From Today's Israeli Press
RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
INTERNAL DOCUMENT: Yoav Limor asserts in Israel Hayom that contrary to Israel's official position, Netanyahu's incoming Military Secretary is arguing that Gaza and its population should remain under IDF control after the war.
REMEMBER RON ARAD: Avi Kalo claims in Yedioth Ahronoth that Israel must act on the abductees before the window of opportunity closes.
LOFTY STANDARDS: Amnon Abramovitch argues in N12 that while the head of the IDF's Intelligence Directorate has held himself accountable and resigned, Smotrich, who famously asserted "Hamas is an asset", is not satisfied.
PALESTINIAN DISAGREEMENTS: Yoni Ben-Menachem stresses in ArabExpert that according to senior Fatah members, Hamas has already lost its ability to rule Gaza, as its rift with the PA widens.
FULL ACCOMPLICE: Zvi Bar'el proclaims in Haaretz that Gantz must stop propping up Netanyahu's coalition and Israel's aimless war in Gaza.
PAN-PALESTINIAN PLAN: Joel Roskin contends in The Jerusalem Post that an alternative to a two-state solution will turn the tables of the current war.
From Today's Arabic Press
PROLONGING SEMI-WARS
BIDEN TURNS HIS BACK: Israel's share of the U.S. Congress' military aid package to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan will ensure that Netanyahu will use this to proceed with his Rafah campaign, if only to prolong the war on Gaza, maintains Editor-in-Chief Nasser Qandil in Thursday's pro-Damascus Lebanese al-Bina. Since no part of the aid package will ensure victory in the conflicts raging in the relevant arenas, it seems that the U.S. deep state has opted for prolonging a state of semi warfare as its safest option.
MORE GENOCIDE AND STARVATION: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are suffering tremendously, but Israel is also paying a hefty price against the background of radical shifts in the world's understanding of the Palestinian issue and growing support for the Palestinians and their cause, notes Palestinian commentator Talal 'Awkal in Thursday's leading Palestinian daily al-Ayyam. The growing student protests in the U.S. are one manifestation of this, despite the Biden administration's failure to recognize the significance of this potentially momentous development.
UNIVERSITY ARRESTS: The protests staged by students in a number of American universities calling for an end to investment in companies that support Israel's war machine expose the complex and globalized relations between university institutions, the business world, and investment in colonial warfare, claims Egyptian commentator Shadi Louis on Thursday's Lebanese news portal www.almodon.com. But Gaza also seems to have created a globalized united front in defiance of the globalized imperialist campaign to silence criticism.
TRANSFER OF POWER, LIBYAN STYLE: Foreign interventions in Libya's affairs have been motivated by economic interests, security concerns, and immigration and other issues, and have varied between direct military and intelligence forms and the use of proxies, notes Libyan commentator Jibril al-'Obeidi in the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat. Since none of these foreign parties has an interest in a united and stable Libya, the result has been a divided country in which "power transfer" only took place between nine UN envoys in ten years without yielding a viable solution.
IRAQ'S STRONG CARDS: The Turkish president's first visit to Iraq in 13 years came against the background of rising disaffection against the Turkish ruling party stemming from the pressing economic situation back home, notes Iraqi commentator Hussein Fawzi in Thursday's Iraqi ad-Dustour. Meanwhile, the Iraqi side holds strong pressure economic as well as security-related cards that it can employ in securing trade deals that are beneficial to both countries, especially in exchanging water from Turkey for trade and energy resources from Iraq.