Yediot Aharonot contends that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "has gotten cold feet," and, ultimately, will be a no-show at this week’s Copenhagen Conference on climate control.
Ma’ariv argues that "The Shalit deal is different than any previous deal to exchange prisoners and abductees due to one particular characteristic – its ramifications on the negotiations and the fate of the Palestinian leadership."
Yisrael Hayom, on the first anniversary of Barak Obama’s presidency, opines that, "Regarding the conduct of foreign and security policy, a forlorn and worrisome picture has been painted." The author contends that Obama’s management of the Afghanistan war, the Iranian threat, the Arab-Israel conflict and other areas of crisis, "smacks of amateurishness."
The Jerusalem Post discusses a double standard adopted by the UN High Commission on Refugees against Israel, and reports that the agency has submitted an affidavit to Israel’s Supreme Court backing arguments that Israel violates international law when returning African infiltrators to Egypt within the first 24 hours of their illegal entry and if they are still within 50 kilometers of the border. The editor notes that "By UNHCR logic, Egyptian ruthlessness requires Israel to admit all migrants whom Egypt rejects. Egyptian attitudes are evidently regarded as immutable facts; different standards are applied to Israel, which is apparently required to compensate for Egyptian harshness," and concludes by stating that "Israel is being asked to shoulder an unfair and unsustainable burden. And preventative measures, including the erection of an effective barrier-fence on the Egyptian border, are now more indispensable and urgent than ever."
Haaretz states that "The prime minister’s willingness to take a political risk and go head-to-head with his own supporters to advance Israel’s foreign-policy interests was a correct, albeit small and hesitant, step on the road to realizing his vision of ‘two states for two peoples,’" and hopes he will not be "deterred by settler protests and pressure from Likud ministers."
[Yuval Carni and Tzvi Zinger, Shlomo Gazit and Prof. Avraham Ben-Tzvi wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv, and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]