 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||
Monday, February 4, 2008
The Jerusalem Post declares that survival is now the name of the political game. With opinion polls underlining the firm public sense that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should have tendered his resignation over his mishandling of the Second Lebanon War, Ehud Barak's decision to stay put, allied with Tzipi Livni's silence in the face of the final Winograd Report, underlines the corrosive spread of the new, devalued political norms. Dangerously, these declining norms are in turn exacerbating the political listlessness and alienation that have overwhelmed the Israeli public.
Yediot Aharonot characterizes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as a chronic procrastinator, both in action and in comprehension, who waited until the last moment to decide to remain in the Government. The editors doubt if he could have decided otherwise. Now, says the paper, "The time has come for him decide where he is going."
Ma'ariv warns that, "We are being fooled…Our presence in Gaza, so they told us, prevents Kassam [fire]. Then they told us: Evacuation will prevent the firing. And now they're telling us – only invasion will prevent Kassams."
Makor Rishon-Hatzofeh refers to Defense Minister Ehud Barak's political adversaries' claim that the Labor Party leader changed his mind about leaving the coalition due to his desire to "continue in his position as Defense Minister in the failing Olmert Government."
[Nahum Barnea and Kobi Niv wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot and Ma'ariv, respectively. Haaretz was unavailable today]
