Gut feelings

Like an ill-conceived Tums ad, Israel is gassy and unsure, Europe is bloated with immigrants and doesn’t know what to do about it, and Palestinians are filled with grief and questions surrounding the fatal firebombing in Duma over a month ago, all represented in the Hebrew press Tuesday morning.

The gas deal that kinda-sorta passed the Knesset Monday makes the front pages of both Israel Hayom and broadsheet Haaretz, even though the vote was only half the battle. The coalition still needs to get approval for the cabinet to end-around the anti-trust commissioner and his evil trust-busting ways.

Israel Hayom sums up the halfsy nature of the Knesset’s move with the headline “Passed, but not fully.”

“Despite the Knesset giving its vote of approval, the outline still hasn’t gone into effect, since it still doesn’t have the signature of the anti-trust commissioner or Economy Minister Aryeh Deri,” the paper reports.

And even though the fall holiday season is descending on the country, bringing with it delays galore in anything of import getting done (under the unwritten Israeli rule of taking care of everything “after the holidays”) the tabloid notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to choose between dipping apples in honey or dipping his pen in ink to get this deal rolling.

“The government has until September 30 to approve the outline to allow it to go into effect by February 2016, assuming there will be High Court challenges. What this means: Netanyahu will have to get an okay from the Knesset between Rosh Hashanah [which starts Sunday night] and Sukkot [which starts two weeks later].”

Commentator Moti Tochfeld starts off his ode to the gas deal vote by pummeling fellow pen jockeys, pundits and politicians who claim to have a handle on what the public wants, before going on to explain to the reading public that the emasculated Knesset vote was proof that what they really want is Netanyahu and whatever economic policy he is pushing, employing some voodoo logic along the way.

“The public didn’t vote, but the Knesset vote exposes the will of the public zeitgeist. The average Israeli, and most of the rest, didn’t read the outline, and didn’t bother with it beyond what was written in the headlines. But when a serious economic issue is on the agenda, it’s enough for them to recognize who is working in the public sphere to know which side to stand on. When one side of the scale has [Haaretz financial magazine] The Marker, [Labor’s] Shelly Yachimovich and Dov Khenin [of the Joint (Arab) List], and the other side has Netanyahu, the choice is clear.”

It may all make sense to Tochfeld, but things are not so black and white in Haaretz. The paper’s Avi Bar Eli, writing in that self-same The Marker, notes that despite Netanyahu’s statement that he always gets what he wants (forget the whole Iran deal thing pretty fast, didn’t he), Noble Energy, the US partner in the consortium looking to develop the Leviathan gas field, hinted that it doesn’t see itself as legally bound by the vote. But that won’t stop Netanyahu, Bar Eli writes.

“The ‘real’ vote on approving the outline, that which is supposed to transfer Deri’s powers to the government, still hasn’t won over a majority of legislators. Despite that, the defeat won’t cause Netanyahu to stop, listen to the criticism and fix his ways,” he writes. “The opposite – the barrier will just spur the prime minister to ‘punish’ anyone who gets in the way, even if it means ‘punishing’ the public interest. And it will be punished.”

Wrapped and crying

Even if Netanyahu is loath to do any soul searching, the death of Rahim Dawabsha from injuries sustained in a firebombing attack in the Palestinian village of Duma that also killed her baby and husband sparks a fresh round of questions in Yedioth.

“The Shin Bet listens to what I tell my wife at night, but can’t catch the killers of my daughter,” reads the paper’s headline, quoting Hussein Dawabsha, expressing anger over the lack of reported progress against the alleged Jewish terrorists who carried out the attack.

“How is it possible that over 40 days there is no other end to the wire, no hint of information? It’s inconceivable. If this was an attack carried out by Palestinians, they would turn over the whole village until they found them,” he says in the paper.

The tabloid reports that the sole surviving member of the family, 4-year-old Ahmed, is still in the hospital recovering and hasn’t stopped crying.

“I don’t know if he is crying because it hurts him, or because he missing his mother,” Hussein Dawabsha says.

Commentator Oded Shalom writes of going to visit Ahmed in the hospital, describing a heartbreaking scene.

“He’s wrapped on his whole body, just his face showing through. He’s already left his bed, asking after his mother and father, confused why they are not beside him. Nobody has told him what has happened. His big dark eyes get sad sometimes, and when he starts to tear up, one of the adults wipes it for him. His tiny hands are simply wrapped,” he writes.

Haaretz’s lead story deals with the migrant crisis in Europe and the fact that the Continent is getting ready to take in 160,000 refugees, according to an EU plan.

Reporting from Serbia, where many migrants are passing into Hungary, the paper’s Anshell Pfeffer notes that all the Syrian refugees, whether they support Bashar Assad or the rebellion, share the same goal, getting to a better place.

“The small band of people has one common goal. Half of them are fathers, the rest the oldest sons in their families. They are en route to Germany to pave the way for their relatives to follow. So they are in a rush. Every additional day it takes them is another day of fear for the fate of their families left behind in the midst of fighting,” he writes. “They are wary of discussing politics or being identified as supporters or opponents of the Assad regime. Their only politics is survival.”