The Jerusalem Post comments: "The impact of the EU decision – which includes a freeze on the assets of the Iranian central bank within the EU – was almost immediate: The Iranian currency, the rial, fell to record lows in black market trading against the dollar and there has been a surge in the prices paid by Iranians for basic goods. As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted, the latest round of sanctions are indeed a ‘step in the right direction,’ making it increasingly expensive for Iran to continue with its nuclear program. Coupled with continued covert operations such as the assassination of nuclear scientists and cyber war attacks such as the Stuxnet, we hope that these sanctions will make a full-blown military attack on Iran unnecessary."
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Yisrael Hayom believes that "Slowly, the West is understanding that a containment policy is necessary in the conflict with a spreading Islam, with the Shiites at the center." The author contends that "the cooperation [of the Europeans] is not full. The Europeans are packaging Iran with Palestine and the closer they move toward the Israeli position on Teheran, the more they demand a softening of positions toward Ramallah."
Haaretz comments: "Yesterday a new phase of Egyptian democracy began. For the first time in about 60 years, a parliament was sworn in, following free general elections, that reflects the authentic constellation of political forces in Egypt. Perhaps this isn’t the parliament that the West, let alone Israel, was hoping for. The majority is in the hands of religious parties, some of which, such as the Salafis, hold radical views. That is the foundation of the democracy upon which the citizens of Egypt and their representatives are seeking to build their future. It’s a democracy in need of help, both financial and diplomatic. Israel, which has been skittish over where its southern neighbor is headed, cannot divorce the fate of the peace treaty with Egypt from the fate of the peace process with the Palestinians. Egypt is now beginning to follow a new path, and it would be to Israel’s benefit to get to know the contours of that road. Israel must initiate contacts and create opportunities when it comes to ties with the new government authority."
Yediot Aharonot responds to a woman protesting against the high cost of living in Israel by saying, "Whoever thinks like you that an arrangement with the Palestinians in unimportant, lives in a dangerous fantasy. With no agreement, or real progress towards one, another intifada will break out, the third, which will be worse than its predecessors. It will endanger your future and that of your children a thousand, thousand times more than the lack of competition at your supermarket chain and the real estate bubble."
Ma’ariv argues that "the management of the affair of the sinking ship, like the sinking European and US economies, attests that perhaps our situation [in Israel] isn’t so bad." The author notes, "With us, the Lewinsky affair would have led to the President being fired, the stench of ‘Whitewater’ could have prevented the Clintons from being elected, and a ‘Watergate’ graduate President would have been prosecuted. That does not mean to say that we should be thrilled with ourselves, but perhaps the time has come to not get down on ourselves so much."
[Sever Plocker, Nadav Haetzni and Dan Margalit wrote today’’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]