(Government Press Office)
Yediot Aharonot claims that "Hamas is running away from a deal [on Gilad Shalit]." The author notes that "Gilad Shalit is their main asset today, perhaps the only one Hamas has. He is what transforms them from a gang of terrorists into a respected organization with whom world politicians meet…The negotiations allow them to bring senior Hamas officials into Gaza, to transfer them to Egypt and Syria, to grant them immunity against eliminations. He provides them a great loudspeaker. He is a platform and an asset. A reasonable person does not give up such an asset."
Ma'ariv says that "The Government opposed a draft law calling for pollution quotas. Thus, while in the United States industrialists had to wrestle with the Government, here the Government does that to itself for the polluters."
Yisrael Hayom notes that "American history in the twentieth century points to the importance of oral agreements and understandings, even those that have never been put to pen." The author argues that, "The problem is with Clinton's contention, according to which even if oral understandings were reached between the Bush Administration and the Sharon Government, they do not obligate Obama. In this there is a display of disregard for the principle of continuity of agreements and understandings (written or unwritten) which are supposed to continue from one Government to the next."
The Jerusalem Post discusses French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent suggestion to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu regarding the replacement of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and states that "Israelis' splenetic reaction to Sarkozy's meddling is understandable. Let it not distract us, however, from far more serious challenges."
Haaretz notes the erosion of the public stature of Israel's universities and states that what is needed is "not begging for scraps or trying to beat private colleges on their home turf, but leadership and vision that will redefine the universities as Israel's leading centers of science, humanities, scholarship and research."
[Guy Bechor, Hadar Horesh and Prof. Avraham Ben-Zvi wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]