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Yediot Aharonot suggests that "The homes in Beit-El will be physically relocated in order to save from Netanyahu the discomfort of a bulldozer being filmed razing a settlement structure. It is possible to understand why he fears such discomfort, but the question is, at what cost? We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. How many millions is a picture that will never exist worth?"
Ma\’ariv discusses Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein\’s decision to prosecute Ha\’aretz journalist Uri Blau for his role in the Anat Kam affair. The author says: "I apologize for the lack of solidarity, but something really bothers me about the all-out recruitment of the members of the press against the decision by Attorney General Weinstein to prosecute journalist Uri Blau. Weinstein made his decision to prosecute Blau for breaching agreements with the authorities in such a way as to endanger state security. Should we, as journalists, respect this decision? The case is indeed drastic, and the answer is very complicated. Therefore, the fact that we hear, primarily, one voice from journalists does not bode very well for professional integrity."
Yisrael Hayom comments that "When Judge Ahmad Rafat read the verdict yesterday in a Cairo courthouse, it was clear that it was well calculated and political. The special court in the Mubarak case looked to satisfy everybody, in these very sensitive days in Egypt, between two rounds of presidential elections. In the end, everyone was left unsatisfied, outside of the Muslim Brotherhood. Almost everything that has happened in Egypt since January 2011 is in synch with their aspirations agenda."
Haaretz praises the Egyptian court that sentenced deposed President Hosni Mubarak and his interior minister to life imprisonment, while acquitting Mubarak\’s two sons, and asserts that in comparison to the revolutions in other Middle eastern and Arab dictatorships, “Egypt staged a unique model of score-settling.” The editor notes that “In about two weeks Egypt will complete the revolution by electing a new president,” and adds: “We should wish this great country success and hope it does not have to yearn for the era in which its prisoner-president ruled.”
The Jerusalem Post commends Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein for his “courageous and groundbreaking decision” to recognize the rights of rabbis of non-Orthodox communities, and notes that this “rights historic wrongs.” The editor believes that “The state has no business interfering with religious autonomy,” and avows that “when it comes to rabbis on the state payroll, the separation of religion and state would do nothing but good. Both Judaism and politics would benefit from the divorce.”
[Nachum Barnea, Lilach Segan and Boaz Bismout wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma\’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]