(Israel Government Press Office)

Three newspapers discuss the controversy over remarks about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that have been attributed to US President Barack Obama:

Ma'ariv says: "After Benjamin Netanyahu involved himself (and the State of Israel) very deeply in the American elections, after Jerusalem's warm embrace of Mitt Romney, after his most important confidant Sheldon Adelson made huge donations in order to defeat Barack Obama, the White House's calculated response has arrived." The author claims that the wording of the remarks attributed to the American President "is not coincidental," and adds: "They are a mirror image of Netanyahu's campaign. Netanyahu is making use of his Washington speech and the White House comes and says – You are pushing America away from you. The Likud-Beytenu's campaign talks about a strong leader – Obama is talking about a coward." The paper believes that Israel's various pundits and politicians will make what they will of the remarks, but cautions that given that this is the US, "which gives us security and civilian aid and which wields its veto for us in the UN Security Council," the remarks "should not be ignored."

Yisrael Hayom asserts that "Since the White House has not issued a denial, Obama has thereby joined Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert and Yuval Diskin, who provided verbal artillery to the opposition parties," and adds: "The timing – one week before the elections – is not a coincidence."

Haaretz calls on PM Netanyahu to heed President Obama’s warnings, and asserts that “they are food for thought, served up to Israeli citizens before they retreat into their shell of apathy and elect a right-wing government comprised of Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Habayit Hayehudi and the ultra-Orthodox parties, which will lead the country into a confrontation with Obama and the rest of the world.’

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Yediot Aharonot says the fact that Israel will have a prominent place in the campaign for Germany's September elections "attests to the fact that Germany has not delved into the depths of its anti-Semitic past, which paved the way for the Holocaust," and adds: "Most Germans were compelled to deal with their past, in an artificial enough way, by the powers that 'occupied' Germany until the early 1990's. Twenty years since the liberation from that 'occupation', many Germans want to be morally 'liberated' as well from responsibility for the Holocaust. And as long as there is a 'special relationship' between Israel and Germany, such 'liberation' will not be possible."

The Jerusalem Post notes that Israel’s Arabs have been retreating from national politics, and quotes media projections that claim that Arab turnout in the forthcoming elections will be the lowest in the 64 years since the state was established. The editor maintains that “The main factor in the projected low turnout appears to be an increased sense of disenfranchisement,” and suggests that “Adopting a more pragmatic approach to politics that focuses on bettering the lot of Israeli Arabs – not as a collective with an anti-Zionist, nationalist agenda, but as minority citizens of a Jewish democracy – would go a long way toward making their politics more relevant.”

[Nadav Eyal, Dan Margalit and Eldad Beck wrote today’s articles in Ma'ariv, Yisrael Hayom and Yediot Aharonot, respectively.]