Three newspapers discuss various issues related to the current controversy over whether or not to require all citizens to perform either military or civilian service:
Yediot Aharonot comments on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\’s choice of who to handle the contacts with Kadima Chairman Minister Shaul Mofaz and others in an effort to find a compromise on the universal service issue that would keep the governing coalition intact: "So what if he was ejected from the Prime Minister\’s bureau after admitting to unbecoming conduct toward a female subordinate? So what if he was barred from returning to serve in the public sector, in any position? Even after all this, Natan Eshel is still closer than anyone to Benjamin Netanyahu, his man for special missions, his confidant and the man he relies on more than anyone." The author complains that Eshel goes about Prime Minister Netanyahu\’s business "as if nothing happened," and remarks: "And nobody finds it strange that a man who was ejected from public service conti! nues to occupy center stage – a position he receives from the Prime Minister?"
Ma\’ariv reminds its readers that "There were several attempts in the past to draft the ultra-orthodox," but adds that "They all failed because nobody – from Dayan to Begin to Netanyahu – really wants to do so." The author asserts that one cannot criticize only the ultra-orthodox and says: "Little, power-hungry politicians, all of them secular, have – out of narrow considerations that have nothing to do with equality – given the ultra-orthodox a gift more precious than gold. The \’suckers\’, who constitute a minority, carry the others on their backs because their cynical and fundamentally immoral representatives have sold them out."
Yisrael Hayom believes that "The principle of service for all from age 18 will lay the first bricks toward creating a new public space in which nobody is more or less equal than others. Everyone will be involved in building the civil society, everyone will have equal rights and equal obligations. Just as the State of Israel does not allow its citizens to choose whether or not to pay the television and radio licensing fee, it must require them to their part in bearing the burden of service. Without an enforcement mechanism in the form of imprisonment or significant fines of at least NIS 150,000, the principle of universal service will remain a mere recommendation."
Haaretz refers to the exposure by reporter Chaim Levinson of the details of a plan whose purpose is to enable settlers to register land in the territories in their names, and states: “One might expect that in a law-abiding, principled country the authorities would deal forcefully and resolutely with the practice of building settlement outposts on private Palestinian land.”
The full text of Haaretz website articles are now available to registered subscribers only.
The Jerusalem Post notes that prospective Republican candidate for US president, Mitt Romney is planning a visit to Israel this summer, and in light of the decline in Jewish support for the incumbent, calls on President Barak Obama to do the same. The editor contends that “Obama has proved to be a true friend of Israel during his first term as president, though he has made mistakes,” and asserts that “A visit to Israel would be a fitting conclusion to four years of sometimes rocky, but generally positive, relations between the White House and the State of Israel.”
[Tali Ben-Ovadiah, Chilo Rosenberg and Yoav Kish wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma\’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]