Scandals trump explosions

Though the injury of four soldiers in an explosion Wednesday on the Lebanese border is prominent in all four Hebrew dailies Thursday, it’s the sexual misconduct conviction of a well-known and well-loved rabbi and the duty-free contretemps of the former would-be Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel that dominate the front pages.

“The painful truth,” reads Israel Hayom‘s headline. The paper says the court ruling that found Rabbi Mordechai Elon guilty of committing an indecent act against a minor is causing “turmoil in the national religious world.”

“I was convinced beyond reasonable doubt in the guilt of the defendant,” the paper quotes from Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge Hagit Mak-Kalmanovitch’s 56-page long ruling. The court found Elon guilty of committing the offense on two occasions in 2005, and the rabbi and his attorney made it clear they’d appeal the verdict.

Two years after the Forum Takana, a group of religious leaders, social workers and lawyers that deals with sexual offenses in the national-religious community, blew the whistle on Elon, the court convicted him, the paper reads. It goes on to discuss the implications the ruling could have on the national-religious world.

“The shock is big, and the desecration of God’s name is just as big,” Emily Amrousi writes in her column titled “The faith in spiritual leaders collapsed.” Elon, she recalls, was the only leader in the national-religious population accepted and appreciated by all the factions following the 2005 disengagement from Gaza.

Then, Amrousi continues, the forum’s announcement created an upheaval. “The admired rabbi, the bearer of hopes, turned his back on family values” and gave in to dark desires and urges. Parents were forced to tell their students to be weary of sexual misconduct by their teachers and rabbis.

“All the truth,” states Yedioth Ahronoth‘s headline in bold letters, as it reports on an official document sent from Hong Kong, apparently proving Jacob Frenkel — who withdrew his candidacy for the position of Bank of Israel governor — tried to shoplift and lied when asked about it.

The daily quotes from the short document, which claims Frenkel was “suspected of theft.” Sent by the legal authorities in Hong Kong, the letter — containing a total of 184 words — contradicts the economist’s version, according to which the authorities apologized to him after he was briefly questioned over a misunderstanding.

Rather, the document says Frenkel was stopped because of suspicion that he stole a suit carrier from the duty-free shop on his way out of the country and was released because the prosecution decided to close the case. “No apology was sent to Frenkel,” the letter concludes.

Alongside the two top stories, Maariv also highlights a decision by the Education Ministry to fund the separation of schoolboys and girls starting from the age of nine. One result, the paper notes, is that elementary classrooms in the religious schools will have a significantly lower student-teacher ratio than their nonreligious counterparts.

The paper quotes the ministry’s stance, according to which the decision to change the regulations (which until now have provided state funding for same-sex education from seventh grade), and subsidize the separation as of the fourth grade, is a result of the parents’ demand for such classrooms — and the ministry’s policy to avoid having parents fund the extra classrooms.

Dalit Strauber, the ministry’s director-general, is quoted as saying the need for such a move comes after decades where there were no official guidelines for the separation of sexes in the lower classes. For many years, she says, principals reallocated the state funds to teach as they wanted. The new regulations “will put an end to that” independence, she said.

Haaretz is the only Israeli daily to feature the developing crisis between the US and Russia on its front page. Informing readers that US President Barack Obama canceled a summit with his counterpart Vladimir Putin, the paper details a number of points the two powers are at odds about.

The trigger for Obama’s decision to cancel next month’s meeting was Moscow’s announcement that it would give political asylum to Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee who blew the whistle on the organization’s Internet and phone monitoring policies. Moreover, the paper notes, the countries also have deep disagreements concerning the ongoing civil war in Syria, and don’t see eye to eye on the situation in Iran either.

All the papers report on the explosion of a Hezbollah roadside bomb along the Lebanese border early Wednesday morning, in which four soldiers were injured.

According to the IDF and other Israeli officials, the four were wounded while on a routine operation near the border. However, the dailies note that a Hezbollah-affiliated TV station and other Lebanese sources claimed the explosion happened north of the international Blue Line, on Lebanese soil.