The Hebrew daily Ma'ariv lamented in an editorial Sunday that despite the incriminating investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a "screen of apathy…has fallen on the entire country, from Dan to Eilat, [and] separates between the man in the street and the politician in the Knesset." It said that the "time has come to rise from the recliner and to take to the streets.”
An editorial in Yediot Aharonot called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to shake Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's hand during their appearance at the launching of the Mediterranean Union (MU) in Paris. "Rise, honored President, do not hide and do not look down to your shoes when he is near by," wrote editorial writer Smadar Perry.