Just say ‘no’

Top news in Israel was the announcement that Iran had rejected America’s proposal in the opening round of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.

“Laughing all the way to the bomb” reads Israel Hayom’s headline, playing up a connection to North Korea’s nuclear program by showing Pyongyang’s preparations for a missile launch. The page two article describes the American proposal: stop producing enriched uranium over 3.5%, dismantle the underground facility at Fordo and transfer uranium enriched over 20% to a third party. The paper quotes Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran’s Atomic Agency, rejecting the call to close the Fordo facility.

Maariv runs a two-page spread on the same subject, including a graphic listing Netanyahu’s and Obama’s similar demands for the Iranian nuclear program. The article quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak hinting in an interview with CNN that a decisive moment would arrive within months. Barak told the US news channel that for Israel it was not a matter of weeks, but “also not of years.”

Haaretz highlights a division between Netanyahu and Barak over what exactly would be acceptable to Israel. The main disagreement is the level at which uranium is enriched: Barak states that 3.5% is acceptable, while Netanyahu takes a harder line, wanting no uranium enrichment whatsoever.

Holiday season

With much of the country on Passover break this week, the newspapers dedicate space to the hot weather and atrocious traffic around vacation spots. Israel Hayom’s page seven article summed up the coverage: “The land flowing with milk and traffic jams.” The article breaks down where tourists headed over the vacation, destinations that, perhaps surprisingly, included Eilat — despite the rocket fire aimed at the city just days ago, tourism officials in Eilat report that 90% of the hotels are occupied.

Haaretz’s front page features a translated New York Times article  on the friendship between Netanyahu and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. The friendship, which has lasted for more than 35 years, began when both men were working in Boston at the beginnings of their careers. The article describes how the two leaders have been friends since then, with Netanyahu even giving advice to Romney on how to reduce the size of the public sector when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Maariv features a story on the largest duty-free shop at Ben-Gurion Airport, James Richardson, which is drawing criticism from the Chief Rabbinate for selling goods that are not kosher for Passover. The store allegedly offered tastings of alcoholic drinks like whiskey and vodka, which do not meet the dietary rules associated with the week-long holiday. “Many tourists arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport and think the drinks being served are kosher. We are a Jewish state and this is a public obstacle,” the Rabbinate is quoted as saying. The Airport Authority is looking into the allegations and said that if they were substantiated the offending products would be removed immediately.

All eyes on Pollard

Yedioth Ahronoth reports the meeting Sunday between Esther Pollard, the wife of jailed spy Jonathan Pollard, and President Shimon Peres. Esther Pollard pressed Peres to exert pressure for the release of her husband, who fell ill this weekend in prison and is currently hospitalized in what his supporters describe as serious condition.  “If he returns to jail, it will a death sentence,” she told Peres.

In Israel Hayom, Nadav Shragai writes that it is time to use all means to help Pollard and bring him to Israel alive. Shragai alludes to the Gilad Shalit deal and Israel’s decision to free thousands of prisoners, but says the country has forgotten about Pollard. “Now is the time to shout,” Shragai writes, as all other methods of soft diplomacy have failed. He concludes that it is not just up to Shimon Peres, but to all Israelis and to President Obama.

Meanwhile…

Maariv covers the situation in Syria, headlining an article on the faltering peace efforts with the headline, “Assad: I will not withdraw the army.” With only one day before the scheduled cease-fire is set to go into effect, the article quotes the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman saying that there are no “written guarantees” when dealing with “armed terror gangs.”

Haaretz reports that two Palestinians who were in Israel illegally were beaten by police and left at a checkpoint. The two are brothers, according to the report, and were deposited at a checkpoint instead of being given medical care.

Looking at the domestic political scene, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Shas leader Eli Yishai, Israel’s interior minister, believes the party’s popular former leader will return to Shas. Aryeh Deri, who spent 22 months in prison on corruption charges, has announced his return to politics but not, as yet, to the party that he helped bring to prominence. According to current predictions, in an election his party would receive seven Knesset seats.

Haaretz covers the ongoing Gunter Grass controversy in its opinion pages, featuring a piece titled “Policy non grata.” According to the piece, Israel overreacted to Grass’ poem and clarifies that Grass sees the Netanyahu government as the threat, not Israel itself. “It’s possible to understand the reactions, but not the overreactions,” the piece states, pointing to Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s declaration that Grass was a “persona non grata” who would henceforth be barred from entering Israel. It concludes that all Grass did was write a poem and that Yishai’s move was excessive.