Things were going swimmingly, until they weren’t

For such bitter rivals, Hebrew-language tabloids Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom can look pretty similar at times. Thursday morning is one of those times, as both papers lead off with news of rockets shot down over the southern city of Eilat late Wednesday night, with near identical headlines, pictures and graphics.

Both papers also put on the front page developments surrounding the investigation into the submarine affair, though a deeper dive into the fine print makes the differences between the papers a bit clearer.

But the first thing to take a dive was a piece of rocket, right into an Eilat hotel pool, and the striking image on both papers’ front pages dovetails with the tone of their stories. In a nutshell: Things were going swimmingly in the vacation town. Then they weren’t.

“It felt weird. We came for vacation and suddenly we are hearing that rockets fell here,” one hotel patron is quoted telling Israel Hayom. The paper also includes several accounts of people crying.

It’s not just the tourists that got frightened. Yedioth includes an account from a local who went outside to watch the rockets instead of running for shelter.

“I ran outside and heard two loud booms and saw explosions in the sky. The siren stopped and after a couple of seconds another siren started. It was quite shocking. Puts the fear of God in you,” the man is quoted saying. “We are used to quiet and suddenly war sirens — that causes pressure and you have no answers as to whether you are safe.”

Neither paper, nor Haaretz, offers much in the way of analysis or context as to why the city would suddenly be drubbed with rockets — likely thanks to the late hour of the attack, as papers were wrapping up their print editions. (Haaretz runs all of three paragraphs on the missile strike.)

Instead, the juicier coverage is saved for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the various affairs surrounding him, including the news that the purchase of German submarines is set to become a criminal investigation.

Israel Hayom’s strait-laced write-up of the sub affair notes right at the top that Netanyahu is not a suspect in the case. Yedioth’s write-up as well notes that Netanyahu isn’t a suspect, though that is mentioned at the bottom. However the story, written as more of an analysis into all the shady connections involved in the multi-billion dollar defense purchase and possible handling of a contract for a shipyard, does raise questions about Netanyahu’s involvement .

“When the makers of the Saar 6, the missile boat supposed to protect the gas fields, understood that the Defense Ministry, with the intervention of the prime minister and peoples’ lobbying were giving them the deal on a silver platter, with no tender, the price of the boats jumped 25 percent. When the Defense Ministry insisted on an international tender, the price dropped immediately,” Alex Fishman writes. “This story was not made up by the media. This is based on testimony given by former Defense Ministry director Dan Harel to police. What caused the prime minister to be so involved in the purchases? It’s still not clear.”

Netanyahu’s involvement in another much less expensive purchase is becoming clearer and may be more damning as well, according to Haaretz’s lead story, which reports that Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan was asked to buy Netanyahu’s wife Sara jewelry costing NIS 10,000, on top of all the champagne he treated her to.

“The demand made me feel disgust,” the paper’s headline quotes Milchan as saying.

The paper, citing information it obtained, reports the jewelry was given to Sara Netanyahu “as a birthday gift.”

“At first the businessman hesitated because of the object’s high cost and the impression that could be created by buying it for the prime minister’s wife,” the paper reports. “At this stage, Netanyahu came into the picture: He reassured Milchan, saying he had looked into the matter and found no ethical problem with purchasing the jewelry for his wife.”

Milchan was not alone in being forced to fete Sara, at least according to a “source” close to Netanyahu quoted in Yedioth saying the prime minister was lying when he claimed he didn’t know about the champagne purchases.

“Netanyahu knew everything, down to the minute detail. He would even beg the friends that Sara would blacklist to bring her gifts like perfume or jewelry so he could meet them freely,” the source is quoted saying. “Some of the blacklisted people would meet with him in secret, since they refused to buy her jewelry. One businessman who was boycotted was asked by Netanyahu to buy her perfume, but he refused and said ‘I only buy perfume for my wife.’”

The story is accompanied by a picture of Netanyahu enjoying a meal out with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, at blue-collar hummus bar Hummus Ben Sira, with the paper strongly suggesting that it was meant to show him as a regular guy and not a cigar-munching dictator.

“Netanyahu and Kahlon enjoyed falafel, hummus, beans, Egyptian broad beans and pickles,” the paper reports. “At the end of the meal the prime minister pulled a bill out his pocket and asked everyone around and his chief of staff to watch him give a tip.”