(Israel Government Press Office)
Two papers discuss Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon's recent remark to The Times of Israel to the effect that the Cabinet – including a majority of its Likud ministers – would vote down any two-state proposal:
Ma'ariv notes that Jibril Rajoub was denied permission to enter Israel last week in order to attend a Meretz conference. The author notes that Rajoub has recently said – in Arabic media – that if he had a nuclear weapon he would use it on Israel and that all of Israel is occupied territory, and asks: "Let's assume that he would have received a permit to attend the conference; would anyone in that party have dared to stand up and criticize the honored guest for his words of incitement?" The paper says: "In order to understand that Rajoub is not alone, Deputy Minister Danny Danon jumped in and determined that the Government opposes a Palestinian state. Rajoub wants a greater Palestine and Danon, his political twin, wants a greater Israel...The claim that the Palestinians refuse two states for two peoples, and Israel accepts it, could be one of Israel's most important cards because Rajoub is not alone. Abu Mazen also supports two states but not for two peoples. Now Danon comes and makes it clear that the problem is Israel. One can assume that Israel's enemies sent Danon a bouquet of flowers."
Yediot Aharonot says that "Danon is like the boy in Hans Christian Andersen's story about the emperor's new clothes; the boy is not prepared to take part in the charade and declares that the emperor is naked." The author notes that there are others in the Likud who are saying the same as Danon and asserts that they have put Minister Tzipi Livni in a difficult position: "If she stays in the Government she is liable to become a bitter joke in Israeli politics, in which she has a public reputation for integrity, by lending her hand to a charade." The paper wonders when Livni will "no longer hold the hem of the naked emperor's robe, and leave the government."
==========================
Yisrael Hayom believes that Hezbollah's growing involvement in Lebanon will lead to Sunni revenge attacks against Shi'tes in Lebanon, "which is liable to find itself dragged into a Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian struggle, as is occurring in Iraq, against the background of the Syrian civil war – a struggle which is claiming victims on a daily basis with no end in sight."
The Jerusalem Post discusses issues relating to privacy and the limits of domestic surveillance in the wake of leaks provided recently by Edward Snowden, who worked for a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), and asks: “how can governments use technological advances to protect democratic societies from terrorism without in the process undermining the very democracy which they set out to protect?” The editor declares that “Around the world democracies are struggling to defend themselves against terrorism without at the same time undermining the very freedoms which they value and which they are willing to fight to protect,” and adds: “Only through lively public debate and careful deliberation is it possible to strike the right balance.”
Haaretz comments on “The investigation of the 2009 shooting attack at the Barnoar gay youth center in Tel Aviv,” and asserts: “The Barnoar attack cannot be divorced from the homopobia in Israeli society, and legislation to compensate its victims is one important step in the war against it.”
[Ben-Dror Yemini, Shimon Shiffer and Dr. Ronen Yitzhak wrote today’s articles in Ma'ariv, Yediot Aharonot and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]