News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Both the Ma'ariv and Yediot Aharonot Hebrew newspapers have editorially criticized Defense Minister Ehud Barak as a failed opportunist. While running for the leadership of the Labor party, he promised he would pull Labor out of the coalition following publication of the Winograd Committee report on the Second Lebanon War, Ma'ariv reminded it readers.

Yediot Aharonot, which said elections are around the corner, charged that Defense Minister Barak is remaining in the government in order to bolster his image with an all-out offensive against Hamas. 

In other editorials, Ma'ariv condemned Shas party activists for burning Christian missionaries' copies of the New Testament in Or Yehuda Wednesday. Yediot Aharonot stated that Egypt wants a truce fire between Israel and Hamas because its own government feels threatened that an Israeli offensive against Hamas would cause an influx of Gaza Arabs into Egypt.