Yediot Aharonot criticizes yesterday’s Cabinet’s decision to reform the system under which stipends are granted to ultra-orthodox, full-time yeshiva students and contends that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "prefers the political comfort entailed by the alliance with Shas and United Torah Judaism over the socio-economic potential of a government that rests on the two largest secular parties." The author believes that "There is no reason why the state should finance, from its coffers, a social sector that forces poverty and unemployment on its sons." The paper claims that many ultra-orthodox young men are dissatisfied with the current arrangement, but are stymied by a system in which their political-rabbinical leaders strike deals with the secular political right, and predicts a popular backlash against the majority parties for caving in to the demands of the ultra-orthodox political-rabbinical leadership.
Ma’ariv believes that "The main reason for the stalemate in the negotiations [with the Palestinians] is rooted in several of our neighbors’ false gods, namely that they are the victims, that absolute justice is with them and that time is on their side." While the author does not deny that Israel clings to its own false gods ("the Greater Land of Israel, the refusal to recognize the Palestinian right to a state, arrogance, procrastination, Greater Jerusalem and others"), he nevertheless avers that "For the lion’s share of the Israeli public and its leaders, several of these idols have been shattered." However, the paper notes that the Palestinians’ false gods "are all alive and well." The authors wonders, "How do we reach the point at which they [the Palestinians] will smash their idols out of the deep internalized recognition that this is in the Palestinians’ interest?"
Yisrael Hayom commends Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch’s tentative choice of Southern District Police Commander Yohanan Danino to be the next Israel Police Inspector-General and says that "In order to succeed in such a post, one needs wisdom, equanimity, professional experience, and also luck. If Danino is appointed, he will need all of the above."
The Jerusalem Post is concerned over France’s apparent willingness to sell 100 HOT antitank missiles to the Lebanese Armed Forces, but feels it would be wrong to single out France as the sole bad guy. The editor states that "France’s sale of 100 HOT missiles is a dismaying but minor aspect of the major problem: With western influence waning, Lebanon is losing the last vestiges of its sovereignty, and falling prey to the Syrian-Iranian effort to realign the balance of power in the Middle East."
Haaretz criticizes what it terms "Netanyahu’s unacceptable deal with the ultra-Orthodox," which involves granting the Haredim an exemption from the draft, and a future cut in the stipends of married yeshiva students, in the spirit of the ruling of the High Court of Justice. The editor adds that "The cabinet’s approval of a sweeping ‘reform’ of the state’s horse-trading relationship with the ultra-Orthodox community reflects the cabinet’s capitulation to the political demands of the Haredim."
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