(Israel Government Press Office)
Two papers discusses the "Price-Tag" phenomenon in light of yesterday's incident in which a group of Jewish youths in Kusra, who were allegedly bent on perpetrating a "Price-Tag" action, were set upon by local Palestinians, and reportedly protected by others, before being detained by the IDF:
Ma'ariv asserts: "Yesterday's action harms the nationalist-Zionist camp and settlement in Judea and Samaria," and adds: "Those who perpetrate 'Price-Tag' actions are not heroes, but gangs of thugs who must be treated as such." The author declares: "The hour is urgent and the tiger must be put back in its cage, not ridden. 'Price-Tag' actions are not only a foolish double-edged sword, but immoral acts the sole purpose of which is indiscriminate ruin and destruction that have nothing to do with Jewish justice and our rights to the land." The paper calls on settlement leaders "to clearly condemn the irresponsible criminal activists who entered Kusra," and concludes: "The insanity must be stopped because the results next time are liable to be disastrous."
Yisrael Hayom asks: "Why have the voices of the settlement movement's leaders and rabbis fallen silent?" and avers: "If they do not wholeheartedly repudiate these actions and use their full authority against the hilltop youth in order to thwart them, settlements will, in the end, lose the admiration that they have among the public at large."
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Yediot Aharonot strongly criticizes a recent letter by Safed Chief Sephardi Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu in which he warned religious young women against serving in the IDF and says that Rabbi Eliyahu "marks the intensifying extremism within religious Zionism." The author notes that as a municipal chief rabbi, "Rabbi Eliyahu is a civil servant," and adds: "Civil servants are obligated to certain rules." The paper says that Rabbi Eliyahu "should wage his struggles without tax funds."
The Jerusalem Post comments on Israel’s high poverty rates, as noted by Governor of the Bank of Israel Karmit Flug in a message to the Knesset Finance Committee this week, and states: “The working poor are a symptom of much larger and more pervasive economic ills plaguing our country.” The editor calls on the politicians to adopt a more holistic approach, and opines: “Not just a bigger negative income tax and the manipulation of the shekel are in order but also eradicating unnecessary bureaucracy, introducing more efficient production technologies, investing more in transportation and improving education for all sectors of society.” The editor concludes: “Only then will we be able to truly brag of a “Start-up nation.”
Haaretz criticizes the government’s apparent intent to refrain from upholding "its obligations to refugees who have fled murderous regimes,” and notes: “The number of asylum seekers in Israel is small, and the unemployment rate here is lower than ever. But at the same time, Israel is bringing hundreds of thousands of foreign workers into the country to do the kinds of work that Israelis have been avoiding. The asylum seekers could be doing that work until the outrages in their countries of origin subside.” The editor bemoans the prime minister’s lack of determination to comply with the UN convention to which Israel is signatory as well as with the obligations required by Jewish moral values, and concludes: “Netanyahu, who speaks incessantly about the nation-state of the Jewish people, has forgotten what it means to be a Jew.”
[Arel Segal, Dan Margalit and Yoaz Hendel wrote today's articles in Ma'ariv, Yisrael Hayom and Yediot Aharonot, respectively.]