(Israel Government Press Office)

Ma'ariv commends Nobel Chemistry Prize laureate Prof. Dan Shechtman for announcing his candidacy to succeed Shimon Peres as Israel's next President and says: "Prof. Shechtman could prove to everyone that Israel is not just an arena of peace, war, terrorism and small-time politicking." The author calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "show a different kind of leadership here and announce that Shechtman is the man," but adds: "Netanyahu will not do this because he is enmeshed in a dependent relationship with Likud politicians who want to keep the position within the party." The paper urges Yesh Atid leader Finance Minister Yair Lapid to endorse Prof. Shechtman and claims that the latter represents "what Yesh Atid wants to market: A different kind of politics, new people and a different agenda."

Yediot Aharonot discusses the major powers' nuclear agreement with Iran, the implementation of which is due to begin today. The author asserts that "This agreement, in effect, gives international approval to the fact that Iran is allowed to be a nuclear threshold state, as long as it does not move on to actually producing nuclear weapons," and adds: "Israel needs to internalize this situation and learn to live with it." The paper says that a widespread Israeli assessment is that a permanent agreement will prove unattainable and that the sides, neither of which will want to see a complete rupture, will find a way to extend the interim agreement throughout the rest of US President Barack Obama's term.

Yisrael Hayom comments on the situation in the Gaza Strip. The author says that, "The decision to carry out the targeted elimination of an Islamic Jihad militant was liable to have fanned the flames in the Gaza Strip, but in practice was designed to do the opposite," and adds: "Via the elimination, Israel sought to signal to Hamas that it has no problem of 'running amok' and knowingly initiating an escalation. In other words, Israel informed Hamas that if there is to be an escalation in the south, the rules will be determined in Jerusalem, not Gaza." However, the paper opines that "Israel is not interested in a conflict, and not just due to an unwillingness to be drawn into close-quarters, prolonged combat in the Strip, but due to the concern that an operation would be liable to strengthen Hamas and lead to a rapprochement with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. In order to avoid such an entanglement, the IDF has been engaged in efforts to maintain the calm and make clear to the strip the potential price of any escalation. The series of attacks over the weekend and yesterday's elimination were designed for this exact purpose."

Haaretz believes that the ORT school system’s decision to call on the carpet a teacher “after a student complained that he expressed ‘extreme leftist’ opinions in class, is a badge of shame for the educational network,”  and contends that fear of reprimand and perhaps dismissal has for many years caused teachers to be afraid of dealing with “controversial issues such as human and civil rights, the attitude toward the Arab minority, and Israel’s responsibility in the expulsion of the Arabs in 1948.” The editor asserts: “This fear that besets educators results in their students receiving a one-dimensional view of a multidimensional reality, a view that is faithful mainly to right-wing ideological principles,” and calls on the education minister to support teachers who “nurture curiosity and critical thinking in students.”

The Jerusalem Post welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who arrived on his first official visit to Israel, and states that “He has, over the years, distinguished himself as an unabashedly outspoken supporter of Israel.” The editor asserts: “Harper’s position on Israel seems to be the result of sound reason and personal conviction combined with the courage to speak his mind” and adds: “It is refreshing to see a head of state guiding his country’s foreign policies vis-à-vis Israel not necessarily by what is politically expedient at home and not necessarily in lockstep with the international community’s preconceptions, but in line with what is right.”