Axes of evil

As Israeli papers were hitting newsstands Monday morning, halfway across the planet reporters and editors at the Boston Globe were celebrating the Oscar victory for “Spotlight,” which tells of the paper’s courageous effort to expose abuse within the Catholic Church and represents nearly unparalleled recognition of the powers of journalism for good.

A gander at the front pages of Israel’s two most popular papers, though – featuring a still photo from a gruesome video of an ax attack the family of the victim, Tzvika Cohen, specifically requested not be disseminated – serves as a strong reminder of how easily journalists can abuse those powers.

A day after some websites chose to publish the grisly video, Israel Hayom splashes the picture across its front page and includes more stills from the Ma’ale Adumim axing on pages two and three, though it and Yedioth Ahronoth both blur out the victim’s body. (Haaretz does away with the still altogether. The Times of Israel did publish a still photo, with Cohen’s face blurred.)

The headline “Boundless cruelty” refers to the Friday attack, but could just as easily be used to describe certain corners of the Israeli media’s blatant disregard for the family’s wish that pictures of Tzvika Cohen being bludgeoned not be disseminated.

“Tzvika’s youngest son, 8, saw the film and he’s been seriously traumatized since,” Cohen’s brother tells Israel Hayom. “The people who published this video have no heart. Today every kid walks around with a smartphone and anyone who sees the video suffers from it.”

But while social media Sunday was rife with debate over the merits of showing the video in the latest iteration of a question that has vexed journalists for decades, the media misses the opportunity to delve deeply into the issue, instead focusing coverage on the news that the attacker was caught after his family turned him in, and other details about how he got to the mall on Friday to carry out the assault.

Yedioth reports that the attacker being caught was a direct result of the army’s oft-criticized policy of putting pressure of a town or village to have neighbors and relatives squeeze out the suspect.

“The uncle turned in his nephew in the wake of a large amount of pressure exacted by security forces on the village since the attack, pressure that included onerous checks on cars, putting up checkpoints, arrests and restrictions on business operating, and yes, the fear their house would be torn down,” the paper reports, citing police sources.

The way in which the attacker was caught isn’t the only unique thing, though.

Israel Hayom’s Dan Margalit writes that the Ma’ale Adumim attack is different from the flurry of knifings over the last months in that the assailant actually knew his victim and the two had spent time drinking coffee together at the mall where they both worked, a development Margalit hopes is a one-off.

“There’s a certain difference between killing an anonymous enemy outside a war situation – something bad in its own right – and a terrible crime like this carried out against a man with a name and address known to the ax-wielder. Not that I have an iota of justification for terrorists who kill someone in a city square, but the outburst of Abu Hamad against Cohen shows that if we aren’t talking about a unique incident since the start of this strange intifada, we have crossed into a new level of intensified brutalization,” he writes.

Haaretz also gives no justification for crimes like this, but it does air the Palestinians’ grievances, in this case in a front-page story about settlers taking over 600 dunams (about 150 acres) of private Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley.

The report, which attempts to navigate the byzantine laws, regulations and military orders regarding Israelis and Palestinians in the West bank in the last 40 years, details how settlers are farming more areas near the border with Jordan declared off limits to the Palestinians, with Israeli authorities supposedly none the wiser.

“Until Haaretz contacted them, neither the army nor the Civil Administration was aware of the new land grabs, and it is not clear what they plan to do about it,” the paper reports.

Even if they knew what to do about it, taking action is a whole other problem, as shown by the delay in setting up cameras around the Temple Mount, which is intended to head off tensions over the holy site. The paper reports that at long last Jordanian workers are set to be dispatched to Jerusalem to set up the surveillance equipment, as stipulated in a deal reached several months ago. As for who will be able to watch the broadcasts, disputes apparently still remain.

“[Jordanian Minister of Religious Trusts Hail Daoud] said that the cameras will broadcast simultaneously to Jordanian and Israeli control rooms. Transmissions will be live, 24 hours a day. The Jordanian minister said that to facilitate this a computerized communications network would be set up to link the Temple Mount to the Ministry of Religious Trusts in Amman,” the paper reports. “Daoud added that the transmissions would be streamed online so that people anywhere in the world interested in what’s happening on the Temple Mount can tune in at any time. This, however, was denied by Israeli officials, who said that there would be no such online streaming at this stage.”

Watching surveillance video of a place you are not at is a lot like closely watching an election you can’t vote in, which Israeli papers do with relish Monday morning.

With Super Tuesday coming up fast, both tabloids preview the presidential primary races slated to take place in 12 states.
In Israel Hayom, Boaz Bismuth predicts a big win for Hillary Clinton, and while he notes a number of missteps by GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, he indicates the race is his for the taking.

“The Republican party understands that tomorrow could be their last chance to stop Trump. [Ted] Cruz needs to win in Texas. From Cruz’s view, if Trump beats him on his home turf, the results could be catastrophic,” he writes from Austin. “Since arriving here I’ve met a lot of people who say they will vote Trump.”

In Yedioth, Orly Azoulay reports as well that Clinton is expected to win big, and leaves little room for the possibility of Sanders to play spoiler.

“Sanders is expected to win in two states, Vermont (his home state) and Massachusetts (the neighboring state) – and may even surprise by winning in Minnesota and Colorado,” she writes. “Even if he manages to garner a handful of wins tomorrow night, his chances of stopping his opponent are awfully slim.”