Iron Dome provides some southern comfort

As could be expected, the rocket fire and dramatic intensification of hostilities in the south and Gaza dominate Israeli papers this morning. “One million Israelis under fire,” Maariv screams from its front page, while Yedioth Ahronoth takes a more optimistic tack with the headline “Defensive wall,” touting the successes of the Iron Dome anti-missile system, which shot down 28 rockets (out of 31 or more targeted) over the weekend. Israel Hayom also cottons to the anti-missile system with the headline “Grad-busters,” and Haaretz plays it straight with the double-decker: “Escalation in the south: Over 110 rockets fired at Israel; 15 Palestinians killed in Gaza.

Both Maariv and Haaretz run nearly the same picture (different angles) of a family in a bomb shelter. Yedioth leads with a striking shot of an Iron Dome battery firing off an anti-missile rocket, and Israel Hayom straddles the line with side-by-side pictures of an idle Iron Dome battery and a bomb shelter.

Writing in Yedioth, Alex Fishman sees the weekend’s events as a “planned escalation,” with Iron Dome batteries put in place beforehand for the expected response to the killing of a major terror leader. It is only thanks to Iron Dome that Israel hasn’t launched an offensive yet, but if things continue, a ground invasion will be in the offing, he writes. The red line, he notes, “will be influenced by the number of people injured and the ability of a million and half Israeli citizens, residents of the south, to live their day-to-day lives quietly.”

In Maariv, Yisrael Ziv writes that the actions in the south are also meant as a message to Egypt, which has expanded contacts with Hamas since the fall of Hosni Mubarak over a year ago, and may continue that trend if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over. “Israel is trying to create a new and painful balance vis-à-vis Hamas and its ilk, and through that, send a clear message to the Muslim Brotherhood,” he pens.

Haaretz’s Amos Harel and Avi issacharoff team up to compose an analysis claiming neither Israel nor Hamas is actually interested in an escalation. “The good news is that Hamas has no interest in Operation Cast Lead, the sequel. The bad news is that Hamas has less control over the situation than in the past. Islamic Jihad, with avid support from Iran, has accumulated its own stores of deadly rockets.… Hamas does not want Gazans to view it as Israel’s ‘border guard,’ but in the clash between the desire to maintain resistance to Israel and to remain in control of the Strip, Hamas has repeatedly chosen to avoid direct military confrontation with Israel.”

Yedioth also runs a story saying that police are looking into a claim that many bomb shelters in the south are unfit for use after contractors paid out bribes to get a pass on building them to code. “If a rocket fell on one of them, we would witness a catastrophe,” one person close to the investigation told the paper.

Israel Hayom runs a piece on Islamic Jihad terrorists claiming to have multiple barrel rocket-launchers, a claim the IDF has refuted. The terror group marched out a film yesterday showing the truck-mounted launcher and saying it proves they have the launchers. The army believes, but can’t be sure yet, that the picture is fabricated and the claim is being used simply as a scare tactic.

Maariv wants readers to know that though the head of the Popular Resistance Committees is dead, the terror attack he was reportedly planning may still be going ahead, according to military sources. Security officials believe the attack will be a close copy of the attack carried out by the group over the summer on Route 12 near Eilat. “It seems he intended to carry out shootings, bomb plantings and the kidnapping of a soldier or citizen,” a security official is quoted as saying. The article goes on to note that Route 12, which runs along the Egypt border, has been closed out of fear of another attack, despite the fact that it just reopened last month after receiving serious security upgrades.

Minister of not very far walks

Rockets aren’t the only thing in the press this morning.

Yedioth has the sordid tale of a minister, Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, to be exact, who was photographed parking in a handicapped spot despite the fact she’s not handicapped. The story came to light when Galia Aloni-Dagan tried to take her 5-year-old son to a Purim performance and was refused entry to the parking lot despite having a handicapped sticker. After parking far away and walking, she saw a car was in fact in the handicapped spot and asked a guard about it, who said it belonged to the minister. The story spread via Facebook and yesterday Livnat called Aloni-Dagan to apologize. “I don’t drive the car and I had no idea after I got out that the driver parked in a handicapped spot, which is definitely against my directions and against the law,” she reportedly said.

Maariv reports that rightist activists are planning to march around the heavily Arab city of Nazareth today despite police orders against it. Some 1,000 people were expected at the march, which is directed against MK Hanin Zoabi, a resident who has been a vocal critic of Israel. The paper reports that the police called off the march because they cannot provide protection for the marchers, as all available manpower has been sent to deal with the situation down south. Many rightists still plan on protesting, though.

Pirates and terrorists

In Israel Hayom, Ze’ev Jabotinsky (grandson of the Beitar leader) writes that now is the time to hit Gaza and hit it hard, in a court of law. Jabotinsky finds a telling example in the success of the British against pirates 200 years ago and says Israel can take the same tactics against terrorists. “Targeting a civilian population with the aim of harming those who are innocent is defined as a crime against humanity and is a war crime. Thus, anyone who plans shooting like this, teaches shooting, organizes finances or helps in any way, has abrogated international law. For this they should be brought to court.”

In Haaretz, the always-rosy Gideon Levy wishes Israel had left the terror leader Zuhair al-Qaissi alone: “Who started it? The IDF and the Shin Bet security service did. The impression is that they carry out the targeted killings whenever they can, and not whenever it is necessary.… Who knows what the late al-Qaissi had planned? Only the Shin Bet does, so we accept his death sentence without unnecessary questions.”