(Israel Government Press Office)

Four papers discuss various issues regarding the provisional results of last Tuesday's elections for the 19th Knesset:

The Jerusalem Post comments: "If the just-ended campaign proves anything, it is that the electorate bothered a whole lot less with what the world is obsessed about - the territories, a Palestinian state and the moribund purported peace process. It may be that a sizable portion of Jewish Israelis (perhaps with the exception of Livni’s and Meretz’s supporters) have in effect given up on the prospect of successful negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. In contrast to previous campaigns, they focused on very domestic issues. This is the essential mandate they gave their  representatives - fix things inside the Jewish state rather than concentrate on a Palestinian state."

Yisrael Hayom says that the kind of coalition agreement(s) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strikes with Habayit Hayehudi and/or Shas will necessarily depend on the kind of agreement he makes with Yair Lapid, since the Likud Beytenu-Yesh Atid axis will determine the guidelines for the next government.

Yediot Aharonot discusses which ministry would be best for Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid: "Lapid will not be Defense Minister or Finance Minister. Even though he has expressed his desire for it, he will also not be satisfied - with his 19 seats - with the Interior or Housing ministries. What's left for him is the Foreign Ministry." The author refutes any analogy to then Labor leader Amir Peretz's taking the Defense Ministry after the 2006 elections: "Peretz could never be at home in the offices of the General Staff or on the battlefield; Lapid could easily fit in as Foreign Minister. The world will embrace him, Obama and Kerry would soften up. He would prove that it is possible to be an efficient and respectable Foreign Minister without the niceties and the perks."

Ma'ariv rebuffs Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich's critics: "Yachimovich will learn from her mistakes and will serve as a true opposition leader. One may hope that the Labor Party will not devour her as it has its previous leaders." The author believes that, "While Yachimovich may not be 'the ideal leader', after the conceptual confusion of the Barak era, she has restored to Labor its social identity."
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Haaretz writes that PM Netanyahu "would do well to forgo presenting a decision dealing mainly with ownership claims over land Bedouin purchased before Israel was founded to the outgoing cabinet on Sunday. Since the decision was passed in principle by the cabinet a year and a half ago, it has become clear that most of the Negev Bedouin are dead set against it. Not only does it reject their land claims, but it also threatens to demolish 20,000 huts and move the approximately 100,000 people living in them to communities that have not yet been built for them. While the cabinet decision to regulate Bedouin settlement does strive to assist the Bedouin population, it does not present specific steps to improve their economic situation, which is at the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. A hasty and irresponsible cabinet decision will assure unrest in the Negev and ongoing international condemnation. The complexity of the issue and the expected grave ramifications require more serious consideration and discussion in the new cabinet."

[Emanuel Sivan, Rubik Rosenthal and Dan Margalit wrote today's articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]