Not-so-civil war

Front page news in the Hebrew press on Thursday is the conflict breaking out between the Israel Defense Forces and — wait for it — the Shin Bet security agency. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz sent a spectacularly angry a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complaining that the Shin Bet was out of line.

“The Jewish wars,” reads the headline in Israel Hayom, riffing off Josephus’s history of first-century Judea, explaining that the chief of staff was outraged that the Shin Bet claimed it provided early warning of a conflict with Hamas in Gaza months ahead of the war this past summer, only to be ignored. Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Gantz called the Shin Bet’s actions “crossing a red line,” a moral and ethical violation,” “misrepresentation,” and “scandalous” in his missive to the prime minister and defense minister, and charged that Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen was exhibiting non-collegial behavior.

Two senior Israeli officials are quoted in Haaretz saying that the breakdown in the relationship between Gantz and Cohen in the past three months has reached the level of “world war.” The paper explains that in a security cabinet briefing in August, Cohen and Gantz got into a shouting match in front of the ministers; Cohen claimed that the Shin Bet provided early warning of the conflict, whereas the IDF intel chief, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, denied any such heads-up. Several cabinet ministers also denied any such warning, the paper says.

Netanyahu “couldn’t remain indifferent to the conflict,” Israel Hayom reports, and met Wednesday with the chief of staff, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and the head of the Shin Bet. He told them to stop quarreling and “dealing in public with issues that need to be resolved between security officials.”

“We all have a national responsibility to the security of the State of Israel, and we must continue with full cooperation for the security of Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu is quoted saying, according to Israel Hayom.

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Israeli government officials are lining up on Gantz’s side in the battle between the two security chiefs. “The war between the army and the Shin Bet is not incidental,” cabinet ministers are quoted saying. “There was a massive intelligence failure, and the Shin Bet tried to duck responsibility. In all the months prior to the war they repeatedly said that Hamas wasn’t interested in a conflict.”

What’s altogether surprising is that Israel Hayom doesn’t make its main coverage about the Knesset passing its first reading of a convoluted and specially constructed bill which would effectively force Israel Hayom to either curb its distribution or start charging its readers. It sticks the news on Page 13 with a message that the Knesset, not Israel Hayom, is the big loser. Haaretz writes on its front page that the bill passed its first reading, and that Netanyahu’s allies will try to bury it in committee.

Yedioth Ahronoth plays up the latest IDF enlistment statistics, reporting that the city of Modiin has the highest percentage of high school boys going to the army and Hod Hasharon ranks number one for girls — both for the second year running. Those statistics beat out the story of a Border Police officer who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing a Palestinian at a Nakba Day protest in May.

Haaretz reports that the officer is suspected of murder for shooting Nadim Nawara, 17, at a protest in Beitunia and using live fire. Until now the IDF has maintained that the security personnel at the scene only used nonlethal rubber-coated bullets. The soldier’s commanding officer was also arrested for knowing that his subordinate discharged his weapon and not reporting it. The commander was released to house arrest until Sunday, the paper reports.

According to Israel Hayom, the Border Police officer was on vacation ahead of his discharge from service when he was arrested. It quotes the lawyers of both policemen saying that their clients deny the charges against them.

The paper downplays the arrest, which makes front page news in Haaretz but gets shunted to Page 7 in Israel Hayom. Instead it put incarcerated Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti’s placement in solitary confinement higher up. Barghouti was given a week in solitary for calling for a third intifada and increased violence against Israel, the paper says, and he was also fined a few hundred shekels.