A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist

The Hebrew-language media does not take too lightly any challenges that can be perceived as undermining the delicate status quo in the Jewish state — as evident in the case of Knesset lawmaker Zouheir Bahloul, who in a bid to distinguish between Palestinians who attempt to stab Israeli soldiers and those who deliberately target civilians, asserted that attackers of the first sort should technically not be labeled as terrorists.

The unanimous attitude regarding Bahloul expressed both in Yedioth Ahronoth and in Israel Hayom, usually eager to take the opposing sides of any political debate, is atypical, but underscores the blanket dismissal of Bahloul’s suggestion (which the lawmaker claims he uttered on a purely philosophical level) that an attack on civilians and in attack on soldiers may not necessarily be equal from an ethical standpoint.

Israel Hayom, for example, does not even attempt to mask its dismay with the already widely criticized remarks by Zionist Union MK Bahloul, an Arab Israeli former sports broadcaster and journalist, who made the comments Thursday in reference to the stabbing attack last month in which a soldier shot a disarmed Palestinian assailant in the head.

“Is this how a Zionist Union MK speaks?” reads the headline of the paper, which, it should be noted, is considered to be affiliated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party. Israel Hayom’s editors choose to present Netanyahu’s own condemnation of the opposition lawmaker’s “embarrassing” comments, and highlight the fact that even Bahloul’s party members chose to distance themselves from him in response to the controversial statement.

Staying on the topic of the contentious definition of who is and who is not a terrorist, Israel Hayom contributor Dan Margalit questions in an op-ed whether it is suitable for a member of the current incarnation of former prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s party to even voice such quandaries.

“It is possible that the sportscaster Bahloul… is not, to say the least, sufficiently smart,” Margalit writes in an unmistakably disappointed tone. “His determination to shy away from a natural comment, that a Palestinian who charges at an IDF soldier with a knife is a terrorist, attests to the fact that he does not understand the term politically correct.”

Yedioth Ahronoth, while devoting less attention to the Bahloul fiasco, nevertheless shows more than a hint of criticism over the lawmaker’s comments as well, tilting his remarks as “infuriating,” and as an “own goal.” An unflattering photo of Bahloul alongside its report on the matter seems as well to leave little room for deliberation over the paper’s view concerning the Zionist Union MK’s statements.

Yedioth continues its coverage of the IDF soldier who shot an incapacitated Palestinian stabber in Hebron, a case that made international headlines and sparked a national debate after footage of the incident emerged. The soldier under investigation, whose name has been withheld by a gag order, was filmed shooting 21-year-old Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head on March 24, minutes after Sharif and another assailant stabbed and moderately wounded a soldier in Tel Rumeida, an Israeli enclave of Hebron. The two assailants were shot — one was killed, while Sharif was wounded — by an army officer during the course of their attack.

The Jaffa military court on Thursday extended by eight days the remand of the soldier in question. Unlike in Bahloul’s case, when it comes to the Hebron shooting, Yedioth is strictly non-partisan, expressing no indication of what the daily’s editors believe concerning the soldier.

Haaretz, curiously, refrains from discussing Bahloul at all in its leading pages, and none of its contributors or opinion writers touch on the subject either. Instead, Haaretz reports that Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu traded secret draft papers discussing a possible agreement between the two politicians’ parties to join in a unified coalition. The agreement was not finalized, according to Haaretz, due to some major sticking points, which included issues concerning Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, and Herzog’s demand that right-wing Jewish Home party be dismissed from the government. The proposed deal was halted following a corruption probe into Herzog’s alleged mishandling of party funds during the 2013 primaries, Haaretz reports.

Back in Yedioth, the paper focuses — maybe a little too much — on falling real estate star Inbal Or, who is facing charges of fraud and deliberate mismanagement of assets she had sold to eager Israeli apartment-seekers. But while one may have expected the crux of the reports on Or to deal with the accusations against her, the paper chooses to discuss at great length the expensive jewelry adorning the famous agent’s body. No less than five close up photos of Or are featured in the paper, highlighting her high-priced rings, earrings and necklaces. As if that weren’t enough, the daily devotes another separate article to Or’s costly Land Rover jeep, which attorneys representing some of her unhappy clients have requested be temporarily confiscated until she repay her alleged debts.