Bombshells and ‘special methods’

Tuesday is a day of exposés in the Hebrew press, with torture and warfare making headlines alongside legal disputes over West Bank settlements.

Yedioth Ahronoth drops a bombshell as it publishes what it says are segments of transcripts from the security cabinet’s deliberations during Operation Protective Edge during the 2014 conflict in the Gaza Strip. The damning report, the paper says, makes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, and IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi look bad.

The exposé comes not long before the final state comptroller’s report on the conflict is expected to be published, and “it shows what happened in the moments of truth of decision making: the unpreparedness of the IDF for the threat of the tunnels, the depth of the disconnect between members of the cabinet and the events in the field — and the magnitude of the fear that broke out in those fateful days among those holding the wheel.”

The transcripts leaked to Yedioth Ahronoth exhibit the infighting among the cabinet ministers about whether to invade the Gaza Strip or not, and the uncertainty over how to address the threat posed by Hamas’s terror tunnels. The paper highlights the infighting between Ya’alon and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, and the assessment by Kochavi that Hamas isn’t looking for a fight, and IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz’s opposition to a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, contrary to the prime minister. Ultimately, Israel invaded.

The other papers merely run curtain-raiser pieces on the Knesset committee getting set to approve the State Comptroller report’s publication.

For Haaretz, the main story in the day’s news is the High Court of Justice freezing the deal reached with residents of the West Bank outpost of Amona to move out of their illegally built homes.

The paper breaks it down for its readers: “Until further notice the state can’t advance the construction of new buildings for the people evacuated from the outpost.” The residents have until February 8 to pack up and move out of their homes, which the High Court of Justice ruled were illegally built on private Palestinian land and must be removed.

The paper’s exposé on Israeli interrogators’ torture methods doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. Haaretz reports on the “special methods” used by interrogators. Victims, the paper says, describe the interrogators’ methods: screaming in their ear, beatings and being forced into painful positions for long periods of time. Interrogators who spoke to the paper say that the methods they use are selected so as not to leave marks or lasting damage, but to be effective enough to break the spirit of the interrogated.

It should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that the main story in Israel Hayom is President Donald Trump’s statements to the paper that Israel and the US “have shared values.” Wow! Almost as big of a bombshell as Yedioth Ahronoth’s exposé. As if every single president since Harry S. Truman hasn’t expressed virtually the same sentiment, if not the exact same words, about the United States’s relationship with Israel. I half expect the paper to quote the president saying that none of his predecessors has expressed that sentiment before.

Trump snipes at his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, in a statement given to the newspaper, saying that he plans to rehabilitate the relationship between Israel and the United States and return them to how close they were in days of yore. Ignore the fact, the paper seems to say, that Obama signed the largest military aid package in US history.

The paper quotes a senior source close to President Trump — it couldn’t possibly be a press secretary who told the same thing to the media — that the Trump administration is committed to moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but will do so in a responsible and organized manner. The source adds that the transfer is top priority for the president, “even if it doesn’t happen tomorrow.”

Haaretz’s editorial lays into Netanyahu in its editorial, saying the Israeli government didn’t bother giving Trump a grace period before launching provocative settlement construction. “Why did Netanyahu bother donning a mask of courtesy about not surprising Trump” with the green light for settlement construction, “as if he were Barack Obama?” the paper asks.

“With Trump behind him and a silent opposition, the prime minister is leading Israel to a binational state, which will be either not Jewish or not democratic,” the paper warns.