(Israel Government Press Office)

Two newspapers eulogize the late West Bank religious leader and peace-seeker Rabbi Menachem Froman, who died on Monday at age 68 following a battle with cancer:

Yisrael Hayom lauds Rabbi Froman for having sought dialogue with Palestinian Islamic leaders and for being a man of exemplary vision.

The Jerusalem Post comments that Rabbi Froman “harbored a deep love for humanity that motivated him to pursue peace against all odds,” and states that “many rightly respected Froman for the risks he took to follow through with his convictions – including meetings in Gaza with Yassin – and his boundless optimism that peace through dialogue was attainable.’

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Ma'ariv suggests the upcoming municipal elections will be an interesting test of strength for the ultra-orthodox parties, which will apparently be in the opposition in the Knesset, on the one hand, and for Yesh Atid and Jewish Home, which will be in the government, on the other. The author suggests that "The practitioners of the new politics will try to prove that they are statesmen-like by speaking to the ultra-orthodox public over the heads of ultra-orthodox politicians," and thus attempt to defuse "the cultural time-bomb that has already begun to tick."

Yediot Aharonot, on the occasion of International Women's Day, says: "in a country in which only 23% of MKs are women; in which women earn one-third less than men; in which, among married couples, only women do the laundry and prepare food; and in which thousands of girls, adolescents and women suffer physical and sexual violence – the question of women's place in society must top the (men and women) policy-makers' agenda not one day a year but 365 days a year."

Haaretz praises “The Tel Aviv Labor Court's decision that a religious girls' high school must pay NIS 250,000 in compensation to a teacher, who was fired because she became pregnant while single and is raising the child alone,” and states: “The desire of the school's leadership to protect its students from what it deems a teacher's improper behavior was outweighed by more fundamental rights deriving from the Basic Law on Freedom of Occupation and the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty. It must be hoped that other communities that enjoy broad autonomy in determining their lifestyle will take the court's message to heart.”