The Jerusalem Post comments on Donald Trump’s choices of right-wingers Steve Bannon for top White House strategist and senior counselor and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff, and declares: “America’s struggle against its legacy of racism from slavery still has a long way to go, and the same goes for the latent xenophobia that the Trump campaign exploited against Latinos and Muslims. The world has been shocked by a campaign that made it safe for a minority of overt racists to hate openly. It is time for the incoming president, and his advisers, to say stop it.”
Haaretz declares that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon was the key person whose support enabled the farcical declaration that the legislative process regarding the proposed bill for legitimizing illegal outposts would not cause any harm to the Supreme Court, and asserts: “Kahlon must stop playing innocent and rolling his eyes skyward. The attempt to whitewash crimes committed by lawbreakers who invaded private Palestinian land and built their homes there is an insult to anyone for whom the rule of law is sacred. The real purpose of this bill is to damage the rule of law and its most senior defender, the Supreme Court. If Kahlon wishes to collaborate in this destructive process he should at least forgo his sanctimoniousness.”
Yediot Aharonot comments on the surprising results of the US presidential election, and notes that this creates both concerns and new opportunities for Israel, specifically with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and declares: “The government can either determine that there is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and continue to ‘manage’ it, or it can launch a dialogue with the new US administration which would examine the entire range of possibilities.”
Israel Hayom thinks that “The coming months may present Israel with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strike an understanding with the incoming American administration over the communities in Judea and Samaria,” and remarks: “Retroactively approving contested outposts may invite pressure from Washington. Let's wait for the new administration and ask it to change U.S. policy on settlements.”
Globes http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-foreign-homebuyers-go-home-1001161277 discusses the purchase of homes in Israel by Jews from abroad for investment rather than residential purposes, and notes that nowadays “Jews abroad can afford less, and feel unwanted.” The author points out that by its actions “the state is taking away any desire [by foreign Jews] to buy an apartment here,” and adds: “As if that were not enough, the anti-money laundering authorities in Israel and worldwide no longer permit, certainly not easily, the laundering of dubious funds through real estate purchases – a method that was very popular in former times.”
[Giora Eiland, Nadav Shragai and Dror Marmor wrote today's articles in Yediot Aharonot, Israel Hayom and Globes, respectively.]