofer Shelah wrote today's editorials for Yediot Aharonot.]