Going nowhere fast

Israeli commuters and travelers found themselves waiting around on Thursday as air traffic was halted in Eilat, while the rest of the country dealt with a sudden bout of sick train engineers.

“Sunshine, beach, and some terror threats,” reads the article headline in Yedioth Ahronoth about the closing of Israel’s southernmost airport. The Eilat airport, which services domestic flights to the north of the country, was shut down by the IDF on Thursday night for two hours because of specific threats in the area. Despite the full-page spread, Yedioth doesn’t include a lot of information about the threats and most of the page is taken up by a large picture of people standing in line.

While passengers in Eilat were stranded due to terror threats, rail commuters across the country were delayed due to train drivers calling in sick. As Israel Hayom reports, the railway engineers are embroiled in a work dispute with the Israel Railways management about the number of hours they work. The employees claim that when they complained to management about working so many hours — without even a bathroom break — the administration responded by handing out urine-drainage bags for them to use.

Despite the cringe-worthy claims by the locomotive drivers, hours after the engineers called in sick, the Labor Court ordered the workers to return to their posts, pending a medical exam.

Delays aren’t limited to trains and planes. The front page of Haaretz points out the peace process is also possibly going nowhere. “Erekat to Kerry: [Settlement] building endangers the negotiations,” reads the above-the-fold headline. What upsets head Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is the recent announcement this week of more settlement building in the West Bank. Erekat sent a letter to the US secretary of state warning that this could wreck the current round of peace talks. In the memo, Erekat referred to the intended building as “Israel’s bad faith and lack of seriousness” regarding the negotiations.

Israel Hayom also reports on the Erekat letter and adds that the US also sees the settlement building as an issue. The paper quotes State Department Jen Psaki as saying, “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity and opposes any effort to legalize settlement outposts.”

The front page of Maariv tackles the issue of people moving, albeit in a surprising way. The paper reports that several Bedouin communities have been added to the National Priority Areas map, which is the government’s way of distributing resources to certain communities. The map made waves earlier this week when certain towns in Israel’s south were left off, although settlements in the West Bank were added. However, Maariv reports that Bedouin communities in the south have been added. The catch? They’re also on a map to be destroyed as part of the Prawer Plan, which aims to resettle Bedouin communities to recognized communities. Maariv points out that, on one hand, the government is trying to move Bedouins from these places and, on the other, to give them benefits and encourage them to stay there.

What are the odds?

Hoping to avoid the embarrassment of having yet-another candidate drop out to be the next Bank of Israel governor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid decided to play it safe this time: Instead of nominating one person, they sent four names to the Turkel Committee for vetting. Yedioth reports that Netanyahu is also expected to add a fifth candidate sometime in the next few days. Leading the list of four is Mario Blejer, an Argentinian economist who was the head of the Argentinian central bank and an adviser to the Bank of England. Whoever is chosen, Yedioth hopes that “maybe this time, it will all go smoothly.”

The next Bank of Israel governor might be the most pressing position to be filled, but that’s not stopping Labor politician Binyamin Ben-Eliezer from eyeing the presidency. Maariv reports that Ben-Eliezer has been talking to other Knesset members about voting for him when the position becomes available in 2014. Maariv quotes an anonymous source who praises Ben-Eliezer as a good candidate, because he doesn’t have any disagreements with anyone and is well liked.

In the opinion pages, Israel Hayom columnist Dan Margalit writes about the peace process as a distraction from the real problem: Iran. Margalit asks, “How are [peace talks] consistent with the strategic need to stop the Iranian nuclear project — which is indeed fatal for humanity?” He goes on to say that, in the past, Israel put together a credible military option that forced the West to impose sanctions on Iran. Yet right now Israel is in the difficult position of trying to remind people of a threat that still exists, but that no one is seemingly interested in.

The last hora?

All the Israeli papers celebrate the (possibly) final concert of the Israeli pop group Kaveret, which took place Thursday night in Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv. The iconic 70’s group reunited earlier this year and announced that last night would be its final concert. “Well, maybe when we’re 98,” Yedioth quotes singer Gidi Gov telling the crowd, “nurses can wheel us on stage.”

The paper includes an opinion piece by the ever-popular  musician Shlomo Artzi, who takes the title of his piece from the quote of a concertgoer celebrating his birthday last night: “It’s a gift from God,” the fan said about the concert. Everyone, including Artzi, seems to agree with him.