Yediot Aharonot, in its second editorial, surveys recent media interviews by former IDF chief of General Staff Moshe Yaalon and former ISA director Avi Dichter and suggests that, “Both of them are convinced that the Palestinians are not mature enough for a normal state of their own and are not yet ready for a true peace and historic reconciliation with Israel. Both of them say that the withdrawal from Gaza will be seen on the Palestinian street as a victory for the terrorist line. Both of them paint a reasonable portrait of a renewed outbreak of terrorism in a few months and an outraged Israeli reaction to it that will include the military reoccupation of parts of Gaza. And in the end, both Dichter and Yaalon have the same approach to disengagement: They see it as a tactical step only in which the costs must be unsentimentally weighed against the benefits. Yaalon emphasizes the costs, Dichter the benefits. This is an argument over the price and not over the merchandise.”
Haaretz comments: "The housing fair that took place in the north last Sunday was aimed at attracting new residents to towns in the Galilee. But it turns out that not all Israeli citizens are welcome in these 'community villages.' ...The result is that the 29 community villages of the Misgav Regional Council do not contain even a single Arab resident... Arab Israelis are discriminated against as a group; the public remembers them only when the Labor Party holds a registration drive or when there are riots, like those in Umm al-Fahm at the start of the current intifada... The State of Israel is not, and never has been, homogeneous; about one quarter of its citizens are not Jews. This fact should long since have been internalized - first and foremost, in the behavior of Israeli authorities."
The Jerusalem Post writes: "Teheran's game is to buy more time to build a nuclear weapon and to wear down the West into accepting that feat as a fait accompli. In particular, the mullahs had to ensure that they safely got through this week's election without a full-blown challenge to the regime... If Bush's doctrine linking the promotion of freedom to advancing America's security does not apply there, where does it apply? If the Iranian people – who are struggling in almost daily protests, barely covered by the international media – do not receive American support against the regime that most blatantly threatens American interests, Bush's doctrine will quickly be seen by oppressed people everywhere as a dead letter."
Hatzofeh calls on its readers not to travel to those European countries the citizens of which, according to a recent ADL survey, still harbor anti-Semitic prejudices.
Yediot Aharonot, in another editorial, discusses the privatization of Bezeq.
[Sever Plocker wrote today’s editorials in Yediot Aharonot.]