Ma’ariv, in a letter to Palestinian journalist colleagues, professes that "We and you have enough reasons to be suspicious of one another. Fresh in your memory is over 40 years of occupation in which you have experienced land expropriation, military rule, curfew and blockade, and over ten thousand imprisonments and hundreds of civilian casualties. It is hard to think of in good terms the vanquisher who imposed all that on you. But you must understand that on the Israeli side there is just reason for their suspicions. The Israelis have experienced indiscriminate, murderous terrorist attacks against men, women and children: Knife attackers, suicide attackers in buses and malls, launchings of Kassams and GRADs. All of these have taken a heavy toll in blood and suffering which is impossible to forget. Some of these incidents happened, paradoxically, following diplomatic processes like the Oslo Accords, or the expression of a willingness to compromise by the Barak Government, or withdrawal, like that of the Sharon Government from Gush Katif." The author argues that "The lack of willingness of my Palestinian colleagues to understand the claims of the other, the endless exploration of the question of ‘who is right’, and the repetitious harping on the injustice of the occupation, will not carry us forward. You must understand that we must all want to overcome what has passed in order to grant ourselves a better future."
Yisrael Hayom discusses life in the Middle East and reminds us all that "We live in a brutal region where, paradoxically, the use of force and swift acts of retribution against acts of terror are more effective at preventing all-out war than empty dialogue and restraint."
The Jerusalem Post says that the Israeli government must not allow Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s rhetoric to draw it into the international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, and notes that despite Nasrallah’s recent attempt to submit a disjointed concoction of relevant evidence, "None of it was, or could be, convincingly connected to the Hariri murder and none could conceivably ever constitute relevant material in any selfrespecting court of law." Fearing that Nasrallah’s ranting may, in time, become conventional wisdom throughout much of Arab public opinion, and from there affect minds in the West, the editor states that "Israel would do well not to allow Nasrallah to push it, absurdly, into the dock. Israeli officials have already indicated that they are certain Hizbullah was behind the killing. In the appropriate public and private forums, within the necessary security limitations, Israel should rebut Nasrallah’s falsehoods."
Haaretz is troubled by Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi’s testimony to the Turkel Committee last week, during which he stated that, for him, "the main lesson from the operational aspect is that if the Israel Defense Forces confronts a similar scenario in the future, it will have to use snipers, which he says would prevent harm to soldiers." The editor declares that "Using snipers against civilians must be restricted to extreme situations in which the soldiers’ lives are threatened. The takeover of a ship whose passengers do not have firearms can and should be carried out differently."
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