Ma’ariv discusses the situation vis-à-vis Gaza and contends that "What has been happening since March of this year between Gaza and Israel is a kind of cat-and-mouse game in which each side changes roles. Nobody is interested in bringing this simmering pot to the point of explosion, but in continuing – as for now – to play the game by the existing rules. Hamas, the strongest organization in the Strip, is comfortable with the continuing process by which it is strengthening itself, with deepening its control in the Strip and with winking at Fatah against the background of the reconciliation agreement. While Israel indeed has plans for an operation in the Strip, those in power prefer to leave them deep in the drawer and to deal with several more pressing issues. So, in the meantime, the cat-and-mouse games will continue between Israel and the Gaza Strip. They might seem simple, but they are replete with tensions and risks. Three years after Operation Cast Lead and the way to another operation is becoming shorter."
981
Yediot Aharonot analyzes the crisis in the Euro zone and says that, "While the current crisis is mainly filling the newspapers’ economic pages, the root of the problem is political. The EU leaders’ guiding assumption was expressed by Nicolas Sarkozy at the last Davos conference: Without the Euro, there is no EU and without the EU, the peace that has characterized the continent for the past 70 years, is in danger. For those who have forgotten, the Baltic republics and the countries of eastern and central Europe were preceded by soviet republics or people’s democracies. Forty years ago, Spain, Portugal and Greece were military dictatorships, to say nothing of Italy and Germany a little over 60 years ago. Hanging in the balance today is not a currency but the political stability and peace of Europe."
Yisrael Hayom refer to Technion Professor Dan Shechtman’s winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and asserts, "We could all learn from the private example of Prof. Shechtman, who swam against the current and won in the end, thanks to the strength of his belief in the correctness of his path."
The Jerusalem Post comments: "The cabinet’s unanimous decision on Sunday to implement a NIS 630 million plan to stem the tide of "illegal work infiltrators" from Egypt into Israel is to be commended. The Jewish people must not only serve as a moral example of how developed countries should deal with IWIs, but must also make sure that a strong Jewish majority is maintained in a sovereign Jewish state."
Haaretz comments that "in Israel, the life of a Palestinian is cheap. When it comes to shooting a Palestinian, pulling the trigger does not come with a real fear of having to answer to the law," and notes "the failings of the Israel Police’s Judea and Samaria District with regard to investigations into harm to Palestinians."
[Gil Michaeli, Hanan Greenberg and Lior Alperovich wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]