From Today's Israeli Press
NO CLARITY
WISHFUL THINKING: Nahum Barnea asserts in Yedioth Ahronoth that Israel has a vision for Syria, but it is not viable.
THE COLD WAR: Yoav Limor claims in Israel Hayom that the IDF is girding for a long winter in Syria and Lebanon.
THE AIR FORCE WILL NOT DEFEAT THE HOUTHIS: Tamir Hayman argues in N12 that Israel must declare war on the group and resort to targeted assassinations, in addition to direct action against Iran.
THE OTHER SINWAR: Nadav Eyal stresses in Yedioth Ahronoth that Mohammed Sinwar is conducting a power struggle on the backs of the hostages and Gazans.
EMERGING DEAL, ACHILLES' HEEL: Amos Harel proclaims in Haaretz that the U.S. hopes Netanyahu will have a hard time backing out after the first round of the Gaza deal.
KAN NOT THE ENEMY: Yaakov Katz contends in The Jerusalem Post that government ministers are acting against Israel's democratic character.
From Today's Arabic Press
THE REGION'S LINCHPIN
SUDDEN FALL: Syria's fall into the hands of radical Islamist rebels who have long been on international terrorist lists should serve as a wakeup call to all Arab countries, and the latter must work together to save the region from the false touters of democracy who have left the country in need of a miracle to preserve it as a united, stable Arab nation, asserts Egyptian commentator Mahmoud Musallam in Friday's authoritative Cairo daily al-Ahram. In particular, Arab states with major armies must study what happened to thwart attempts to replicate the Syrian experience in their countries.
FOCUS ON GAZA: While many are justifiably elated by the tyrannical Assad regime's fall, some overlook the fact that this has happened in the absence of a unifying national vision and political will, turning the country into a testing ground for U.S./Israeli efforts to reshape the Middle East, maintains Palestinian commentator Osama Abu-Ersheid on Friday's Qatari-owned, London-based, pan-Arab news portal www.alaraby.co.uk. Meanwhile, Gaza stands alone as a linchpin, bearing the burden of thwarting these efforts in a region in which the balances have been skewed in Israel's favor after the weakening of the Iranian axis.
NEXT….: Under pressure from the U.S. and regional developments in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, the Iraqi government seems set to dissolve the pro-Iran Shiite Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) either by its decision or through a fatwa from the supreme Shiite religious authority in Najaf, claims Iraqi commentator Samir Dawood Hannoush on Friday's Emirates'-owned pan-Arab-news portal al-Arab. This will be a positive development, ending the resistance/state binary which has cost Iraq so much and been one of Iran's main means of controlling Iraqi political and economic life.
PROVOCATIVE REMARKS: While it tries to take advantage of developments in Syria and Lebanon to separate the resistance axis' fronts, the U.S. has shifted its attention to Iraq and Yemen as its next targets, claims Jordanian commentator Hazem 'Ayyad in Friday's Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Amman daily al-Sabeel. But, in its rush to pressure the Iraqi government to disband the pro-Iran militias, it is failing to take notice of the double threat to its interests from Turkey and Iran that is emerging in Syria and in Iraqi Kurdistan, complicating its efforts to organize its scattered regional cards.
THE DEATH GAME: The Haaretz report regarding Israeli atrocities in the Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip reveals nothing new to the Palestinians who have been on the receiving end of much worse Israeli brutality for a long time, claims Palestinian commentator Akram 'Atallah in Friday's leading Palestinian daily al-Ayyam. But what is truly astonishing is the Israeli public which did not bat an eye in response, continuing to believe that its army is the world's most moral, and failing to see that it has lost its moral capital, which will pave the way to its material collapse.