Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press

(Israel Government Press Office)

Yediot Aharonot opines that “The elimination of the old Egyptian military elite, in one swipe of the sword, without a drop of sweat and without a blink from the direction of the Egyptian army, is a drama which is hard to describe in words. It is one of the big, surprising and most shaking achievements of the Egyptian revolution.” The author contends that “The damage to the Egyptian army – Egypt’s pro-West, secular power center – is liable in the long range to weaken one of the anchors which ensured the continued implementation of the peace agreements with Israel.”

Ma’ariv rants that “Not in Syria, nor in Egypt: The cruelest war in our region is the one being waged by some of the Israeli media against Netanyahu and Barak on the issue of Iran.” The author maintains that “We have come to an absurd situation in which the Prime Minister needs to apologize and explain the most elementary thing: He makes the decisions and the administrative level carries them out.”

Yisrael Hayom says that “Like a pre-written script, the Muslim Brotherhood, via their figurehead, President Morsi, ousted the military elite and thus put an end to the two-headed regime which ruled in Egypt. Morsi feels so confident of himself that he even canceled the constitutional amendment, which granted the supreme military council most of the state’s authority. It was all expected. It was the speed of the moves that surprised. And where is the peace with Israel? At first it lost Mubarak; now the army. All that is left is to trust the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The Jerusalem Post believes that media reports claiming that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are intent on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities this fall should be taken seriously by the public. The editor warns that “the public and the press must be given basic information on what their role is, in the event of an Israeli strike, especially when it comes to the home front. Otherwise, the media will continue to feed public hysteria, which is certainly not desirable if we are in fact bracing for such a scenario.”

Haaretz criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cancel his participation in the Non-Aligned Movement summit, which is scheduled to take place in Tehran on August 26-31, on the grounds that it is a damaging denunciation that targets not only Iran, but also “dozens of other countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa with which Israel has normal diplomatic relations.” The editor asserts that “A public dressing-down of the secretary-general of the UN because he accepted an invitation to participate in a conference in Tehran means that Netanyahu sees the leaders of all the countries that will take part as being tainted,” and opines: “This is a diplomatic misstep that does not serve Israel’s national interests.”

[Alex Fishman, Amos Gilboa and Boaz Bismuth wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]