The Kerry ferry

There’s been a lot of pressure being applied to leaders of the Middle East lately. Some of that pressure arrived in the form of US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing for new peace talks, while Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is facing pressure from his own people.

“Egypt vs. Morsi,” is Yedioth Ahronoth’s front page headline, and it’s accompanied by a picture of protesters in Cairo rallying against the Egyptian president. Things aren’t looking very bright for Morsi, who celebrates one year in office on Sunday. Yedioth points out that the opposition has gathered 22 million signatures calling for Morsi’s ouster with demonstrations all across Egypt, including Alexandria.

It was in Alexandria that an American student was stabbed during one of the protests against the Muslim Brotherhood. Yedioth includes a short article about the American Jewish college student, Andrew Pochter, who was killed on Friday. Yedioth writes that Pochter was volunteering in Alexandria, teaching children English for a summer internship. In a statement released by his parents, they said of Pochter, “He was curious to learn about Egypt and its culture.”

Boaz Bismuth, writing in Israel Hayom, calls the latest bout of demonstrations “Morsi’s worst nightmare.” Bismuth sees the protests against Morsi as a continuation of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak two and a half years ago. “Those signs that waved in 2011 in Tahrir Square are back. The same slogans returned, only the name Morsi replaced Mubarak,” he writes. Perhaps more troubling for Egypt is its economic situation, as the country has missed IMF loan deadlines and turned to the Gulf States for help. But the situation in Egypt is bad. “Inflation is rising, unemployment is growing, tourism is no longer running, and foreign investment is shrinking. At this rate even the Sphinx will scream for help,” Bismuth writes.

Aside from the protests rocking Egypt, Haaretz shares the latest on the possible restart to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, though it seems the paper doesn’t hold much hope. “Despite pressure from Kerry, no developments to restart negotiations.” Haaretz reports that Kerry has been very busy, meeting a number of times with Abbas and Netanyahu over the weekend, but with little results. While there were indications over the weekend of a possible four-way summit this week between the US, Israel, the Palestinians, and Jordan, Haaretz reports that both Ramallah and Jerusalem are pessimistic that any developments will occur.

Why the lack of progress? Maariv has a possible answer on its front page, as the Jerusalem municipality is about to announce a restart to building in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa. The project, which will add 930 new housing units to the neighborhood, had been frozen as Israel by Israel for over two years. Maariv writes that the construction is considered very problematic by both the Americans and the Palestinians, as it would disrupt Palestinian territorial continuity by cutting off the neighborhood of Sur Baher from a future Palestinian state.

Maariv also carries an accompanying article that quotes heavily from an unnamed Palestinian source who told the paper, “Settlement building is the main obstacle to a summit.” Part of the hold-up is Abbas’s demand that Israel cease all building in the settlements, while Netanyahu is willing to stop building only outside of the major settlement blocs. The source was nevertheless hopeful that a breakthrough would occur and the paper noted that Abbas and Netanyahu are having regular phone calls with each other, without the mediation of Kerry.

Heaven for criminals?

The police have released the crime statistics for 2012 and after reading them you may want to lock your door. “A murder every 72 hours,” is how Yedioth portrays the results in its article headline. Their coverage, a mixture of statistics and victim stories, makes the report both scary and personal. “Despite the slight decrease in crime compared to previous years, the police statistics show Israel is still heaven for criminals,” writes the paper. Some of the more jarring stats: in 2012 there were 120 murders, over 26,000 cases of juvenile crimes, and over 55,000 people arrested. Perhaps the most startling factoid is how many suspects are caught. In the West Bank, one suspect is caught for every 3 open cases, while in Tel Aviv the ratio is 1 for every 9.8 open cases, and Jerusalem comes in slightly worse at 1 for every 10.

Israel Hayom skips over the police stats and gives its readers an update on what’s going on just north of Israel in Syria. Aside from the Syrian Army renewing its attack on the city of Homs, the paper reports that the rebels presented additional evidence that Syrian forces are continuing to use chemical weapons against the civilians. The rebels claimed that the Syrian Army used grenades laced with chemical agents and showed videos of women and children they claimed were affected. In another development, the TV station Russia Today has said all Russian citizens in Syria will be evacuated in the coming days.

The good fence?

Maariv devotes two pages to the new fence along the Egyptian border and its affect on Israel. One article focuses on the drug trade, saying that now that there’s a fence, traffickers are having a harder time getting in. Customs officials say they have seen a 400% increase in the drug seizures at Ben Gurion Airport as smugglers have taken to the air instead.

Another piece praises the fence for keeping Israelis safe, especially as Egypt has lost control of the Sinai Peninsula, while another article writes that the fence has almost completely stopped the flow of African refugees into Israel but hasn’t solved the refugee problem. Maariv writes that migrants don’t have access to health care  and can’t work legally, and there is a lot of friction with residents of southern Tel Aviv. In other words, “The flow of refugees has stopped but problems remain.”

Haaretz’s editorial addresses that refugee problem in its editorial “Hungry for justice.” The paper sides with the 170 hunger-striking Eritrean refugees at the Saharonim detention center. Haaretz chides the Prisons Service and the government for mistreating the refugees. “Instead of asylum seekers being treated humanely, they are being locked up for undetermined periods under harsh conditions and are asked to sign ‘voluntary’ agreements to leave Israel.” The paper concludes by urging the attorney general not to approve this procedure and to treat refugees humanely.