Drone, baby, drone

Grainy black-and-white footage of the Israeli air force shooting down an unmanned drone on Saturday morning were splashed across the front pages of the papers, while inside the question remained: Who sent the drone?

Both Maariv and Haaretz hint at the possibility that Hezbollah was responsible. Maariv writes that two-and-a-half months ago Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that there was “a surprise on its way to Israel.” Aside from that quote, Maariv also includes a separate article explaining that even if Hezbollah were responsible they would not admit it for two reasons: Fears of a fierce Israeli response and of an EU decision to brand it a terrorist group.

Writing in Haaretz, Amos Harel also suspects Hezbollah, noting, “Two years before the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah twice sent drones into Israeli territory.” Harel also points out that the previous drones were Iranian models, and that it is not a stretch of the imagination to believe they have received more advanced models. Aside from blaming Hezbollah, Harel writes, the IDF needs to check how the drone spent so much time in Israeli air space.

Israel Hayom notes that the date of the drone incident — October 6 — was also the date the Yom Kippur War broke out. “39 years after the beginning of the Yom Kippur War, again there is drama on October 6,” reads the paper’s sub-headline.

The paper quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak responding to the infiltration: “We take very seriously this attempt to harm Israel’s air space and we will consider our response.”

Yedioth Ahronoth’s headline is blunt: “Iranian drone in Israeli skies.” The article opens with a description of Iran’s growing technological capabilities, mentioning Hezbollah only in the article’s second half.

Also included in Yedioth’s coverage is a brief description of an upcoming military exercise between the US and Israel at the end of October. Included in the large-scale exercises: Identification of enemy drones.

Friends again

The flare-up last week between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak looked serious, with Friday’s papers reporting that Netanyahu was considering firing his defense minister. But all that seems to be behind them now: As Israel Hayom reports, the two met over the weekend and patched up their differences. The article quotes a statement released by the by the two: “The Prime Minister and Defense Minister agreed to cooperate against the security challenges that stand before the State of Israel.” Besides agreeing to cooperate, the statement said that they “see eye to eye on how to manage relations with the US.”

While the Bibi/Barak reconciliation may slightly dampen the election rumors, Maariv reports on former newscaster Yair Lapid’s return to the newsroom, this time as an interviewee on the program he used to host. The leader of the Yesh Atid party, Lapid wants to establish debates for the next election between the heads of the major parties. But he spent some of the interview issuing denials about rumors linking him to a friend: “I’ve explained 30 times that I’m not going with Ehud Olmert, who is a good friend, in politics. I’m also not conferring with him on political matters.”

Hotel murder

The other major news in Sunday’s papers concerned a murder in Eilat, where an American hotel worker killed a chef early Friday morning. Yedioth provides a detailed description of the incident in which William Hershkovitz shot and killed Abed Armando Shukhallah at the Leonardo Club hotel. The paper reported the reaction of members of the dead man’s family — Israeli Arabs from Galilee — who believe the attack was not work-related but was rather a terror attack.

“This was a terror attack in every sense,” a relative said. “The young murderer hated Arabs and killed Armando just because he was from a minority.”

Maariv reports that the victim’s family said no one from the hotel called to notify the family or comfort them. “The only official visit we received was from the police,” a member of the family said. “We are dependent on the media for information.” The hotel responded that it had been in touch with the family and that staffers had attended the chef’s funeral.

Is Jordan the new Egypt?

Haaretz reports that over 10,000 people demonstrated on Friday in Amman in the largest-ever protest against the rule of King Abdullah II. The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood organized the protest, with the demonstrators rallying against the Thursday’s dissolution of parliament, which paves the way for new elections which will most likely be held in early 2013.

Despite the size of the protest, the article states, “most of the opposition believes in the recent reforms and does not support the removal of the monarchy.”