The Jerusalem Post discusses the increasing instances of violence perpetrated against Israelis visiting the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Declaring that the violence originates at an Arab boys’ school positioned directly alongside the road leading to the ancient cemetery, the editor calls on authorities to put “an immediate and effective end to the anti-Jewish assaults,” and suggests that “the school can be closed down until ironclad guarantees are obtained that brutality from its grounds would cease forthwith,” or, alternatively, “the police can establish a permanent presence on the road to the cemetery both to protect visitors and deter their tormentors.”
Haaretz declares that “while successive Israeli governments have trumpeted their desire to establish a sustainable Palestinian state alongside Israel, they have spared no economic effort or legal creativity to thwart this solution.” For that reason, the editor believes, “the government is going out of its way to thwart the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to investigate the settlements,” and asserts: “no UN investigative committee is needed to understand that the West Bank belongs to another people and its lands are not available to a Jewish and democratic state.”
Yediot Aharonot discusses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz’s decision last night to reduce a planned increase in the price of gasoline and says that "It is moving and nice that Prime Minister Netanyahu thinks about us and – in a regular media ritual – slightly lowers the taxes on gasoline, always at the last minute." The author dismisses the claim that the lost revenues will be offset by internal government efficiency measures, namely by not replacing retirees, and declares that "If it looks like an election economics duck, walks like an election economics duck and quacks like an election economics duck, it certainly is an election economics duck."
Ma’ariv refers to the fate of President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria. The author believes that "While one really cannot say when his time will come, it is clear that he and his supporters are living on borrowed time. Syria’s economy has been almost totally destroyed over the past year and it is unable to bear the costs of its large military. The bloodshed, which has struck tens of thousands of families, has turned the struggle from national to personal and total. Those out for vengeance will want not only the heads of Assad, his family and the rest of the Alawite minority, but will also seek to settle accounts with those elements that are helping the regime to survive – Russia, Iran and Hezbollah." The paper urges the government and the security services to prepare for a post-Assad Syria, including the question of how to deal with the dictator’s arsenal.
Yisrael Hayom analyzes Tzipi Livni’s ouster as head of Kadima, and leader of the opposition, by Shaul Mofaz in last week’s Kadima leadership primary. The author suggests that she erred twice by assuming that the current government would not last and by failing to articulate a credible, consistent alternative to it: "She waited for the moment when the government would fall and she would be there, ready to take over… This did not happen. She paid for her slumber in the primary." The paper doubts whether Shaul Mofaz will be capable of achieving what Livni could not.