The French connection

In today’s version of The French Connection there’s no great car chase or international drug dealing, but François Hollande is peddling something that Israelis have been craving: the chutzpah to stand up to Iran. The French president’s official visit to Jerusalem has Israeli government officials scrambling to learn how to pronounce j’adore as Hollande talks tough on Tehran.

Maariv calls the visit “The right guest at the right time.” Upon arrival, Hollande said France also wanted an agreement with Iran, but “a real agreement would only be possible with Iran giving up trying to acquire nuclear weapons.” Yet despite Netanyahu saying “France is a friend of Israel and our people have a special relationship,” officials told the paper that Jerusalem knows there’s no substitute for the American relationship.

Yedioth Ahronoth also states plainly that “Netanyahu knows that France’s warm embrace isn’t enough,” and that the PM has a tough road in front him if he wishes to stop an agreement between the West and Iran. Shimon Shiffer calls the Franco-Israeli second honeymoon too good to last. “It would be an illusion to think that the French represent Israel at the negotiations,” he writes. The history of relations between the two countries has been fraught and Shiffer ends his column with a quote from Charles de Gaulle in November 1967 calling Israel “domineering, elitist, and confident” — in a bad way.

Haaretz’s front page headline paraphrases Hollande trying to reassure Israelis, “Hollande: If Iran lies, the sanctions will return.” The paper also reports that the sanctions aren’t the only thing that will return: Netanyahu announced yesterday that US Secretary of State John Kerry, whom the prime minister called his “old friend,” will stop over in Israel on Friday to give an update on the Iran negotiations.

Hollande and Netanyahu aren’t the only ones making statements about Iran. As Israel Hayom reports, Netanyahu’s recently retired aide, Yaakov Amidror, says that Israel can strike Iran — alone. In an interview with the Financial Times, Amidror said that Israel had been practicing air force runs of over 2,000 kilometers (about 1,240 miles). “Obviously we are not the US, and believe it or not , they have more capabilities than we do. But we have sufficient capacity to stop the Iranians for quite a while,” he said.

A new prosecutor, old problems

According to Israel Hayom, today could be the day that a new state prosecutor will be chosen to replace Moshe Lador, whose term ends next month. The committee assigned to find Lador’s replacement will interview four candidates today and whoever is selected must receive the approval of four of the five committee members plus Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.

Meanwhile, the legal profession is still in the crosshairs. Haaretz reports another legal official has been attacked, this time in Jaffa. A judge in the Islamic court in Jaffa had his car firebombed in front of his house. The attack marks the second attack on a high-ranking court official in recent weeks (after the car of a Tel Aviv prosecutor was bombed). The paper cites intelligence reports that the judge’s car was attacked in relation to a divorce case, but no arrests have been made yet.

Another case where no arrests have been made yet is the case involving a (still unnamed) famous singer accused of having sex with underage girls. Yedioth leads the way with the coverage giving two full pages to the story, focusing on the father of the singer. The paper states that the father would seek out girls at his son’s concerts and convince the girls to have sex with him. While the majority of the attention has turned to the father, police are still searching for evidence that the singer himself knowingly knew that the girls were underage.

Terror update

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon spoke on Sunday at Tel Aviv University and blamed the “political process” for terror. “Victims of terror attacks are victims of the political process,” Ya’alon is quoted by Maariv as saying. He goes on to say that he has never heard any Palestinian leader, including Mahmoud Abbas, speak about territorial compromise, and that he doesn’t see any difference between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel Hayom reports that an especially dangerous al-Qaeda terrorist has been held in Israel for three years under administrative detention. Alatif Al-Barq was captured as he tried to cross into Israel in 2010 and, as he is known to be an expert in biological weapons, Israeli officials decided to keep him in administrative detention. On Monday the Supreme Court will hear a petition by Al-Barq to be released to the Palestinian territories, which the government opposes for fear he will create a new terror network.

In the opinion pages, Boaz Bismuth writes in Israel Hayom that France wants a deal, and so does Tehran. “The Iranians have no choice but to fold because they really want an agreement. A source close to the French foreign minister said that he had never seen the Iranians so interested to sign an agreement,” writes Bismuth. But Bismuth himself is opposed: “Cynics say that after signing the awful agreement with the Iranians in Geneva, Kerry will arrive in Israel to see what else can Israel give up on in talks with the Palestinians.”