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Yediot Aharonot discusses alternatives for dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat against Israel and suggests that "An alternative has suddenly appeared out of the offices of Netanyahu and Barak: To not stop Iran\’s nuclear armament, and take the risk of a prolonged war of attrition with it. To strike at the special relationship between the US and Israel, and to lose Israel\’s deterrent ability against Iran as well."
Ma\’ariv discusses what it refers to as the \’After the holidays syndrome\’: "What is the reason that Knesset members need to lock up the plenum for two and a half months, paradoxically, during the days when the country is overflowing with security and economic confrontations?" The author claims that "The postponement of decision-making is based on a flight from responsibility."
Yisrael Hayom notes that "Despite history, Israelis are calm. Some are replacing their gas masks, some are checking their \’safe areas\’, but life in general continues as usual and there is no hint of panic. Israelis have no doubt that, if need be, we must confront those who would destroy us."
The Jerusalem Post appeals for religious tolerance at the Western Wall. The background to this plea is the arrest by the police of four women for the ‘crime’ of “Praying at the Western Wall (the Kotel) while wearing prayer shawls.” The editor asserts that “it is precisely at times when the vocal majority (whether it be ultra-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall or Muslims on the Temple Mount) attempts to impose its religious sensibilities on an embattled minority that a true democracy is tested,” and adds: “Instead of caving in to the extremists, we should demand of all groups in Israeli society a modicum of tolerance and a willingness to live in harmony with diverse forms of religious expression.”
Haaretz denounces the attack of three Palestinian youths in Jerusalem’s Zion Square last weekend by a horde of teenage Jewish hooligans, and states that “we expect the police to know what it takes to indict everyone involved in this loathsome hate crime.” The editor asserts: “The suspected perpetrators are children and teens. They absorbed their hatred of Arabs from their environment: perhaps at home, certainly from the educational and political systems,” and adds that “Israeli society can no longer continue to play the innocent and pretend that it\’s shocked by an incident like this, to treat it as an exception and make do with limp denunciations. It\’s necessary to pull this hatred up by the roots, which were planted, inter alia, by our leadership.” The editor calls for an end to “the policy of pushing Palestinians to the margins and implementing a vigorous government policy to integrate Arabs into Israeli society,” an! d warns that “Otherwise, such incidents will not only keep recurring, but will get even worse.’
[Sever Plocker, Yehuda Sharoni and Isy Leibler wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma\’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]