Taking the plunge

A father plunged to his death in an effort to protect his son during a hike in the Judean Desert over the weekend and the tabloids are in top gear covering the accident. Haaretz, meanwhile, devotes an inch or two to the death of Omri Nir at the very bottom of its front page on Sunday, opting to focus on American and Israeli political turmoil.

Nir, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, fell to his death in an attempt to save his son’s life, and the headlines in Israel Hayom and Yedioth Ahronoth are the snappy zingers the Hebrew media love instead of playing a sad story straight: “A father’s bravery,” “Hug until death,” “Revered lecturer and exceptional man,” “Everything for the son.” His efforts may have been for naught, as Ilay was reported to be in critical condition after falling off the cliff, despite his father’s embrace on the way down.

What’s extraordinary about the tabloids’ coverage of this incident is how much there is of it. Israel Hayom talks about nothing else until Page 9, including two op-eds, one of which laments the father’s death as “a terrible tragedy for the family, but also as symbol of the spirit of mankind, the spirit of a father and the will to pay the price to protect the life of his son, dearer than anything.” Yedioth Ahronoth had its graphics department craft a panel illustrating how Nir and his son plummeted down the cliffside. Do its readers really need an illustration to get the picture?

All three papers quote one Udi Segal, 50, from Kfar Vitkin, as do all Israeli news outlets except for Channel 2, which coincidentally or not has a diplomatic affairs correspondent by the same name.

Is this story really more important than the suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed at least 13 (38 as of Sunday afternoon), and which got tiny mention on the front page of Israel Hayom? Or the imminent evacuation of the West Bank outpost of Amona, which threatens the stability of the coalition? Or US President-elect Donald Trump’s potential nomination of a pro-Kremlin candidate for secretary of state? Or a senior Likud politician saying Arab Israelis shouldn’t vote? Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, Israel Hayom readers.

Yedioth Ahronoth doesn’t even get around to reporting on Istanbul, but its runner-up to Nir’s death is former president Moshe Katsav’s imminent third parole board hearing, in which the rapist who has served five years of his sentence will seek early release despite not admitting to his crime. Trump’s pick for America’s top diplomat comes next in the pecking order, but leads in Haaretz alongside a picture of the carnage on the Bosphorus.

Haaretz itself doesn’t report on the anticipated selection of Exxon Mobile CEO Rex W. Tillerson for secretary of state, but pulls out the big guns: a New York Times report translated into Hebrew. Haaretz blends together a number of different articles relating to Trump, Russia and Tillerson to cover the Kremlin’s possible influence on the US election, the problematic ties the Exxon chief has with Vladimir Putin, and President Barack Obama’s call for an investigation of Russian interference in the outcome of the November vote.

Israel Hayom, perhaps increasingly ashamed about its unabashed support for Trump in the run-up to the elections, sticks the report of Tillerson’s presumed pick as secretary of state on Page 24. It gives more significance to Knesset laughingstock and Likud MK Oren Hazan getting busted driving over 90 miles an hour down to Eilat. It also makes scant mention of the CIA finding that Russian interference in the election sought Trump’s election. Yedioth Ahronoth calls Tillerson’s pick “an undiplomatic appointment.” In his Yedioth Ahronoth column, Nadav Eyal gives a crude wrap-up of what is going on with Trump, and bemoans the fact that “what we see before out eyes isn’t just a president with the least experience in public management in history, but a cabinet like that as well.” It’s shaping up to be billionaires, millionaires and generals, and Israel will have “more limited leverage,” he writes.

“Now the ball is in the hands of the Senate, especially the senior Republicans — Paul Ryan, John McCain, Mitch McConnell and others. Anti-Russian patriotism was a significant part of the Republican party’s outlook since presidents Eisenhower, and especially Reagan. Trump eliminates these sentiments without mercy,” he writes.

Chemi Shalev writes in Haaretz that Trump’s nomination of Tillerson could be part of a quid pro quo with the Kremlin, after they helped him get into office. Or, more terrifyingly: “that Trump is indeed Putin’s puppet, as Clinton charged during the presidential race, that the Kremlin is squeezing the president-elect through his debts to oligarchs, and that the Russian government operates covert control over the American government that will effectively bring a change in the global order.”