quarta-feira, maio 10, 2006

Editoriais de quarta, 10 de maio *

Haaretz comments: "Even after the fence is completed, there still will be problematic settlers who will exhaust every legal and illegal mean in their struggle against the evacuation. There also will be complete settlements that will make life difficult for those who have come to evacuate them. An early evacuation-compensation plan does not relate to these people, but rather to the silent majority of settlers, thousands of Israeli citizens, who will want to build new lives inside the Green Line, and who may even be wise enough not to settle in Ariel or Immanuel - both currently included within the settlement blocs - on the assumption that the agreed-upon international border may not include them. Efforts should be made to limit the extent of suffering of those prepared to cooperate with the evacuation plan, and to that end, it is necessary to set up an active evacuation-compensation mechanism that will begin working immediately... There is no reason to repeat the mistakes of the previous evacuation."

Yediot Aharonot, in its second editorial, suggests that settler leaders will have to get used to far less hospitable treatment from the current government than they have received from previous governments over the past 30 years.

The Jerusalem Post writes: "The choice before Russia and China is unmistakable: Will they join the world in an attempt to peacefully prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, or will the US and Europe be forced to move ahead without them? Though Europeans tend to bristle at suggestions that it might be necessary to take the sanctions campaign outside the UN, or that military force might be necessary, we can only hope that - behind closed doors - Europe and the US are together presenting these options to Russia and China as the only alternatives to effective UN action... The Iranian threat is the greatest challenge to world peace since the end of the Cold War and, before that, the rise of fascism in Europe and East Asia. There are many ways the much-stronger West can defeat this unpopular and belligerent dictatorship. There is only one way we can lose: by failing to lift a finger - diplomatic, economic or military - in our collective self-defense."

Yediot Aharonot commends the conduct of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, whom the editors laud as "the Dutch boy with his finger in the dam of corruption," but urge him to be sure of himself in taking on Civil Service Commissioner Shmuel Hollander.

Hatzofeh discusses the recent annual report of the IDF Ombudsman and says that, "This report necessitates a thorough house-cleaning in the IDF." The editors note that 60% of the over 6,000 complaints were deemed to be justified and suggest that, "The uprooting of Gush Katif by IDF soldiers has affected the behavior of the military."

Yediot Aharonot, in its third editorial, notes that the soldier who refused to shake IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's hand at the Independence Day award ceremony for outstanding soldiers recently said, in a Yediot Aharonot interview, "I am the emissary of the Holy One, Blessed be He, the emissary of the Divine Presence," and wonders how he was ever issued a weapon. The editors urge the IDF to refer him to a mental health officer.