Masking ambitions

The growing tension with Syria is illustrated in the Israeli press on Friday by the face of Bashar Assad, staring out from all the front pages, as threats are tossed back and forth between Israel and its neighbor to the north.

“What to do with Assad?”, the front-page headline on Maariv asks; the coverage inside doesn’t offer many answers. The paper’s main story on the topic focuses on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent trip to Russia, where he met with President Vladimir Putin regarding that country’s impending sale of advanced missiles to Syria. At the meeting, the prime minister reportedly told Putin that Israel would not allow these missiles to become operational. Maariv writes that the Russians were not quite prepared for Netanyahu’s words. “The Russians were stunned by the audacity of Netanyahu, and suggested ways to avoid escalation, including attacking convoys on the border of Syria/Lebanon,” the paper reports.

While Maariv focuses on Netanyahu’s words of warning, the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth focuses on threats from Damascus. “Assad threatens to open a front in the Golan,” reads the headline. The Syrian president stated in an interview with Hezbollah’s al-Manar television that there was popular support in his country for such a bold move.

Haaretz also covers the interview as the centerpiece of its reporting on Syria, but Amos Harel provides some perspective by writing that the sale of the S-300 missiles represents a shift in the balance of power in the Middle East. Harel explains that since 1982, when Israel destroyed Syria’s anti-aircraft batteries in the Lebanon War, the Israeli Air Force has had complete dominance over Israel’s northern skies. However, the arrival of the Russian air-defense systems would impede Israel’s freedom to act, and would erode its deterrence, according to Harel.

Israel Hayom uses its front page to focus on what the government is doing to protect the country: mainly, supplying more gas masks. Last year Netanyahu decreed that every Israeli citizen must have a gas mask, but funding still hasn’t been procured to complete the massive project. The paper reports that 42% of Israelis still don’t have gas masks, and that the program would cost 1.3 billion shekels (US $350 million) to complete, and an additional 300 million (US $81 million) for maintenance.

Israel Hayom also reports that Syria’s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, has gotten into some trouble in Nigeria. The paper relates that Nigerian security forces arrested three Lebanese men — one of whom stated that he worked for Hezbollah — for planning terror attacks against Israeli and Western targets. The men were arrested and the weapons seized from a bunker that the suspects controlled. Their cache included anti-aircraft missiles, grenades, and mines. Israel Hayom reminds its readers that this isn’t the first time Nigeria has been used as a base for possible terror activities. In February 2013, three Iranians were arrested by Nigerian police for collecting information on Israeli targets.

This is the last weekend that Israelis can enjoy consumer products at a lower cost before the value-added tax (VAT) rises by 1 percent on Sunday to 18%. Yedioth provides a visual rundown of the types of goods that are going to be affected by the tax increase. It recommends that people buy electronics now, as they’ll cost more next week. The paper says not to worry about flights abroad, as they’re based on costs in foreign currency and aren’t charged VAT.

Who’s your rabbi?

Maariv ignores taxes and takes a look at Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, and determines that he’s losing control of his own movement. Maariv reporter Zev Kam focuses on the debate within Jewish Home as to whether or not to include women on the committee to elect Israel’s chief rabbi. The paper cites the internal disagreement as evidence that Bennett is slipping in popularity; party members aren’t listening to Bennett but instead are turning to the rabbis, or doing what they think is right. “The prime minister might want to influence the Chief Rabbinate, but at least he knows what he wants. Which cannot be said for Jewish Home,” Kam writes.

While Jewish Home may not know what it wants to do about the chief rabbi, Haaretz reports that the government will begin to fund non-Orthodox rabbis in the municipalities. A front-page story details how the Ministry of Religious Affairs is planning to phase out state-appointed rabbinate positions and instead provide funds for communities to hire their own rabbis, even from the Reform and Conservative movements. While welcome news to those communities, no decision has been made as to the future of the 157 rabbis currently employed by the state.

Finally, Yedioth comments on the revelations that the Superland amusement park in Rishon Letzion hosts Arab and Jewish schoolchildren on separate days. Lucy Aharish, an Arab-Israeli citizen, calls the park “Racist-land” and asks readers, “Are you really shocked by this?”

“Why is it that Jews who were persecuted in the exile come to the promised land and then differentiate themselves according to Sephardic and Ashkenazi?” she asks, citing other strains of discord in Israeli society. In the end, she is not surprised: “A country that quarrels with itself will be unable to come to an understanding with others.” She concludes by tying her piece back to Superland: “And don’t think that we in our ‘sector’ are perfect. We’re not. We also have a ton of problems. But for us, we’re waiting in a different line.”