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Yediot Aharonot discusses the ongoing debate over the prudence of publicly discussing the possibility of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The author asserts that, "On the one hand, reports of a possible air force attack are being condemned with unprecedented vehemence. On the other hand, the media is being fed reports that will maintain high tensions and make it clear to those who might want to destroy us how ready and prepared we are." The author wonders if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s intelligence adviser is telling him that everything here is "a disorganized mess," and that "in Israel, nobody knows what will happen."
Yisrael Hayom believes that the US will – following the upcoming IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear project, which will reportedly be very severe – propose that UN Security Council impose additional, uncharacteristically sharp, sanctions on Tehran, "in order to strangle it economically and perhaps lead to the collapse of the regime from within."
Ma’ariv comments on the Palestinians’ joining UNESCO and says, "When their textbooks preach hatred and when the Palestinian media denies the Holocaust, joining UNESCO is a sad joke." The author calls on the Palestinians to "take responsibility and stop fostering a crybaby culture that puts the 1.5 million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria (who live better than any other residents of the Middle East) at the center of the global agenda."
Haaretz comments: "The government took advantage of the PA’s acceptance as a full member of UNESCO to declare a retaliatory action that will further undermine Abbas’ position. The forum decided to move ahead with the construction of 2,000 housing units in the settlements and in East Jerusalem, and to withhold more than NIS 300 million in taxes that Israel has collected for the PA. If Israel had a sober and responsible, peace-seeking leadership, it would welcome the PA’s membership in UNESCO and even its upgraded status in the United Nations. Unfortunately, and distressingly, Israel is being led by a right-wing, myopic government."
The Jerusalem Post writes: "On Sunday, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Anat Kamm to four-a-half years in prison for illegally copying and passing on classified information. The sentence is reasonable not only because it sends a message to those who would engage in such activities in the future, but because it shows that the state takes seriously the acts the defendant committed and did not accept the variety of excuses presented as to why this act should be forgiven. A country has the right to classify documents as top secret and in so doing make their leaking to the public a crime."
[Eitan Haber, Erez Tadmor and Boaz Bismout wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]