Another Islamic State killing rattles Israel

The sadly all too familiar tableau of a Western hostage wearing orange next to a faceless executioner looks out from the pages of the Hebrew papers, announcing the brutal death of Alan Henning at the hands of the Islamic State.

Yedioth Ahronoth leads with the headline, “No mercy.” Inside the paper has a two-page spread about IS and the hostages it has killed so far. The paper includes a brief bio on Peter Kassig, the ex-American soldier who is believed to have been designated the “next victim” after he was shown in an IS video. Kassig was in Syria as part of an organization delivering aid to Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war. His parents released a video on Friday where they pleaded with his captors to release their son, and told Peter that “they were very proud of him.”

Israel Hayom’s headline is a condensed quote from UK Prime Minister David Cameron, “The barbarians must be killed.” In its coverage, the paper includes an op-ed by Dan Margalit who writes, “Like Ebola, IS must be eradicated.” Margalit writes that IS doesn’t care if its victims are helping Muslims (Henning was a aid worker in Syria) or are Muslims (Kassig converted to Islam), if they are foreign IS will kill them. “Ebola is a rare disease known for its high death rate, 50 to 90 percent. The virus known as the Islamic State does not give you even a small chance to live,” he writes.

Only Haaretz doesn’t put the picture of Alan Henning on its front page, but it is still the top story. Instead of focusing only on the killing, the paper reports that the coalition against IS is growing. Canada and Australia are now joining the coalition against the group, with both countries pledging to use their respective air forces to attack IS targets.

While the world is focused on IS, Sweden threw a diplomatic curveball on Friday, saying that the government would recognize the Palestinian state. Haaretz reports that the incoming prime minister Stefan Lofven said the only way to end the conflict here was through a two state solution, and so Sweden would recognize the state of Palestine. Despite the announcement, the paper points out that he didn’t say when this recognition would occur or what it would look like.

Israel Hayom reports that Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is angry at the decision and summoned the Swedish ambassador for a dressing down. Liberman said that he was disappointed to see the declaration made before the new prime minister had a chance to dig deep and see who was really responsible for the stalemate. He also suggested that the new prime minister “focus on more pressing issues such as the daily mass killings taking place in Syria and Iraq.”

The guards get more

Anyone who has been to Israel knows that at the entrance of public places stand security guards who check everyone going in to try to prevent terror attacks. Despite their importance in public safety, the guards are not well paid, but as Yedioth reports, that’s getting a little better. Starting today, security guards will get extra benefits that will add up to an extra 1,000 shekels a month.

The benefits include raising the minimum monthly wage from 4,300 shekels a month (about $1,160) to 4,777 shekels a month (about $1,290). Also increased are the benefits for travel to and from work, and pension fund contributions, and workman’s compensation will rise from 378 shekels a day (about $100) to 427 shekels a day ($115). Security guard Anton Groissar told the paper, “An extra thousand shekels is very good, and it shows us that we’re respected. We want to work and also earn a fair salary.”

Yom Kippurs past and present

On Friday night, Israel completely shut down once again to celebrate the holiday of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, and the papers have all the updates on what happened and, perhaps more importantly, what didn’t happen.

Haaretz reports that despite fears, there was no violence this year between Arabs and Jews during the holiday. The reason for the fear was the rare overlapping of Yom Kippur, where religious Jews fast for 25 hours, and the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which is marked by feasts and barbecues. The paper reports that with the streets empty of cars in observance of Yom Kippur, the only news was a lot of minor bicycle accidents.

However, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that one of the bicycle accidents was not minor. A 12-year-old child was riding his bike in Haifa when he lost control of his bike and fell off a bridge. The boy suffered multiple fractures and is listed in serious condition after undergoing emergency surgery. In Beersheba, the paper reports that a son of a rabbi fell and hurt his head while the rabbi was leading services. Prayer was delayed 45 minutes as the rabbi attended to his child, who was taken to the hospital and given 28 stitches.

Finally, no Yom Kippur would be complete without a look back at the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Newly released documents from the Agranat Commission (which was charged with investigating the war) shows that the head of the IDF Signal Unit (now known as Unit 8200) warned the head of Military Intelligence, Eli Zeira, about the buildup of Egyptian troops along the Suez Canal and wanted to call up 100,000 to 150,000 reservists. However, Zeira denied that anything was amiss and refused the request, saying that it wasn’t their job to worry the country over nothing.