1. CHIEF-OF-STAFF: POLICE MUST EVACUATE OUTPOST RESIDENTS.
At meeting with recruits at induction center, Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi says that, "As much as possible, police should be in the first line opposite citizens, with the IDF providing external security."
2. Psychiatrist who examined haredi mother retracts his opinion.
LITZMAN ORDERS COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY INTO CONDUCT OF HADASSAH HOSPITAL IN CASE OF MOTHER SUSPECTED OF STARVING [HER SON].
3. HEALTH MINISTRY: 700 ISRAELIS INFECTED BY SWINE FLU EVERY WEEK.
Ministry expects increase in infection rate ahead of winter. According to estimates, number of those infected to reach 700,000 but most will only be mildly affected.
MA'ARIV
1. $1 = NIS 3.77.
THE GREAT DROP.
Within two weeks, dollar has lost more than 5% of its value. Economic assessment: Declines will continue – and will rock mortgages, dollar deposits and real estate sector.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. "Finger print bank law – danger to the security of the state."
SCIENTISTS' LETTER.
On eve of Knesset vote on Minister Meir Shetrit's bill to require every citizen to deliver finger print and facial scan: 14 professors from among Israel's senior scientists including Israel Prize laureates and information security experts, signed petition calling for non-support of "dangerous law."
YISRAEL HAYOM
1. POLICE TO RECOMMEND: INDICTMENT AGAINST LIBERMAN – FOR BRIBERY TOO.
Investigators and Director of Investigations' Branch hesitated but concluded: Possible to secure conviction on bribery as well. This is in addition to charges of laundering tens of millions of shekels, fraud and obstruction of justice.
2. PSYCHIATRIST RETRACTS: MAYBE "STARVING MOTHER" IS DANGEROUS.
3. Embarrassment in the IDF:
IMPOSTORS EASILY ENTERED GAZA DIVISION BASES.
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Haaretz comments on the rising of tensions along Israel's northern border during the past two weeks: "The current government must learn from the mistakes of its predecessor and not be drawn into provocations in the north. However anger-inducing Nasrallah's remarks and provocations such as the mass march to Har Dov are, Israel has nothing to gain from another round of violence against Hezbollah. It is better to maintain the uneasy peace along the border, which is grounded in mutual deterrence, and not undermine it."
Yediot Aharonot maintains that the USA would be wise to adopt Israeli solutions in three fields in which Israel has proven itself: Health care, gasoline taxation/consumption and banking system supervision.
The Jerusalem Post writes: "Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer has just decided to keep our interest rates at their all-time low. Analysts, though, believe that this may be the last occasion on which he refrains from an increase. On the one hand, leading market indicators point to Israel's very tangible recovery from the global downturn - a recovery seemingly faster and more robust than elsewhere in the West. However, unemployment is headed toward the dreaded 10% mark and exports were sharply down in 2009's first half, a fact closely interrelated with reduced American purchasing power and an ongoing downward recessionary pull. This is bad news for Israel's export-reliant economy. The bottom line: Interest-rate hikes are only a matter of time. For now, Fischer needs to settle on an inflationary rate to which he can acquiesce provisionally and which will afford the economy breathing space to improve growth and create more jobs."
Ma'ariv notes that Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, "lived in profound awareness of being part of Jewish history. Aram and Assyria were no less a part of his consciousness than were Jordan and Iraq." On the eve of the Ninth of Av, the author professes that, "The inability…of high school pupils ... to remember trivia on Zionism and Judaism is the least of our problems. The real question is to what extent does the historic memory of the Jewish People live in our consciousness and fulfill us?"
Yisrael Hayom argues that there has been positive and efficient progress in the proposed Israel Lands Administration reform bill.
[Sever Plocker, Haim Navon and Dror Edar wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]
