All the president’s victims

Israel’s location halfway across the globe from the US may have become mostly irrelevant thanks to the information superhighway, but it still has an effect on dinosaurs like the print press. Thus while the world was caught up in the untimely firing of FBI chief James Comey Wednesday, Israeli papers were telling sob stories about the untimely firing of the Channel 1 news staff.

Lucky for Israel’s papers, the Comey firing seems so caught up in intrigue over Russian meddling in the US elections that it’s much more than a one-day wonder and continues to make headlines, with Israeli papers caught up for the ride Thursday morning.

Haaretz is the only paper to lead with the firing, reporting matter of factly that in its top headline that Comey “was fired after seeking to expand the investigation into Trump.”

It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination and columnist Chemi Shalev notes that the move was so bald-faced as to heighten suspicions against the US president, comparing it to a Yiddish folktale about a hat thief caught after hearing “the thief’s hat is on fire” and being seen reaching to make sure his head is flame free.

“The difference between our goofball ganef and Donald Trump is that the latter didn’t wait for someone to shout out that his hat’s on fire. Trump himself set the blaze over his ginger head with his shock dismissal on Tuesday of FBI director James Comey. For many Americans, the move showed that the FBI investigation of illicit ties between Russia and Trump’s staff, before and after November’s election, was getting too close for Trump’s comfort,” he writes.

Likewise, Yedioth Ahronoth is chock full of intrigue surrounding the firing and investigation, running a large graphic that attempts to show all the furtive and not-so-furtive skullduggery between Trump, Justice officials and the Russians.

“Comey is another victim of the brutal brutishness of Trump toward anyone involved in various investigations into him,” columnist Alon Pinkas writes, naming justice officials Sally Yates and Preet Bahara as his previous victims. “The political criticism from Democrats was as harsh as expected, but the ones who find themselves in a political trouble spot are Republicans. Some criticized Trump, some disappeared. In a few months they will be forced to express their opinions on what they learned, and Trump could have a political and legal problem that no firing will solve.”

While the word “gate” is appended in Comey’s name all over the place and comparisons to Richard Nixon’s troubles run rampant, tabloid Israel Hayom shows its loyalty to Trump by running the front page headline “This is not Watergate.”

The headline comes from an op-ed by Prof. Avraham Ben-Tzvi ( the paper’s actual headline on its coverage of the scandal is Trump’s quote that “Comey didn’t do a good job, it’s very simple”) who argues that Trump is nowhere near as dastardly.

“In 1973, Nixon tried to obstruct the investigation he stood at the center of. This time the picture is totally different,” he writes. “It’s not only that Trump is not one of the central suspects suspected of having illicit ties with the Kremlin on the eve of elections, but also that there’s not a chance Comey’s ouster will stop the probe. No fewer than four bodies are involved in the investigation into Putingate, and it’s hard to believe the replacement of one of the directors will change something in the character or direction of the process as a whole.”

Luckily, one of the central people responsible for bringing down Nixon, Carl Bernstein is visiting Israel and managed to weigh in during a speech Wednesday, Yedioth reports.

“I have very little doubt — certainly by me — that the president fired the head of the FBI in order to hide the truth about what happened during his campaign regarding ties with the Russians,” the paper quotes Bernstein saying in a talk. “When I say ‘hide’ I mean that the president’s men and the president himself put roadblocks in front of investigators, Congress and the FBI so it would be hard or impossible to understand what really happened.”

Bernstein’s visit will be followed soon by that of Trump and Haaretz reports on its front page that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will delay a discussion on settlement building until after Trump takes off, fearing possible ramifications if it came up before the president lands.

“The postponement was intended to avoid friction between Israel and the U.S. over the issue of settlement construction a short while before the presidential visit. This kind of friction could mar the entire visit, turn the settlements issue into a major issue in the negotiations and give the Palestinians arguments to strengthen their position during Trump’s visit to Bethlehem and his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” the paper reports, citing a senior official.

Trump should be glad he is not flying a commercial airline as he embarks on his trip to the Middle East and Europe as the US is getting ready to announce new rules banning laptops and tablets from European countries, according to Israel Hayom’s lead story.

The reason for the expansion of the already unpopular rule, the paper reports, is fear that “Islamist terror groups have developed a new way to carry out terror attacks using electronics with large screens, like laptops.”

As for Israel, its terror is a bit more homegrown and the tabloid reports that Israel is worried Hamas is still looking for a way to get revenge over the assassination of terror chief Mazen Fuqha and not by using a laptop on a plane..

“The Shin Bet and army have ramped up efforts to thwart terror in the West Bank and in several cases have arrested terror operatives working under direct orders from Gaza to carry out attacks immediately using one of two methods: mass killings or kidnapping,” the paper reports.