Bracing for boycotts, bemoaning bloodshed

With last week’s FIFA drama finally behind us and no immediate diplomatic crises on the horizon, the Hebrew press has no central theme to focus on, and the leading stories in the country’s big papers Tuesday are scattered along a wide range of topics.

“Why have you done this to mom?” screams out Yedioth Ahronoth‘s main headline, a young girl’s cry after the tragic murder of her mother in Lod. According to Yedioth, a 50-year-old assailant snuck into the home of his former partner, Victoria Steingerbart, 38, and proceeded to stab her as well as her new partner, Moris Shamelashvili, to death. Police later found Steingerbart’s ex-husband holding a blood-drenched knife and attempting to cut himself. An initial investigation uncovered that Steingerbart had filed a domestic-violence related complaint against her ex-partner in 2001, following which the man was sentenced to three months of community service. No further complaints were ever filed by the woman.

Israel Hayom chooses to lead with a thinly veiled criticism of US President Barack Obama, who during an interview with Channel 2 set to be broadcast later today reiterated that the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons was for world powers to reach an agreement with Tehran rather than to strike the Islamic Republic’s atomic facilities.

“Obama is determined to reach a bad deal,” the daily’s headline reads, quoting an unnamed senior official in Jerusalem. The official, according to Israel Hayom, added that at this point it would seem nothing will stand in the way of a nuclear agreement being signed.

In Haaretz, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan is quoted saying that the army of Syrian leader Bashar Assad has “effectively ceased to exist.” Writers Amos Harel and Gili Cohen cite the fall of a major regime stronghold in northern Syria as support for the IDF official’s assessment. However, Golan notes that due to the turmoil across the northern border, Israel’s situation is “perhaps at its best ever… from a strategic point of view.” Haaretz notes that Israeli intelligence have recorded “growing pressure” within the ranks of Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which is assisting Assad’s crumbling regime to combat the various rebel factions in the country. The Shiite organization, according to Israeli officials, is struggling greatly to recruit new members willing to fight in Syria.

Yedioth highlights Israeli fears of new boycotts and sanctions over the country’s West Bank and Gaza Strip policies, and reports that during a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin, the heads of several top universities warned that international measures against the nation’s academic institutions would result in a severe “economic and scientific disaster.” The university leaders stressed that in order to avert such a gloomy scenario, the prevention of international boycotts must become Israel’s top priority. Rivlin concurred with the senior academics, but noted that the crisis may still be stopped. “We are at the 90th minute, but it is still possible to block the snowball [rolling downhill],” Rivlin is quoted by Yedioth as saying.

Playing on that same theme, Israel Hayom reports that Science, Technology and Space Minister Danny Danon has set up a meeting for next week with the heads of the country’s leading universities as well, in an attempt to come up with ways to deal with possible boycotts. The paper reports that Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev has also indicated she would assemble a special task force to prevent sanctions against academic and cultural institutions. “A group of pro-Palestinians want to promote one thing – a hatred of the other – and a boycott of anything Israel represents,” Regev said, according to Israel Hayom. [Their] campaign is based on false propaganda against Israel, against its economy and against the people of culture and the wonderful artists who create here as well as overseas.”

Yedioth reports on the country’s official beauty contest final which is set to take place tonight at 9 p.m. Israel time, with a picture of the top four contestants spread out on the paper’s back page. Unsurprisingly, Yedioth does not debate the merit of such a strange practice involving the ranking of women’s bodies, but instead notes that over half a million viewers are expected to watch the event, which will be broadcast live on the Ynet news site. The paper adds that the winner of the beauty pageant will receive a car – a Mini Chevrolet Spark – aside, of course, from the international fame and fortune which will come with the title.