(Israel Government Press Office)
Two papers discuss the situation on the Israeli-Syrian border:
Ma'ariv avers that "Iran ordered Hezbollah to heat up the border with Israel on the Golan Heights for two reasons: Defeating the rebel forces and stabilizing Assad's status as a president who does not fear a clash with the great enemy – Israel." The author suggests that "A low-intensity confrontation with Israel will divert the media spotlight to the Israeli-Syrian border at a time when Hezbollah fighters, Iranian officers and Assad's murderous Shabiha militias are continuing to slaughter Syrians in the Al-Qusair area on the Lebanese border."
Yisrael Hayom cautions that by further escalation Syria is risking an Israeli counter-strike "that is liable to wreck the Assad regime," and suggests that Assad is currently trying to capitalize on the disagreement in Israel over whether or not it would be preferable for Assad to hang on to power.
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Yediot Aharonot asserts that "Price-tag actions add fuel to the fires to which the State of Israel has been marching for many years," and adds: "These actions weaken the strength of the large Arab public that desires coexistence and lends validity to the Arab fanatics and inciters." The author believes that "The fact that the official State of Israel is fighting with full force against price-tag actions enshrines an absurd situation in which the Arab and Jewish extremists have the upper hand. In this awful equation, both peoples' extremists have great influence in setting the security and civil agenda, and neither group has any interest in weakening the flames." The paper concludes: "Just so that we understand the price of inaction, we learned yesterday about 'Torah-tag' being employed against the Women of the Wall. There is no such thing as a vacuum. Whoever fails to deal with price-tag will receive other tags."
The Jerusalem Post discusses the need to evaluate Israel’s gun control policy in light of the violent shooting at a Beersheba bank last Monday. The editor states that “Guns are, unfortunately, a necessary evil. We cannot do without them,” and adds that by “striving for an era in which weapons will be obsolete, we can go a long way toward preventing their misuse in the imperfect reality in which we live.”
Haaretz decries Minister of Religious Services Naftali Bennett’s intent to establish “a new Jewish Identity Administration whose job will be to instill ‘Jewish values’ in the public,” and declares: “Zionism dreamed of a state for the Jews, not a Jewish state: a refuge for members of the Jewish people, not a state with an official religion like Muslim Saudi Arabia.” The editor notes: “Israelis don't have an identity crisis,” and asserts: “The new administration should be dismantled. And the unnecessary Religious Services Ministry should confine itself to providing these services to members of any religion who need them.”