Haaretz writes: "In the midst of the American and Israeli diplomatic campaign to attain a majority in the UN Security Council against the unilateral Palestinian application for statehood, the Regional Planning and Building Council in Jerusalem approved construction of 1,100 apartments on the southern slopes of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, which is over the Green Line. The issue of construction in the settlements continues to be a major obstacle in the peace process. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, the issue of sovereignty in East Jerusalem is to be clarified in permanent-status talks. The international community, including the United States, does not recognize the application of Israeli law and administration to East Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the criticism, saying that Gilo is not a settlement, but rather a Jerusalem neighborhood five minutes from the center of the capital. A series of international agreements to which Israel is a signatory obliges the government to avoid unilateral steps on matters to be decided in final-status talks. The government must remember that this obligation also applies to East Jerusalem. Breaching it harms our credibility, undermines the prime minister’s call for a renewal of talks and may prove disastrous in the long term."
Yisrael Hayom contends that "Israel made a wise diplomatic and public relations move when it immediately accepted the Quartet’s proposal, while the Palestinians rejected it."
Yediot Aharonot contends that, "There is no chance that there will be a [defense budget] cut." The author argues that "Most politicians do not want to find themselves in a position in which after ‘the Third Lebanon War’ accusations will be made against them that lives could have been saved, if only we had equipped ourselves with more defensive systems."
Ma’ariv discusses relations with Turkey. The author says that, "At the end of almost every such argument comes the punch line: The side that supports an Israeli apology and appeasement with the Islamic power asks the other side: ‘Which Islam is preferable – Tehran’s or Erdogan’s?" The notes that, "According to a fresh report by the Institute for International Journalism, based on a detailed report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Turkey leads the world in the number of imprisoned journalists. Undisputed first place goes to the regime of Erdogan which incarcerates, at this moment, no less than 57 journalists. (Almost double the 34 journalists being held by dark autocratic, Islamic Iran)."
The Jerusalem Post comments on last week’s work sanctions by the rail workers’ union: "The deliberate callousness toward paying passengers was part of an ongoing union struggle to sabotage a management decision to allow companies that manufactured new rail cars to also maintain them. The union claims that the government’s endgame is privatization, which the government denies. Wherever justice resides in this bitter wrangle, tormenting members of the public by inflicting gratuitous suffering or outright physical risk on them is unthinkable and unconscionable. Finally, last though hardly least, is the crucial importance of upgrading our undeniably inferior rail services, belatedly pulling Israel’s rail links out of the late 19th century and bringing them into the 21st. Backward-looking/violent union politics must not be allowed to stymie this."