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Yediot Aharonot notes that "The media paid only minor attention to a study, according to which 94% of Arab high school students from "a high socio-economic strata" are interested in continuing to academic studies; a third of them to medicine." The author claims that "the Israeli Arab mother has taken the place of the Polish mother. Perhaps, paradoxically, because her father and husband and all the village elders forbade her from expanding her horizons, she wants for her children what she herself was unable to attain."
Ma’ariv remarks that "While Israel is coping with a new escalation, the US President has published an announcement expressing sorrow over the mistaken killing of 16 innocent Afghan citizens. It has happened before and it is happening now. Here and there, there are also soldiers who are quick to pull the trigger. In every place in the world, and in Israel less than in any place in the world. Also in the current wave of violence in the south, innocent citizens on the Palestinian side will be hurt. That is what happens when Hamas terrorists use citizens as human shields. In the current wave as well Israel is trying to find a needle in a haystack. It is not simple. The attempt to hit only Hamas personnel and others who are launching rocket demands intelligence, effort and will. Indeed, it is possible to do what the US did in Fallujah and destroy entire compounds, people, mosques and all, because t! here is almost no other way to combat these human animals. But Israel tries; with the will, the ability and the courage, and, especially, with success."
Yisrael Hayom remarks that "The firing of GRAD rockets at Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod creates a complicated reality. But the impressive resilience of the residents of the south has a national strategic importance of the utmost value. It has a sharp message to whoever tries to break it apart. The residents of the south are a vital anchor in the deterrence of the State of Israel and of the Israel Defense Forces."
The Jerusalem Post discusses the situation in the south, and states that "We are living in an untenable situation in which every few months, there is an ‘escalation’, and between these ‘escalations’, Gaza’s various terrorist groups maintain a steady stream of mortar shells, rockets and missiles." The editor notes that "Over a million of our citizens live in constant danger and our children are regularly kept home from school," and adds: "Unfortunately, sooner or later our leaders will be forced to confront Hamas. The Iron Dome system provides them with important breathing time. But that time is limited."
Haaretz commends PM Benjamin Netanyahu for sending a message of support to Israeli-Arab Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who chose not to join in singing the Israeli national anthem at a recent public ceremony, and points out that that national anthem cannot be considered the anthem of the Arab-Israeli population as it contains lyrics such as aa Jewish soul yearns.a The editor adds, however, that if the prime minister can recognize that the anthem is not suited to 1/5th of the country’s population, then he "has the capacity of proposing an alternative that includes them, too."
[Semadar Shir, Ben Dror Yemini and Be’er Sheva Mayor Rubik Danilovitch wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]