Scandals ahoy

The prime minister’s wife, a disgraced IDF general and the Israeli Navy share the headlines in Sunday’s papers as three major scandals continue to make waves in the Hebrew media.

Former IDF general Ofek Buchris, who stands charged with sexual misconduct and rape, is still in the papers after news of his plea deal was leaked to the press late last week. Now, Haaretz reports, outcry over the plea deal has put it on the rocks because it turns out he copped to the charges, after having denied forcing himself upon a subordinate officer.

Israel Hayom plays up IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot’s statement that the military would have “zero tolerance” for cases of sexual harassment or assault and that it wouldn’t “close its eyes” to the issue.

The killing of a Sudanese migrant by two teens who beat him for an hour and a half, and are being charged with manslaughter, doesn’t make it above the fold of Haaretz, but that’s better than the other papers, who don’t report on it at all in Sunday’s papers.

As one might expect from the pro-Netanyahu newspaper like Israel Hayom, Sara Netanyahu’s lawyers’ response to the attorney general’s office after the press got wind of another investigation into alleged abuse of employees leads the paper’s news coverage. Why should readers hear the report of her interrogation for 11 hours by the police on Thursday before her attorney’s charge that the AG should investigate leaks?

The paper gives full coverage to her attorneys lodging complaints with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and the police after reports of the investigation came out on Channel 2 last week. They call for a probe to find out who “fabricated [investigation] documents and leaked other lies to the press.”

Israel Hayom even enlists the help of Haim Shine in coming to the prime minister’s wife’s defense, calling the renewed investigation and witch hunt by the “leftist press” a “mean hunting trip.”

Yedioth Ahronoth plays the story straight, but devoted much of its coverage of the issue in Friday’s paper.

Yedioth also keeps up its investigation of foreign states who’ve invested in shipping companies that provide the Israeli Navy with military hardware. After the revelation that Iran holds a stake in the company that produces the submarines Israel recently bought from Germany, the paper now reveals that the four warships Israel bought last year from ThyssenKrupp are being built at a shipwright partly owned by the United Arab Emirates and managed by a Lebanese businessman.

“Israeli money, Iranian profits,” reads one scathing headline in Yedioth Ahronoth, accompanied by “Abu Dhabi is building ships for the navy.”

Whereas the Defense Ministry replied to the Iran-ThyssenKrupp connection by saying it was unaware of it, regarding the UAE’s involvement it says the shipyard only lays the keels and isn’t involved in sensitive internal mechanisms.

Following the initial report of Iran’s partial stake in the German company, the paper reports that senior officials are now calling for an investigation into how the government could make the deal even though Israeli money is being handed over to Iran.

The paper’s defense correspondent Yossi Yehoshua asks if the Defense Ministry is asleep at the wheel after the two discoveries. “Does the Defense Ministry know the search engine Google? Typing just two words — ThyssenKrupp and Iran — and they would know Iran’s involvement in the company.

He says that while the Prime Minister’s Office was silent on the matter, “a senior official” tells him it was reportedly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said that the national security agency and Defense Ministry didn’t know about Iran’s involvement.

Haaretz is the sole paper to headline the Italian constitutional referendum, which the other Israeli papers couldn’t care less about it. The editors of Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom stick it on pages 17 and 21, respectively.

The fact that the Environmental Protection Ministry is phasing out free plastic bags — a scourge on the ecosystem — and supermarkets will now have to charge customers a few pennies apiece for them, only gets covered in the far recesses of Yedioth Ahronoth. It comes at little surprise that Israel Hayom, which is handed out as eagerly and for as much money as plastic bags are today, doesn’t mention the upcoming change in policy. It’s hardly surprising for a paper whose issues are found strewn about the streets and is hardly the most ecologically conscious media outlet.