Haaretz - http://www.haaretzdaily.com
Ma'ariv - http://www.maariv.co.il
Yediot Aharonot - http://www.ynetnews.com
Globes - http://www.globes.co.il
Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com
Hazofeh - http://www.hazofe.co.il

Haaretz comments: "The security chaos in the territories might seem to support the arguments of those Israelis who say there is no partner on the Palestinian side. However, reasonable living conditions in Gaza and the West Bank are an Israeli interest. Increased suffering and anarchy among the Palestinians will not help anyone - and in the end, they are liable to lead to an outbreak of violence that would also be aimed at Israel. The government must promptly find ways of transferring the tax money that it collects on the PA's behalf to its original destination. One such method, which was just discovered, is to use the money directly for the purchase of medicines for Gaza hospitals or the payment of salaries to PA workers. There are also certainly other, similar methods. And, after all, this is not an Israeli donation to the Palestinians, but money that belongs to them."

The Jerusalem Post writes: "Colon cancer sufferers on a hunger strike outside the Knesset yesterday rejected billionaire Sami Ofer's largesse and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's proposal to reconvene the committee that decided not to include in the state's 'health basket' medications prescribed to the protesters... Most of Israel's 120,000 cancer sufferers or recovering patients, and the 23,500 new cancer patients diagnosed each year, paid their health taxes during the entire course of their working lives. The presupposed contract between them and the state was that in the event of illness, their needs would be attended to. Though no insurance system covers all drugs on the market, coverage of critical life-sustaining drugs is the essence of the insurance concept... The colon cancer patients may be the most vocal, but they represent thousands of people quietly suffering from the lack of a panoply of critical drugs that our health insurance system, if it is to be worthy of the name, should pay for. The system should be changed so that life-giving drugs and treatments receive greater priority as a matter of course."

Hatzofeh asserts that only a wide-ranging IDF ground action could halt the continuing Kassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, but suggests that the government is reluctant to order such a move because it would be "an admission of failure of the idea of disengagement" and "an admission of failure of the idiotic and wicked action of the destruction of Gush Katif."

Yediot Aharonot says that, "In the months that have passed since the Palestinian parliamentary elections, there has been a steady weakening of [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's] Abu Mazen's grip on the reins of power and Hamas has established itself as the only legitimate administration."  The editors decry Abu Mazen's ineffectualness despite the broad powers of the office he inherited from the late Yasser Arafat.  The paper ventures that, "Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was right when she said, approximately two months ago, that Abu Mazen had become an irrelevant political figure," and avers that, "Not only did yesterday's expedited meeting in Sharm not change this assessment, it strengthened it."