For Netanyahu, papers spy turbulence ahead

Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to be bathing in sunshine. He had put the opposition in disarray and made their leader look like a fool, he seemed to be on his way to expanding his coalition, and it looked like some were starting to cotton to his arguments against a French peace confab.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning, though, and things couldn’t look cloudier for the prime minister. Headlines are replete with news Netanyahu may be investigated again over billing for travel as a State Comptroller report on the matter is set to be released later in the day, coalition talks with Yisrael Beytenu, if not stalled are at least not moving as fast as many thought they would, and some coalition partners are threatening to rebel.

At least the opposition is still a mess and leader Isaac Herzog is still a joke.

What’s not a joke are the resurgent ‘Bibitours’ accusations that Netanyahu will have to contend with, with papers gobbing onto a Channel 2 report the night earlier that police are looking into reopening their probe of irregularities in travel finances when Netanyahu was finance minister and revving up for the release of a damning report by the state watchdog later Tuesday.

“Suspicion of criminality,” reads a headline in Yedioth Ahronoth, quoting from State Comptroller Yosef Shapira’s findings, despite the fact that the report is still under embargo until Tuesday afternoon.

Haaretz notes that though the report can’t be quoted from, the evidence supporting the criminal suspicions are not included in the report, and were addressed in a separate statement issued by the comptroller’s office Monday, making them fair game.

“The announcement clarifies the difference between what’s in the report and the criminal suspicions: ‘Given the attorney general’s examination of these issues [the double funding, diversion of funds and the personal use of points belonging to the state] and others, there are topics related to the issue that the state comptroller is prevented from examining in the framework of this report,’” the paper reports.

Even Netanyahu mouthpiece Israel Hayom writes about the report, though unlike the other papers, which lead off with the Bibitours suspicions, the tabloid buries the report on page 15. If that weren’t enough, it focuses its story on trying to deep-six the investigation and another one into spending at the Prime Minister’s Residence as well, even turning to a little known news outlet to back up its case.

“The News1 site published earlier that no criminal wrongdoing had been found in the investigations into spending at the Prime Minister’s Residence and Bibitours, and the police finished their investigations and soon the police and attorney general, according to the report, were expected to announce that no criminal wrongdoing in the PM’s Residence case had been found against Sara Netanyahu,” the paper reports. “Yet they are also expected to announce there is evidence against Ezra Saidoff, who managed the PM’s Residence, and electrician Avi Fahima. The story also noted that no criminal suspicions were found in the travel abroad case.”

Yedioth’s Sima Kadmon isn’t so sure and notes that complications in coalition talks are “child’s play” compared to the storm Netanyahu faces over this.

“Netanyahu knows that from this evening, the public eye will be focused on the report and on his family. Widening the coalition will be but a footnote to what we are expecting. This is also probably one of the reasons Netanyahu wanted to expand the government before the report was published,” she writes. “On the other hand, maybe this will play out in Netanyahu’s favor: With all the hubbub, who will notice that Liberman cut corners, Kahlon compromised and Bennett folded his tail between his legs.”

Until that happens though, coalition talks remain snagged, with reports that a deal is imminent in past days giving way to headlines reporting that talks are not as simple as they once seemed, or as Haaretz columnist Yossi Verter puts it, “no longer a walk in the park.”

“Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon made it clear to Netanyahu that he will not be a rubber stamp or an ATM for realizing the prime minister’s political dreams. That prompted Avigdor Liberman to call a press conference and declare that the talks had reached a dead end. Since the problem is (only) money, one can assume that the crisis will be resolved and the 66-member coalition will be established speedily in our days,” Verter writes. “But Netanyahu was taught yet another lesson about the limitations of power, from Kahlon, guardian of the public purse, and from [Education Minister] Naftali Bennett, whose seemingly justified demands to give the inner cabinet the tools it need to do its job were repeatedly brushed off by the prime minister.”

Keep calm and quit yer whining

Netanyahu’s response has been to maintain everything is fine and there’s no reason to worry over coalition talks, the same way he told people to stop crying and wailing over the prospect of Liberman becoming defense minister on Sunday.

That response is par for the course for Netanyahu, writes Merav Batito in Yedioth’s op-ed page.

“From Netanyahu’s point of view, he doesn’t need to talk about the body of the issue and explain why it was the right thing to do to replace the defense minister or how he’ll keep stability with a move like this to Israeli citizens, and he certainly didn’t need to justify it,” she writes. “Instead he lashed out at the tears and moaning and gave them new names more befitting the spirit of unrestrained opportunism: ‘self-flagellation,’ ‘depression’ and ‘attempted intimidation.’ That’s how it is in Netanyahu’s world, he hears the criticism but to him it just sounds like ‘oy, oy, oy.’”

Not just Netanyahu, but Israel Hayom has apparently also had it with all the whining and second-guessing, devoting a whole column to attempting to tear down the media for at first bashing former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, and then defending him when he engaged in a war of words with Netanyahu that led to his ouster. The result is that you can’t trust the pen jockeys, Lior Yaakobi writes, apparently forgetting that Israel Hayom is no stranger itself to the flip flop.

“After Ya’alon quit last week for his post, the media and politicians began a witch hunt around the issue. Ya’alon was presented as the last of the Mohicans, as one who defended the morals of the IDF and of society as a whole. Yet if we take a glance at papers in years past from 2008-2009, there’s not a hint of grace or support. If anything the opposite,” he writes, before dredging up quotes from columnists and politicians bashing Ya’alon. “These are just a selection of examples from one period in which Ya’alon was seen as irresponsible. And now it’s flipped. He’s their favorite, the most responsible and considerate man in the country’s leadership. Some will say that perhaps Ya’alon changed. It’s possible. But the analysts? They were wrong then and it’s safe to say they are wrong again.”