Ma’ariv calls on the Government to enunciate clear principles regarding the peace process ahead of the expiry date of the temporary suspension of new construction in Judea and Samaria and says that "any decision to extend the suspension should be based on principle and not come in response to international pressure."
Yisrael Hayom refers to last week’s accident in which seven people were killed when the minibus they were traveling in was struck by an oncoming train after reportedly running the barrier that had come down at the crossing. The author says that "Even if we invest the best resources in driving instruction, education and infrastructures, we will not be able to prevent accidents until Israeli driving habits are changed."
The Jerusalem Post notes that "No one can quite pinpoint what Defense Minister Ehud Barak has against IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi," and points out that "Changes at the top of the IDF hierarchy were never decorous. Yet Barak seems intent on turning them into an outright circus." The editor declares: "It is dangerously irresponsible to portray Israel’s No. 1 soldier as a wobbly lame duck when this habitually beleaguered country faces existential challenges, perhaps the gravest since 1948. Small-mindedness is always undesirable, but it’s all the more so at this time of escalating danger."
Haaretz discusses the issue of the Bedouins in the Negev, in light in the recent evacuation of illegal village al-Arakib, and declares that "The bulldozer cannot be the state’s only answer, especially not when it is used only against the Bedouin. It’s hard to understand why Israel is pushing a significant sector of its citizens toward extremism and crime. On the ruins of Al-Arakib a new generation of Bedouin will sprout that is alienated from the state, enraged and desperate. Neither they nor the state deserve this."