From Today's Israeli Press
NOT-SO-FRIENDLY FRIENDS
PREPARE FOR THE BIG WAR: Ari Shavit asserts in Yedioth Ahronoth that Israel is facing a decade of to-be-or-not-to-be.
SNEAKY: Amnon Lord claims in Israel Hayom that Netanyahu was once again greater than the sum of all his opponents' efforts.
NASRALLAH TARGETS CIVILIANS: Hagai Segal argues in Makor Rishon that brave or desperate residents returning to their homes in the North have discovered just how naïve they were.
BETWEEN POTSDAM AND RAFAH: Ronit Levin-Shnur and Dafna Yoel stress in Maariv that WWII serves as a source of inspiration for Netanyahu in formulating his attitude towards the Palestinians.
BEAUTIFUL SUFFERING: Yossi Klein proclaims in Haaretz that Israel is celebrating the return of its beloved, bloody conception.
WELL, THAT WAS NICE: Yaakov Katz contends in The Jerusalem Post that Netanyahu must understand his speech is not enough to fix the country.
From Today's Arabic Press
BUT AN HOUR'S PATIENCE
LIES AND INCITEMENT: Even if Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the Gaza war, its plan in the post-war phase will be to use the Strip's reconstruction and humanitarian aid needs as a means of securing the resistance's surrender, and to intensify its "lawn-mowing" operations and its annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank to liquidate the Palestinian national project, maintains Palestinian commentator Mohammad Yaghi in Friday's leading Palestinian daily al-Ayyam. That being so, the Palestinians should not stop the war now and must continue fighting until they secure the end of the occupation.
GENOCIDE AND PR LIES: Not wanting his visit to the U.S. and his speech to Congress to affect the negotiations with Hamas by appearing too eager to reach a deal or soften his position, Netanyahu did not give any indications regarding his intentions to prolong the war on Gaza or ease the conflict, maintains Lebanese commentator Yahiya Dabouq in Friday's left-leaning pro-Hezbollah Beirut daily al-Akhbar. It therefore seems that the intensity of the war will remain subject to security and political developments and to assessments of emerging threats, especially from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and other resistance axis fronts.
WESTERN IMPERIALISM'S SPEARHEAD: Setting aside any sense of inadequacy in his speech to Congress, Netanyahu had the audacity to place Israel on par with the U.S. as an influential partner, perhaps even a more important one, reminding all U.S. leaders that the genocidal war he is waging in Palestine is in line with Western imperialism's foundational ideology and practice, notes Suleiman Abu-Ersheid on Friday's PCI-(Palestinian citizens of Israel) focused news portal www.arab48.com. And the repeated standing ovations he received are a reminder of the Zionist lobby's deep control over the levers of power in various U.S. institutions and parties.
ON THE VERGE OF A YEMENI RESPONSE: The fact that the U.S. sent a message to Yemen urging it not to respond to the Israeli airstrike on Hodeida and consider the matter settled indicates that the Americans and Israelis do not understand who they are up against in Yemen, proclaims Friday's editorial in the pro-Damascus Lebanese daily al-Bina. All the indications are that we are now on the verge of a major Yemeni response, similar in nature to the Iranian attack on Israel in April, and most likely targeting Haifa because of its similarity to Hodeida.
RETURN TO SUDAN: Iran is playing a more significant, but unnoticed, role in Sudan and its conflict after the Khartoum government restored relations with Tehran which has been supplying the Sudanese army with drones that it badly needs in its battles with Rapid Support Forces (RSF), claims Egyptian commentator Huda Ra'uf on Friday's pan-Arab www.independentarabia.com. The conflict in Sudan is of strategic and geopolitical significance to Tehran which seeks to extend its influence in African conflict zones and establish a presence in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.