Heartbreak, again, in Nepal

When it rains it pours, so they say, and two stories from last week with unsettling addendums play prominently in the Hebrew press Sunday morning: the deaths of two more Israeli tourists in Nepal and heightened tensions in Jerusalem.

Both Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom lead off with the deaths of two Israeli backpackers, Omer Shemesh and Shira Daboush, in the Nepalese mountains after a bus overturned, the tragedy compounding one over a week earlier in the Himalayas when four Israelis were killed, and a dozen injured, in a series of freak snowstorms and avalanches.

Yedioth, with a reporter on the ground on Kathmandu, tugs at the heartstrings with interviews with Shemesh and Dabush’s significant others, both of whom were injured in the crash but survived.

“’I really love you,’ those were the last words [Shemesh] said [to her boyfriend Eyal Ankour] at the beginning of the cursed trip on the Nepali bus. After that Omer put her head on Eyal’s shoulder, he recounts from a hospital in Kathmandu. ‘I hugged her tight and we fell asleep together, until I woke up like this – alone.’”

The paper also recounts a heartbreaking scene as Dabush’s fiance, Yigal Sharivoker, forlorn, refusing food and lightly injured, visited Ankour Saturday morning. “Few words were exchanged, the two just cried on each other’s shoulders. They didn’t know each other before they got on the bus, but now their shared fate presents joint comfort. ‘Only he understands me,’ Eyal says. For his part, Sherivoker makes sure to get updates on Eyal’s condition every few hours. ‘He’ll be okay, right?’ he asks the doctors.”

Israel Hayom draws a direct line between the two tragedies with the headline “Saved from the avalanche and killed in the accident.”
A friend quoted in the paper recounts that Shemesh thought after she wasn’t killed in the avalanches, nothing could harm her:

“I was supposed to meet her in Nepal in 19 days,” the friend says. “She was going to meet me out in the field. After what happened in Annapurna, I told her I was afraid to come because something bad might happen to me there, or she would get sick there. But she just calmed me and said, ‘After the storm I survived in Annapurna, I don’t have anything to worry about. Come.’ Now those words make me shiver.”

The twin tragedies in the Himalayas, a popular trekking spot for young Israelis, likely has many parents worried about seeing their kids, freshly safe from the perils of army service, heading out into the dangerous world. Mother Anat Shenkman, though, notes in a column in Yedioth, that just as she had an opportunity for the trip of a lifetime decades ago, she understands that it’s now her son’s turn.

“So yeah, after three years [in the army] I can tell him ‘Do me a favor, stay a little closer. Under my nose. Give me a little time to get used to this and breath, It’s so dangerous out there.’ But how can I stop him from this amazing experience, that he has no doubt planned his whole life? I can just beg him to not get on a bus that’s too crowded, not to endanger himself by rafting with a messed up crew and not to go on a trek in the snow, and to know that even if he promises—it’s doubtful it will happen.”

What Molotovs may come

One need not travel far from Israel to find peril, though. As the papers note, East Jerusalem is quickly turning from powder keg into full-out conflagration. Haaretz’s lead picture, of a large gaggle of riot police watching over a larger mass of Muslim men praying in Jerusalem Friday, tells pretty much the story, while the headline “Record tension in East Jerusalem ahead of terrorists’ funeral today,” warns of what Molotov cocktails may come.

The paper reports on the “especially violent weekend,” noting that most neighborhoods in East Jerusalem saw some forms of protest on Friday and Saturday, but says the police are continuing their new operation to quell the unrest.

“On Friday, the police launched three observation balloons to film disturbances in the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, near the settlement of Kidmat Tzion, and in Shuafat. Forces in Jerusalem have been augmented by hundreds of Border Police and special forces,” the paper reports.

Israel Hayom reports that despite the violence, or more likely because of it, Housing Minister Uri Ariel, from the nationalist Jewish Home Party, is considering a move to the flashpoint neighborhood of Silwan.

The paper’s Dror Eidar praises the move, saying more Jews are needed in all parts of the city.

“Area Arabs need to pay a heavy price for their behavior on the Temple Mount and all around the capital,” he fumes. “We Jews made Jerusalem into what it is. We came home and we need to act like the homeowners. Not to apologize or be afraid. The return to Zion and the building of Jerusalem isn’t just an interest of the Jewish people, it’s the historic vision of the whole free world.”

While the current wave of violence is centered in East Jerusalem, Haaretz reports on a new directive by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to keep Palestinians with permits to enter Israel off buses used by Israeli settlers in the central West Bank on their way into Israel proper, after pressure from settler groups who see the Arabs as a “security threat.”

However, not everyone sees it that way.

“GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon does not consider the Palestinian workers entering Israel to be a security threat, as they must obtain pre-approval from the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police in order to receive permits. They then undergo body checks at the border crossings. Alon also noted that terror attacks inside Israel, like the murder of soldier Eden Attias, were carried out by those without permits, not by authorized workers,” the paper reports.

Ya’alon knows a thing or two about being shunned, after his trip to Washington last week saw him reportedly kept out of meetings with top level officials. Yedioth’s Shimon Shiffer surmises that while Ya’alon was the one getting spanked by the US, the paddle was actually aimed directly at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has done little to foster closer ties with the White House.

“It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad,” he writes. “Not to speak of dangerous: It seems that there has never been a prime minister and defense minister that were so disdained by the Americans.”