Yediot Aharonot contends that "It would seem that the time has come to kindly say to Mr. Liberman, with all due respect, go, please go." The author professes that "Shame can be destructive: A society that does not respect its own ministers will have difficulties in maintaining democracy’s rules-of-the-game for very long."
Ma’ariv faults Education Minister Gideon Saar for not strongly backing his ministry’s chief scientist who said that Israeli students "need to study additional views apart from Darwinism," and reminds its readers that "Hundreds of prestigious scientists, in both the past and present, among them a Nobel laureate in biology, have seen and see Darwinism as complete idiocy."
Yisrael Hayom recalls that "Zeev Jabotinsky worked to mobilize public opinion in favor of the Zionist idea. That is exactly what the State of Israel is doing now, defending its ideas. Not apologizing for its existence. It is engaging in active, not defensive, PR. It is a modern, developed and free country. Its democracy is for all of its citizens and it advocates freedom of worship that did not exist under any previous regime in the history of the Land of Israel. We are here by right and not by sufferance. When we are true to this, when we explain this succinctly and without hesitation – the Arab world, as well as the entire world, will also understand it."
The Jerusalem Post comments on the sixth international Israeli Apartheid Week, which kicked off last Monday, and states that "Instead of adopting anti-Semitic newspeak, Israel’s representatives need to perfect the craft of hitting back diplomatically – ‘to delegitimize the delegitimizers,’" and adds: "Part of that task is knowing the despicable history of the apartheid libel, understanding whose interests it serves and, most importantly, protecting free speech against those who would deny it."
Haaretz commends Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on his decision to oust one of the most daring and creative of the younger generation of commanders from the IDF after he was found guilty by a military tribunal, and notes that while Ashkenazi could have avoided the dilemma by sending the officer on educational leave, "He preferred to set an obligatory, binding standard on everyone." In conclusion, the editor states that "The chief of staff cannot award a medal to himself, but Ashkenazi deserves commendation for being guided by his head and not his heart."
[Nahum Barnea, Menachem Benn and MK Ofir Akonis wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv, and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]