A tale of two crises

Many were perturbed on Wednesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to a damning state auditor report on the housing crisis by implying that the issue paled in comparison to the Iranian threat. Yet a look at the Hebrew-language print press Thursday morning reveals that he may have tapped into a larger zeitgeist, where domestic problems are indeed waging a battle for attention with larger international disputes.

Thus Netanyahu mouthpiece Israel Hayom and lefty Haaretz each give prominent coverage to both the housing report and the deepening rift with Washington over Iran.

Only Yedioth Ahronoth gives the bulk of the coverage to the housing crisis, complete with an overdramatic front page seemingly ripped from some post-apocalyptic future where freshly painted “failure” stamps adorn the crumbling walls of apartment buildings that don’t exist.

That word, “failure,” appears over and over again as the paper delves into the report in excruciating detail, from the “political foot-dragging” to the failures of Netanyahu and his predecessor Ehud Olmert to address the issue.

“According to the comptroller report, it took Netanyahu over a year to recognize that there was a housing crisis. But that’s nothing compared to the amount of time from when it was identified until today – when nothing has happened and the crisis is at its peak,” writes commentator Sima Kadmon, who also rakes Netanyahu over the coals for deflecting attention to Iran.

“He’s saying leave me alone about housing prices and cost of living. Leave me be about the most critical problem in Israel, the problem of hundreds of thousands of couples,” she writes.

In Haaretz, reporter Or Kashti has similarly harsh words for Netanyahu and his cadre in the halls of power.

“A series of failures by Israeli governments that failed to rein in the housing crisis has forced some 1 million people into an impossible situation: Should they use their embarrassingly low salary to cover the rent, or should they use a tiny bit of it to pay for luxuries like food, medicine and education? Perhaps if the ministers and senior officials responsible for the failure had to cope with similar questions, they would be doing more and talking less. But they and their families are all taken care of,” he writes. “The state comptroller’s report released yesterday reveals that the social contract between the public and its elected officials — which includes responsibility for shelter — has been violated.”

The politicians may be set in their housing, but that could come crashing down for Netanyahu, as the broadsheet reports that the attorney general is likely to recommend the prime minister be investigated by police over a series of spending scandals related to his official residence and state money used to pay for things at his private home.

Even Israel Hayom admits that the government was useless when it came to addressing the housing crisis, though quill driver Hezi Sternlicht paints a totally different picture from the rest of the mainstream press, writing that Netanyahu could have saved the day and bashing the comptroller for not suggesting a similar privatization reform. “There’s no single voice that rises up from the report and says: enough, kick out this branch from the state and transfer it to the private market. Minimum government interference, maximum private planning and building of apartments according to public needs alone. This was a reform pushed by Netanyahu In 2010, and crushed by the left, thwarted by an army of wheeler dealers and special interests and it’s a shame, shame, shame that we didn’t get it,” he writes.

As the prime minister would want it though, the paper devotes much attention to the Iran-US ties crisis, continuing its popular series of Interviews With Formerly Important People Who Like Netanyahu and Not Obama.

This time it’s former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s turn to show that he may not know the known unknowns, but he’s damn sure that he’s “appalled by what the White House is doing.”
“Israel is an important ally, and there’s no harm in the speaker of the House inviting the prime minister, and there’s no harm in the prime minister coming to visit,” Rummy is quoted saying (in a free translation of the Hebrew account back into English). “He has always been a good friend of the US. He supports bilateral ties between the two countries and I am shocked by the comments of the White House on the matter. Not just because it distracts attention from the main issue to be taken care of, but their comments cause me grief.”

Haaretz also leads off with Iran, specifically the “outstandingly sharp” shellacking US National Security Adviser Susan Rice gave to Netanyahu over his plans to speak to Congress.

For analyst Chemi Shalev, the comments are just the latest salvo in what is shaping up to a be a great show, come March 3, so get the popcorn popping now.

“One can’t deny that this ballooning brouhaha is only enhancing the anticipation and expectations in advance of Netanyahu’s speech, turning it into a potential ratings blockbuster, the best show in town, a one-on-one, High Noon-style showdown between Netanyahu and President Obama, tense political drama of the kind that ‘House of Cards’ writers can only dream about,” he writes. “Before the fight of the century between boxers Mayweather and Pacquiao, Netanyahu will be stepping up to a Capitol Hill podium for his own fateful battle, with the whole world against him and only the Republicans cheering him on. It’s impossible to tell what the reaction will be on the day after, but the headlines the night before are crystal clear: ‘The speech of his life.’”