(Israel Government Press Office)

Ma'ariv evaluates the legacy of former Sephardi Chief Rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The author suggests that "The clique of dealmakers that he set up missed the lofty goal for which it was established," and claims that Shas "betrayed everything that he sought to do. Instead of a moderate Sephardic Judaism, in the spirit of the sages of Morocco, Yemen and Iraq, we received pseudo-Lithuanian ultra-orthodox fundamentalism. Instead of modesty, which characterized his way of life, we received arrogance. Instead of humility, we received a violent storming of the halls of government and a massive milking of its resources, while ignoring the legal value of honoring the law of the land, which in too many instances ended behind bars. Instead of concern for the weaker strata, we received a narrow parochialism. When the 'ethnic genie' made the headlines, it must be remembered that his party took care to perpetuate the discrimination, ignorance and poverty in order to maintain its political strength and absolute control of a naïve and good public."

Yediot Aharonot cites the recent Pew Research Center study, which shows that 58% of American Jews marry non-Jews, and says that it vindicates the Immigrant Absorption Ministry's much-criticized 2011 ad campaign in the US, which warned expatriate Israelis living in the US that their children would likely have no Jewish or Israeli connection. The author asserts that "The purpose of the State of Israel is to be loud reminder that the Zionist vision is the establishment of a national home in the Land of Israel. Those who leave, abandon the Zionist vision. Perhaps this sounds anachronistic, and it sometimes hurts, but it must be said. The state is obliged to do at least one thing for those who leave it – tell them the truth."

Yisrael Hayom notes that both Cairo and Damascus have extolled their "victory" in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and asserts: "The achievements of the October war have been exploited ever since as a unifying glue and a tranquilizer for the masses both in Syria and in Egypt in order to cover up the poverty and growing gaps, and the regimes' failed efforts to move their peoples toward growth."

The Jerusalem Post remarks on the omission of the Israeli flag at an official parliamentary meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials at the Mukata presidential compound earlier this week, and states that this symbolizes “the Palestinian refusal to recognize the ‘nation-state of the Jewish people,’” and as such is a “principal obstacle to peace.” The editor adds: “As long as the Palestinians view Zionists as just another colonialist white settler movement, there is little chance of reaching a two-state solution in which both sides recognize the legitimacy of the other to live here in peace and security.”

Haaretz notes the Israeli public’s current occupation with the brain drain of young people from Israel to the wealthy countries of the West, and comments that, in light of recent speeches of gloom and doom by PM Netanyahu, “one can understand why young people are seeking their future elsewhere.”