Having a blast in Iran

The Israeli press has a regular whodunit on its hands with the “mysterious” explosion which reportedly took place near Iran’s Parchin military facility outside Tehran. Parchin is home to what the West suspects is a secret nuclear facility, to which Iran has barred access to inspectors since 2005.

Two people were reportedly killed in the fire that raged in a “workshop for explosives production” at Parchin, Haaretz quotes Iranian news outlets reporting, and notes that the blast took place on the evening before IAEA inspectors arrived in the capital.

While none of the other news outlets reports it, Israel Hayom identifies one of the people killed in the explosion at Parchin as an “Iranian nuclear scientist.” It doesn’t specify how it knows that, but Israel refuses to comment on the incident.

Yedioth Ahronoth rambles on about how it’s not clear whether or not the blast was the product of espionage or not, but states that if it were it would be “an exceptional achievement.” Like the rest of the papers, it quotes an iffy opposition newspaper in Iran’s claim that the blast was so strong that it blew out the windows in buildings 15 kilometers (10 miles) away.

The big story in the tabloids, however, is that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz awarded the navy’s elite commando unit a chief of staff citation, one of the highest military honors. Yedioth Ahronoth reports in its front page story that Shayetet 13 earned the award for executing 45 missions in the past year. The paper cites the IDF saying that the unit’s missions were “trailblazing” in their capabilities and accomplishments, and some took place in concert with other unspecified foreign security units.

Israel Hayom has a much more bare-bones article on the awards ceremony held in Atlit, but quotes Gantz saying that the commandos “don’t shy away from any mission, they look for a way to fit in, how to influence, how to integrate” and that this commendation didn’t just spring up overnight.

Top story in Haaretz is outgoing Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s last ditch campaign to tighten regulations against illegal migrant workers from Africa. The paper reports that Sa’ar, who said he would resign his Knesset seat following the holidays, is pushing a bill that would see the continued incarceration of illegal migrant workers and keep the Holot facility operating, despite a High Court of Justice ruling to shut it down. Sa’ar also supports legislation which would limit the power of the High Court and prevent it from striking down the new migrants law.

The paper quotes Sa’ar saying during a Knesset committee meeting that he wouldn’t order the closure of the Holot detention facility in the Negev Desert, as per a High Court order from last month, but rather he would work to expand the complex.

“There must be incarceration for anyone who enters [Israel without a permit],” Sa’ar is quoted in Haaretz saying. “They say, There’s a fence, so why do you need to detain those who enter? The fence is almost irrelevant; the more significant question is what happens to those who cross the fence.”

Of all people, Dan Margalit comes to the defense of the rule of law in an Israel Hayom column and criticizes Sa’ar’s bill. He says that the interior minister’s proposal, which he calls “aggressive legislation,” “endangers the rights of the citizen and the enlightened character of Israel.”

“In this struggle between Sa’ar and [Attorney General] Yehuda Weinstein, justice rests on the side of the attorney general,” he writes. “Not only because the High Court of Justice acted correctly in its decision against prolonged detention without trial before a judge, but essentially because of the far-reaching consequences of the small limitation that Sa’ar [seeks to] impose on the supremacy of the rule of law in the future.”

Haaretz also rails against Sa’ar in its editorial, saying the Likud minister is harming Israeli democracy. It reminds the interior minister that “the government and the Knesset cannot refuse to accept a High Court ruling. Such refusal undermines the rule of law.”

“Sa’ar’s defiant assault on the High Court of Justice is part of a comprehensive attack by this right-wing government against the rule of law. The assault includes, among other things, the proposed legislation that would allow a special Knesset majority, for a limited time, to re-legislate a law that the High Court has already struck down.”

Dealing with the old-new issue of cost of living in Israel that’s resurfaced in recent days, Israel Hayom runs a very short article on Page 7 quoting Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, who headed a committee to investigate cost of living, saying the prices of basic commodities in Israel are “incomprehensible.”

“The greatest failure of implementing the conclusions of the committee was on the issue of housing,” Trajtenberg says. “The prime minister of Israel is not capable of leading the socioeconomic issue — not in the existing situation in Israel. There are difficulties that are unique to us, that make taking the reins on the socioeconomic issue very challenging.”