Israel-Palestine|Voices on the conflict

Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN September 22, 2023. / Funeral of a fallen Israeli soldier, Jerusalem October 10, 2023. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer. AP Photo/Francisco Seco. 

 

Israel-Palestine|Voices on the conflict 

Leading writers in Israel: "Netanyahu bears responsibility" 

 

Several Israeli leadership pages hold Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the Hamas attacks in different ways.  

 

Liberal Haaretz writes that Netanyahu has deliberately led the country into danger through his "annexation and displacement policy" and by ignoring the existence and rights of the Palestinians.  

 

The failure of the intelligence service does not absolve him of overall responsibility, the unsigned editorial says - "the price has been paid by the victims of the invasion".  

 

The center-left newspaper Ynet News devotes its entire editorial to repeating the same message in different terms: Leave.  

 

According to the writer Sever Plocker, the attacks are a result of the government's "perverse priorities" where a "harmful and unnecessary" legal reform has been allowed to come before safety. 

 

"The war must not become Netanyahu's political shield," he writes - normally external conflicts strengthen support for the incumbent government.  

 

The center-right newspaper Jerusalem Post also places the blame on Netanyahu: Stewart Weiss writes that his decision on the prisoner exchange of the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2011 showed Hamas that it pays to take hostages.  

 

Citing the Torah, he advocates forceful retaliation against "Gaza's terrorists and their equally vicious compatriots" with "indiscriminate destruction of their cities and communities." AP  

 

Hamas attack shatters bin Salman's economic vision  

 

Hamas's attack on Israel appears to have put an end to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to make the country the core of an economically booming region. That's what Bloomberg writes.  

 

The Crown Prize, which is the country's de facto leader, has in its economic vision for 2030 tried to bridge religious and ideological contradictions to prioritize economic progress. From negotiating with its own arch-enemy Iran to approaching Israel. 

 

But after Hamas's attack and Israel's response, the attempts were crushed and bin Salman backed away from the regime's traditional official stance on the conflict: "Standing behind Palestine in its aspirations".