(Israel Government Press Office)
Ma’ariv suggests: "It is too early to determine who exactly was behind the shooting but on the face of it, it seems that the instability in Lebanon is sliding toward Israel." The author notes that "The IDF's initial evaluation yesterday morning was that Hezbollah was not involved in the firing at the north," and surmises that "one of the countless organizations present in Lebanon acting on its own, perhaps out of a desire to embroil Hezbollah," was responsible. The paper says: "Barring unforeseen developments, this incident is expected to end and be forgotten like the firing that took place in August," but cautions: "The situation in Lebanon and on the Syrian Golan Heights is very tense and it is only a question of time when the next incident slides into our territory."
The Jerusalem Post believes that the rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel are a tactic employed by radical militant Sunni forces opposed to both Hezbollah and Syrian leader Bashar Assad. The editor states that “The Katyusha attack was yet another reminder that while Israel is an island of relative stability in a region steeped with turmoil, we cannot remain immune to the spillover effects of the conflict rocking Lebanon,” and concludes: “It must be made clear to the Lebanese government and to Hezbollah that they will pay a high price for allowing terrorist organizations of any kind to launch attacks against Israel.”
==========================================
Yediot Aharonot discusses the peace process and the scheduled release of the next round of Palestinian prisoners. The author, a former GOC Navy, asserts that "Israel's ability to continue holding talks while releasing murderers and, under the aegis of these acts, continue building in the territories, no longer exists," because "The Americans and the Europeans strongly oppose construction in the territories despite releasing the terrorists." The paper believes that Israel can neither give in to international diktat – and freeze construction – nor ignore it altogether – and continue to build, without bringing on either "a coalition crisis or an international crisis, both of which are bad for Israel and would drag it toward isolation." The author says: "Israel needs to decide between two alternatives. One is negotiations with the Palestinians in order to reach a peace agreement, while freezing construction in the territories. In this case, the release of terrorists would be carried out only after the agreement is signed. Such a course of action would apparently lead to changes in the coalition and perhaps even elections. The second alternative: Insisting on continued construction in the territories without negotiations and without releasing terrorists, a move that would apparently leave the coalition intact, but which would lead to very harsh results in the international arena and in US-Israel relations."
Yisrael Hayom says that "The decision of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation to annex the communities in the Jordan Valley is not worth the paper it is written on," and declares: "There is no chance that Benjamin Netanyahu will allow MK Miri Regev's proposal to receive full government approval." The author dismisses the proposal as "political populism," and speculates that those ministers who voted for it did so to bolster their standing in their various parties and know full well that it has no chance of becoming law. The paper notes that "Regev, whose military role was as spokesperson during the disengagement from Gush Katif, apparently feels the need to clear herself vis-a-vis the Likud right-wing and is now more Catholic than the Pope on the Greater Land of Israel." The author wonders if those who support the initiative "are so certain that Abu Mazen does not want an agreement in any case, why are they making it difficult for Netanyahu to blame the lack of an agreement on the Palestinians?"
Haaretz criticizes Deputy Religious Services Minister Eli Ben Dahan (Habayit Hayehudi), who stated in a recent interview that “a Jew always has a much higher soul than a non-Jew,” and states that this is the distorted worldview “that gives rise to cruelty against non-Jews, especially asylum seekers and members of religious minorities.” The editor states: “The idea that Jews are superior to all non-Jews is racist. Qualitative distinctions according to criteria such as religion, nationality, gender or race have no legitimacy,” and adds: “The fact of an Israeli deputy cabinet minister expressing such positions is a disgrace to the government and the state.” The editor opines: “Ben Dahan expresses, in the saddest possible way, the problem of mixing religion and state,” and concludes: “It would behoove MKs who hold liberal positions to renounce Ben Dahan’s remarks and, more important, to work toward the separation of religion and state.”
[Amir Rapaport, Eli Marom and Dan Margalit wrote today's articles in Ma'ariv, Yediot Aharonot and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]