Left out in the cold

With a large winter storm brewing, the Hebrew papers on Monday focus on the Likud primaries partial recount and the withdrawal of IDF troops from the southern communities not immediately adjacent to Gaza — moves which leave MK Tzipi Hotovely and the alarmed southern residents in the cold.

Haaretz, meanwhile, forecasts additional Israeli punitive measures against the Palestinians in retaliation for the ICC bid, while Israel Hayom spotlights the arrest of members of a Hebron-based Islamic State cell, freezing any further terror activity on their part.

Over in Yedioth Ahronoth, the southern residents’ teary goodbye to the soldiers and their fragile sense of security leads its coverage.

In an op-ed for the paper, Mirit Wallach, a resident of Kibbutz Erez, deplores the move, arguing the army has abandoned, once again, the residents of the Gaza border communities.

“It seems that our sense of security is too large an economic burden on the decision-makers,” she writes. “In light of the upcoming elections, most of the promises made after Operation Protective Edge have dissipated: [promises of] assistance, reconstruction, and drawing new residents [to move here]. In the Gaza periphery, there aren’t enough voters, such that it isn’t worth investing the ‘election economy’ here, and cutbacks are preferred.”

The head of the IDF southern command, Sami Turgeman, explains that the redeployment comes amid “a constant tension between investing in the ongoing security and in training.”

“Leaving an army unit to keep watch means it will not be prepared for the next war,” he said, according to Yedioth.

The paper also reports that some 250 IDF officers in the reserves have penned a letter to the IDF chief of staff protesting the criminal investigation of the summer Gaza conflict. The officers call for a probe under the auspices of IDF officers present at the scene, rather than legal authorities.

Haaretz reports that the army pullout from the southern communities, with the exception of three on the border, advanced “despite the “attitude of the residents, who protested the decision and tried to change it.”

The daily highlights Israel’s anticipated request to the US that it freeze aid to the Palestinians. The cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss how to proceed, the report said, but Israel is expected to turn to the pro-Israel members of Congress and ask them to enforce a recently passed law, under which a Palestinian bid to the ICC would cost the PA its annual $400 million in aid.

“The law is particularly strongly worded, and determines that President Obama has no veto power,” the report said.

“The US government is concerned about the repercussions of stopping the aid, which will likely drive the PA into a serious economic crisis, without the means of paying the salaries of tens of thousands of workers,” it writes.

While the Arab countries have pledged to back the Palestinians financially, “the Americans assess that like in previous cases, the Arab states won’t transfer the funds they promised, and won’t act to prevent an economic PA shutdown.”

However, in a departure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-standing tactic, no widespread settlement construction is planned in retaliation for the Palestinian move, Haaretz reports.

Over in Israel Hayom, the Shin Bet’s revelation of a thwarted IS cell in Hebron dominates headlines, but offers little new information. And tucked slightly deeper in all three papers are the results of the Likud partial recount, and the awaited storm.

Despite an assessment that MK Hotovely (who came in 26th place in the party primaries) would beat out former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter in the recount, the deputy transportation minister remained behind by a mere 55 votes, Israel Hayom reports.

Danny Danon rose from 10th to 9th place and Yariv Levin climbed from 12th to 10th, while Tzachi Hanegbi dropped from 9th to 12th.

The paper reports that on Monday evening, Netanyahu will launch the Likud election campaign in a special event in Tel Aviv, and MK Moshe Feiglin, who failed to make it on the slate, will announce his next political move.

Haaretz, which did not get the final results for the Hotovely and Dichter late Sunday night before going to print, said that 15 polling stations were the subject of a recount after the computer system results didn’t match the lists of voters. The changes were relatively minor, it reports.

Over in Yedioth, the paper mocks the Likud party’s counting methods as “a mess” and “rather cumbersome.”

“The Likud equipped themselves with numerous excuses yesterday in order to explain the embarrassing incident,” it reports. “’This is what happens when the counting is done by hand, when people, in the middle of the night, are forced to count hundreds of forms with hundreds and thousands of names at each poll,’ members of the party claimed. ‘In most cases, these were typing mistakes that were done innocently.’”

The Likud party said the recount was standard procedure, Yedioth reports, which was planned in advance to ensure that the results were accurate.

And while not prominently featured, all three papers cover the preparations for the upcoming storm set to hit Jerusalem on Wednesday night, and report on the accumulating snow in the Hermon.