(Israel Government Press Office)

Haaretz states that “the treasury ended its confrontation with the defense establishment bloody and battered.” The editor feels that “now would be a good time to introduce cost-cutting and efficiency measures in the army and the entire defense establishment, and to divert the savings into health and welfare, among other areas,” and adds: “Total rollback of planned cuts to defense budget is a stinging loss for Yair Lapid, the treasury and Israel's citizens.”

The Jerusalem Post comments that “although the latest defense budget tussle ended in a predictable compromise, it is precisely the sort that should deprive us of sleep.”  The editor states: “We cannot afford doctrinaire tight-fistedness when our very survival prospects may be on the line,” and asserts: “We shouldn’t sleep soundly when we recall what lack of preparedness and lackadaisical budgetary slashes wrought in the Second Lebanon War – a mere seven years ago.”

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Ma'ariv suggests that "Everyone knows that nothing will come from 'the process.' Only the names change – 'negotiations', 'peace talks', 'proximity talks', 'shuttle diplomacy', regular ceremonies with regular texts and changing players. The not-so-short history of 'the conflict' tells us a story that already has rules of its own: 'The process' does not solve the conflict, does not advance it and does not lead to changes. The milestones in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are dramatic, one-time moves by courageous leaders: Ben-Gurion in May 1948, Rabin in 1992, Ariel Sharon in 2005." The author concludes: "The ritual of releasing murderers and counter-demonstrations will continue and perhaps the mini-freeze on building five homes in a settlement that nobody intends to visit on a Saturday stroll or look for on a map. This is how the conflict appears today. A lot of hot air, but nobody really cares that it exists at all, or to use one of Bennett's colorful phrases: A piece of shrapnel in our backsides."

Yediot Aharonot analyzes the situation in Egypt and asserts: "It is not clear where Cairo is going, when it will calm down and, worst of all, what will happen when the economy collapses and millions of hungry unemployed people try to flee. Hello, is anyone in Jerusalem considering this nightmare?"

Yisrael Hayom refers to a report in a German newspaper that the remains of infamous Nazi Heinrich Muller, the head of the Gestapo, are buried in a Jewish cemetery in Berlin. The author says that if the report is proven true, pressure must be placed on the German authorities to "correct the moral outrage and affront to memory."