ISRAEL

ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem, May 16: Teachers must feel like proverbial footballs these days, kicked by two opposing teams. The present dispute over their fate is one of the more cynical we have known, with both sides engaging unabashedly in brinkmanship maneuvers. Caught helplessly in the middle, the teachers are the victims, along with students and their families.
At its core is the unequivocal union rejection of the Dovrat Commission's blueprint for reforming our educational system via a long school day and a five-day school week, more authority for principals and scrapping the junior high schools. Dovrat also promises to improve the pay and status of deserving teachers by emphasizing merit rather than tenure.
Knee-jerk reaction
The unions' knee-jerk reaction wasn't unlike that of the port workers who aggressively combated the Treasury's privatization program, and managed to elicit considerable financial perks while postponing actual implementation of the scheme.
The mud slinging between a reform-minded ministry and a reform-resisting union may have been inevitable, as obvious as the gaping distance between promising blueprints and a genuinely improved educational reality.
BAHRAIN
Bahrain Tribune, Manama, May 18: Newsweek's retraction of its story that U.S. investigators found evidence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Holy Quran has put a big question mark on the credibility (if any) of media giants. Responsibility, honesty and fairplay are necessary pillars for sensible journalism. If any of these elements is missing in the profession, the results may be disastrous -- for the public and the country.
Although it would be premature to conclude that Newsweek has lost all its dependability, it would not be unwise to demand that the publication do more to repair damage caused by the article.
Condoleezza Rice said "it has also done a lot of harm to America's efforts" to demonstrate tolerance and breed goodwill in the Muslim world.
Torture skills
Need one remind her of the torture skills some Bay soldiers brazenly demonstrated in the past? The world would never have known, if the media had not exposed the systematic torture and humiliation faced by Bay detainees.
GREECE
Kathimerini, Athens, May 18: The Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC) should be distinguished as a model to be imitated by state-run but also private enterprises for its absolute success in organizing last year's Olympics. The Games were staged without any hiccups despite the extremely demanding nature of the project -- especially for a country of Greece's size -- and the committee still succeeded in making a 7-million-euro overall profit.
Certain commentators have pointed out that the profit announced by ATHOC is "provocatively" insignificant when compared to the total cost of organizing the Games -- just under 9 billion euros, nearly double the original budget.
Prejudiced comparison
But such a comparison is prejudiced and completely unfair. The committee undertook the organization of the Games on the basis of a specific budget and had no involvement whatsoever in the construction of costly sports venues and other infrastructure works.