Wanted: A police force to catch a gunman

Five days after the deadly Tel Aviv shooting attack, with the armed gunman still on the run, the Hebrew papers on Wednesday lose patience with the security forces, who appear to have no leads on where Nashat Milhem may be hiding.

Yedioth Ahronoth mercilessly mocks Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who says that more people die in car accidents than terror attacks. Israel Hayom spotlights criticism of police efforts to hunt Milhem, while Haaretz writes that residents of Ramat Gan are struggling to keep their cool and features a political cartoon of the police chief sweating profusely under the caption “Where’s the terrorist?”

Over in Yedioth, columnist Sima Kadmon criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his speech on Saturday night at the scene of the attack… and for being a bad grandfather.

“My granddaughter goes to daycare on Dizengoff street, not far from where the horrific murder took place. The thought that an armed terrorist could be running around these streets makes my stomach turn,” writes Kadmon. “But then the ministers came along with a sentence that will likely be ingrained in our minds as the height of insensitivity and stupidity — with the exception of Netanyahu’s speech on Saturday night — that more people die in car accidents,” she writes.

“So I wanted to tell you something, Mr. Prime Minister, from a grandmother to a grandfather. You are also a grandfather, Mr. Netanyahu, not only the father of two sons who you mentioned in your cheap populism, your speech of incitement, but also a grandfather to several grandchildren, who, although we know nothing about them, exist, thank God… The last thing the citizens of Israel want right now is incitement, or empty statements about bigger dangers than an armed gunman in the streets,” she writes.

The paper also trolls Erdan, pointing out that car accident fatalities have also risen considerably under the current government.

“To the attention of ministers Erdan and Bennett: Netanyahu’s fourth government doesn’t have much to boast about with regard to road safety. 2015 ended with an 11 percent climb in the number of people who died in car accidents in Israel, with 357 victims — an average of one fatality per day,” it reports.

Opinion: Haaretz Daily Cartoon – 5/1/2016 https://t.co/Jo9okV5MMJ pic.twitter.com/1aLb1UbkP4

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— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 5, 2016

Over in Israel Hayom, the paper reports that the high alert in the Ramat Gan neighborhood on Monday was due, in part, to a tip from a resident who said a man with an Arabic accent asked her if police were around.

“Three days have passed since the Dizengoff attack, and it seems the police and Shin Bet are flailing in the dark rather than following leads,” it reports.

The paper reports that more than 80 percent of students in the Tel Aviv area skipped school on Tuesday over the terror fears. In one high school in Ramat Aviv, only 230 of the 1,600 students came, it says. The paper also says Dizengoff street bars were offering discounts in an effort to draw out residents to the streets, in a joint project with the Tel Aviv municipality.

Over in Haaretz, the daily reports that parents in Ramat Aviv are panic-stricken, and rumors spreading on social media aren’t helping matters.

“Every so often I get a message on WhatsApp that they think they caught him in this or that building. There is a sense that because we are in Israel, we must display this coolness and bravery and send our children [to school]. But I’m not cool, I’m not. I am a coward. In our building, all of the children except for one stayed home,” said one Tel Aviv mother, identified only as S.

With all attention focused on the ongoing manhunt, the Hezbollah cross-border attack on Monday, which did not lead to any Israeli injuries, is tucked deeper into the three papers — a fact pointed out by Haaretz’s Amos Harel.

“Because the Har Dov incident ended with no casualties, it didn’t oust the manhunt for Nashat Milhem, the alleged perpetrator of Friday’s deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv, from the headlines. But although that hunt is unquestionably important, and the fact that Milhem remains at large is worrying many parents in Tel Aviv, what’s happening on the Lebanese border is no less important since it has the potential for complications that could affect all Israelis,” he writes.

Whether Hezbollah will seek further attacks on Israel in revenge for the assassination of Samir Kuntar last month remains to be seen, he maintains.

“What Hezbollah hasn’t said is whether that bomb was merely the first in a series of planned actions. To some extent, Nasrallah’s statements have boxed his organization in: By creating high expectations for revenge, they’ve made it hard for him to justify settling for a retaliation that claimed no casualties. Even so, it’s possible to hope he won’t be inflamed by his own rhetoric and will now restrain his operatives before the situation escalates further.”