Yediot Aharonot reminds its readers that "In the past year, between February 2010 and February 2011, the Consumer Price index rose by 4.2%, far beyond the Government’s inflation target," and avers that "This is genuine inflation that will require a genuine answer." The author predicts that "The Governor of the Bank of Israel will raise interest rates, and not by a modest 0.25%," and says that "I would not be surprised if there is a sharp, one-time rise in interest rates. One way or the other, sooner than expected, the Bank of Israel’s interest rate will be 4%, in comparison to today’s 2%."
Ma’ariv suggests that "While the 9/11 terrorist attacks strengthened the perception that Islam was homogeneous and ‘other’, the [recent] revolutions show that Arabs and Muslims are just like us." In referring to events in Tunisia and Egypt, the author cautions that "The dialogue of democracy and human rights, which affected the mobilization of the masses into political action, must now deal with pressing social problems and turn to the great classes of young urban poor and the unemployed," and warns that "If this does not happen, the secular middle classes that led the revolutions in Tunis and Cairo will be in danger," vis-à-vis political Islam.
Yisrael Hayom discusses events in Libya and notes that while "an insane dictator – a kind of African Nero – burns his country, the Americans, and with them the West, are making bombastic threats against Moammar Gadhafi but are not lifting a finger to help the desert rebels." The author says that a modern air force could ground Gadhafi’s planes quite easily but adds that "The Americans and the EU are hesitant; their power is mere words." The paper strongly criticizes the Arab League, several of whose members have modern air forces that could easily take control of Libyan airspace, and asserts that "They all want somebody else to do the hard, maybe even dirty, work for them." The author concludes that "There a real possibility that Gadhafi could stay in power," and warns of a subsequent bloodbath.
The Jerusalem Post notes that the weapons aboard the Victoria were of a tie-breaking nature, and had they reached Gaza, “could have truly triggered a nightmare scenario.” The editor states that “By seizing the Victoria, Israel not only dealt a blow to Hamas machinations but foremost to those of Hamas’s Iranian patron,” and points out that “It is precisely to thwart these fundamentally strategic dangers, as distinct from tactical annoyances, that Israel has maintained its sea blockade against Gaza.” The editor finds, however, that “Most worrying in that context was IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu’s comment on Tuesday that, for every Victoria thwarted, he simply couldn’t say how many had evaded Israeli interception.”
Haaretz comments on the forthcoming appointment of a new antitrust commissioner, a key post that affects the quality of life of every Israeli as well as economic growth, and declares that “The right candidate must believe with all his heart that excessive market concentration undermines competition, and that therefore, the power of the big conglomerates must be restricted for the sake of rapid growth and decent service to customers.”
[Sever Plocker, Prof. Gilles Kepel and Dan Margalit wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]