Two papers discuss to the Israeli-Turkish relationship two years after the Mavi Marmara incident:
Haaretz denounces the decision of the Turkish authorities to indict four men who at the time of the seizure of the Mavi Marmara two years ago were senior officers of the Israeli Defense Forces, but nevertheless calls on PM Netanyahu “to sign off on the formula agreed on with America and Turkey: an apology for the operational errors that Israel has already publicly acknowledged.” The editor adds: “It is unjust to indict Israelis over the Mavi Marmara incident. Nevertheless, that isn\’t a reason not to act with cool-headed good sense, for that is the price of rehabilitating Israeli-Turkish relations.”
The Jerusalem Post discusses recent calls by senior officials for Israel to apologize to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident, and thus, hopefully, resume normal relations. The editor argues that “It is naïve to believe that if only Israel were to apologize for the Mavi Marmara raid, relations with Turkey would return to normal,” and concludes: “Israel also has an obligation to itself to maintain a modicum of self-respect and deterrence power.”
Yediot Aharonot argues that "Until a prime minister not from the Right arises and \’breaks\’ the camp consensus, the State of Israel has been sentenced to live in the shadow of fear of the settlers in the territories."
Ma\’ariv professes that "Despite the sensitivity, the draft law dubbed \’The Silencing Law\’, according to which the use of Nazi names or symbols would be considered a crime, violates the right to free speech. MKs forget that the freedom of expression is not \’the freedom to say what I think is right\’, but rather the right of the other to say what he thinks is right."Yisrael Hayom maintains that "The elections in Egypt have proven that the revolution has not produced, unfortunately, an Egyptian Lech Wałęsa, Václav Havel or Nelson Mandela. The choice is between a Mubarak replica and the Muslim Brotherhood."
[Eitan Haber, Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and Amir Fuchs, and Ori Heitner wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma\’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]