Yediot Aharonot reminds its readers that "Two days ago, the OECD, which Israel joined two years ago, published another study about inequality in the world," and adds, "Israel, as usual, starred as a country in which the gaps widened especially quickly in the past decade." The author says that Trajtenberg report’s tax provisions, including extra income tax credit points, which the Knesset recently passed into law, will do little to help the poorest, many of whom do not pay income tax and hence will not benefit from the extra points. The paper declares, "The ‘reforms’, the ‘lowering of costs’ and the ‘benefits’ that the Knesset, the Government and the Prime Minister’s Office are being so generous with will not help to reduce poverty or inequality."
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The Jerusalem Post comments on the apparent resolution of the labor dispute between Treasury officials and the interns and doctors: "There is an important lesson to be learned from this clash between doctors and the Treasury. For months the conflict remained unresolved and seemed to go from bad to worse. Treasury officials adamantly refused to ‘reopen’ the agreement reached with the Israel Medical Association, while the interns and doctors insisted that the situation, even after the agreement, remained unbearable. The real turnaround was achieved after the mediators, Mironi and Zamir, got involved. The next clash between a labor union and the Treasury is just a matter of time. When it happens, conflict-resolution mediators should be brought in as quickly as possible instead of wasting months in pointless bickering."
Haaretz comments that "As the diplomatic process has sunk deeper into hibernation, acts whose sole purpose is to tighten Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem have multiplied. Israel is advancing proposals to change the master plans of neighborhoods over the Green Line. At the Israeli government’s request, discussions on Jerusalem have been postponed to a later stage of the final-status negotiations. But at no point was it ever agreed that this interlude should be exploited to create facts on the ground and exacerbate tensions."
Two papers comment on the fact that former president – and convicted sex offender – Moshe Katsav will begin serving his prison sentence today:
Ma’ariv asserts that "Former president Katsav’s entry into prison will be a sad day for Israelis but a badge of honor for the state and its system of laws."
Yisrael Hayom is troubled by what it perceives as a tendency for those in high positions, and their supporters, to claim special status for themselves even as they seek to erode the status of the courts.
[Sever Plocker, Avraham Tirosh and Dan Margalit wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]