Fire in the hole

The dismissal of a senior Defense Ministry official who oversaw the development of Israel’s missile defense programs for breaching information security protocols causes a stir in the Hebrew press. Israel Hayom calls the dismissal of Ilan Ramati “an earthquake in the skies,” alluding to Ramati’s role in the Iron Dome and David’s Sling programs.

Yedioth Ahronoth, channeling Donald Trump, just has the word “fired,” with a missile mid-launch in the background (though the play on words doesn’t work as well in Hebrew). Haaretz devotes a small article on page 5 to the story, and leads instead with the Construction Ministry’s allocation of funds to developing a controversial sliver of West Bank land.

Israel Hayom says that much of the Ramati episode is shrouded in uncertainty, but that he was given his marching orders after classified material was found on his private computer. Yedioth Ahronoth says that the information concerned development plans for one of the missile programs under his supervision, and that because of the top-secret nature of the material he’ll be investigated for possibly damaging Israel’s security.

“In the period of his tenure Ramati significantly advanced the development and strengthening of the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow systems,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement about his dismissal.

Israel Hayom notes that Ramati was one of a handful of senior Defense Ministry officials fired recently for information security issues. Brigadier General Ilan Levi was sacked after his car was stolen with classified documents inside — later recovered — while a colonel in the navy was fired for giving classified documents to unauthorized personnel.

Pundits from both tabloids weigh in on Ramati’s dismissal and comment on its bizarre nature. Yoav Limor writes in Israel Hayom that the official “and laconic” explanation for his dismissal “sounds a bit simplistic,” and says there must be something else behind it.

The decision to get rid of Ramati, a senior and near irreplaceable asset, wasn’t a snap one, he says. “Presumably what stands against [Ramati] must have been grave enough that this kind of a decision was made.” He says only the coming days will show whether there were additional matters that lead to the “aggressive and hasty decision” to send Ramati packing.

Alex Fishman writes in Yedioth Ahronoth that something stinks about the whole affair, and that it’s hard to believe that the explanation given by the Defense Ministry — that Ramati repeatedly put classified material on his personal computer — is the whole story. He notes that Ramati’s predecessor and mentor, Dov Raviv, was dismissed from the Defense Ministry under similar circumstances two decades ago.

Fishman, like Limor, lavishes praise on Ramati and says that the Defense Ministry’s announcements “obscure the picture.”

“It’s not clear what the severity of Ramati’s transgression is,” he writes. “What is clear is that the defense establishment, and indeed Israel, lost one of the best administrative and technological minds it raised.”

You know the tedium of terrorism has set in when daily reports of Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians doesn’t make the front page of a single national newspaper. Despite the fact that three soldiers were hurt in stabbings and several other attacks were thwarted on Sunday, those reports make page 4 of Haaretz, page 6 of Yedioth Ahronoth and page 7 of Israel Hayom.

Haaretz leads instead with a Peace Now report that in 2014, the Housing and Construction Ministry hired an urban planner for NIS 3.6 million to develop 3,200 housing units in a controversial tract of West Bank land linking Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim known as E1. The planning was commissioned in November 2014, over a year after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze plans for developing in E1 amid American protests. The US contends that Israeli settlement construction in E1 would sever the West Bank in two and prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

Besides the E1 project, the documents obtained by Peace Now and published by Haaretz detail plans by the Housing and Construction Ministry to develop small settlements surrounding Jerusalem into urban centers, amounting to thousands of housing units.

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s appeal verdict date is Tuesday and it’s a sideshow to Ramati’s dismissal and West Bank construction. Olmert’s appeal in the Holyland corruption case gets page 6 attention in Haaretz, and page 10 ignominy in Yedioth Ahronoth. Yedioth reports that almost four years after charges were brought against the former prime minister, and nearly a year and a half after a Tel Aviv court found him guilty, Olmert will find out tomorrow if he’s going to the big house for six years, will get a reduced sentence, or will get off scot-free.