Yediot Aharonot declares that "Nobody but Palestinians themselves brought about what they refer to as a nakba," and adds that "Every wave of violence against Israel has ended in an additional Palestinian disaster and it still seems that no lessons have been learned." The author believes that successive waves of Palestinian violence have not only not weakened Israel, but have actually strengthened Israelis’ resolve and pushed the realization of the Palestinians’ goals further away. The paper says that those Palestinian leaders who are contemplating a resumption of violence should their diplomatic demands not be met "must know that if this occurs, neither the PA nor the Hamas leadership will remain this time and the Palestinians will, as usual, go back 50 years."
Ma’ariv discusses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of the US Congress and asserts that "The bottom line is that this was a brilliant and well-honed speech," and adds that "It was based on the principles that he was elected on."
Yisrael Hayom reminds its readers that "At yesterday’s joint press conference, Obama and Cameron warned the Palestinians against a unilateral declaration at the UN," and points out that such a declaration "would legally violate the Oslo accords." The author contends that yesterday’s press conference shows that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks did not, as was widely predicted, make it more difficult for the American President to rally European leaders against a unilateral Palestinian move.
The Jerusalem Post discusses the dispute about who must foot the bill to remove the chemical sludge regularly dumped in the Dead Sea by the industrial complex that extracts phosphates and other minerals from it, and notes that “The Dead Sea will spring raucously to life with the kickstarting of a dispute about who must foot the bill for keeping it healthy.” The editor states that “The Israel Corporation has already announced that while it’s willing to assume some expense, it won’t pay for everything. Ahead is litigation, likely to culminate in mediation, which will probably yield a compromise,” and adds: “The faster a pragmatic agreement is reached, the better for all, and especially for the unique Dead Sea.”
Haaretz criticizes this week’s decision by Treasury wages director Ilan Levin to raise the salaries of new municipal rabbis by 150 percent, and states: “There is a surfeit of city rabbis in Israel. But instead of doing away with the bloated religious councils, the treasury wages chief capitulated to political pressures from the ultra-Orthodox parties and agreed to the wage hike.”
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