(Israel Government Press Office)

Ma'ariv declares: "It would be a mistake on [Movement Party leader Tzippi] Livni's part to appoint [Amir] Peretz as the second minister from her party, because he looked for a city of refuge to which he could flee from an embarrassing and politically hopeless situation," in the Labor Party. The author commends MK Amram Mitzna's record as [elected] Mayor of Haifa and [appointed] Mayor of Yeruham and says that Movement party leader Tzippi Livni should not choose Peretz simply because he could be more troublesome, if he does not get the coveted second portfolio, than Mitzna.

Yediot Aharonot suggests that US President Barack Obama "is not traveling thousands of kilometers merely in order to return home with impressions of eating humus in the Mahane Yehuda market, a note in the Western Wall and a wreath at Yad Vashem," and speculates that he wants to make his mark on history as the American President on whose watch the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. The author says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "will have to do in the coming term what he did not want to do in his previous terms – set borders and begin to establish two states for two peoples."

Yisrael Hayom believes that the coalition negotiations are dragging on, in part, due to the low level of confidence between the principal party leaders, and contends that Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid will prove to be very reliable coalition partners. The author believes that since Prime Minister Netanyahu will be loathe to hold another election, the chances that a government will be formed by the mid-March deadline are very good.

The Jerusalem Post comments on Iranian defiance in the new round of talks with P5 + 1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France,) and states: “Unfortunately, the military option, which still ‘remains on the table,’ may ultimately be the only effective way of halting the Iranians’ stubborn march toward their goal of nuclear weapons.”

Haaretz criticizes the apparent deportation of Sudanese refugees back to their country, and asserts: “The secret deportation of Sudanese migrants who were sent back to Sudan via a third country over the past few months cannot be defined as anything other than state-perpetrated smuggling.”