Knocking on Bibi’s door

The defense establishment’s Iranian debate was splashed across today’s front pages in various incarnations.

Yedioth Ahronoth leads with government ministers complaining about the decision making process relating to a possible Iran strike. “Cabinet ministers – we’re not being updated,” reads the headline, quoting anonymous ministers who claim they are being kept out of the loop. “If tomorrow there will be a crucial discussion about attacking Iran, it will be out of the blue,” one minister told the paper. But as the article points out, the prime minister has always received Cabinet approval prior to reaching major decisions and Netanyahu is expected to do the same for Iran even though he doesn’t have to.

Netanyahu is keen to take responsibility for a strike on Iran, as Haaretz’s headline notes, “Prime minister: ‘If there will be an investigation committee about attacking Iran, I will appear before it and say that I am responsible.” The article describes Netanyahu as being frustrated with the internal discussion process, with ministers and officials trying to cover their behinds on the Iranian subject.

Israel Hayom is also frustrated, but not with Netanyahu. The paper calls the former intelligence chiefs that have spoken out against an Israeli strike “Chatterboxes.” On the front page the paper tries to shame both  former head of military intelligence Aharon Zeevi Farkash and former head of the Mossad Ephraim Halevy by saying, “Iran continues to run for a nuclear bomb – while in Israel former intelligence chiefs run for the microphone.” Ouch. But what got Israel Hayom so upset?  Halevy said that he didn’t want Israel to attack Iran on its own while Farkash said he expected a strike on Iran in a number of months.

On the following page, Israel Hayom has an article that quotes former American defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying, “If I were Israel, I wouldn’t notify the White House,” before an Iran strike. Rumsfeld’s reasoning is that with the current state of relations, the information may be leaked.

Maariv sidesteps the politics around attacking Iran and uses its front page to report on the successful Iranian test of its new short-range missile. The paper called the test a demonstration of power, but asks the question: “Where can the missile hit?” Maariv answers its own question with a map showing the range of the missile, which includes an American navy base in Bahrain.

On the border

The situation in Syria touched Israel directly over the weekend with an incident on the Syrian border in the Golan Heights. A man approached the old security fence on the border and tried to cut through it. After he ignored warnings to back away from the fence, the IDF fired and hit him in the legs. People from the Syrian side of the border took him for medical attention. As Israel Hayom reports, IDF officials have reported a recent increase in the number of sightings of suspicious characters on the Golan border while the IDF intelligence reports that al-Qaeda is active in the area.

Al-Qaeda may not be the only foreign element in Syria, as Yedioth reports that the Syrian rebels claim that Iran is sending combat soldiers and snipers to assist the Assad regime. The article also reports that Assad is holed up in his palace in Damascus. The article concludes with the Israeli ambassador to the UN warning that as the situation in Syria deteriorates, Israel will act to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons to Hezbollah.

Those may not be the only fiery words spoken at the UN in the coming months since, as Maariv reports, Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to apply for recognition as an observer nation from the General Assembly. The article points out that this is the Palestinian’s “plan B” after last year’s failed attempt to gain statehood via the UN Security Council. Maariv stated that the Palestinians are expected to submit the request at the end of September.

One night, two protests

Attempts to restart last year’s social protests have not been as successful as organizers hoped so far but there was renewed hope that Saturday night’s two protests for the social justice movement and the Suckers camp (those arguing for equal service for all Israeli citizens) would see a revival of last summer’s mass protests. Haaretz highlighted the differences between the two demonstrations, stating that the demonstrators for equal service were “quiet, polite,” while at the social protests, eight people were arrested with skirmishes with police.

Also making the news is the beating of an Israeli soldier by his older comrades. Yedioth shows the hospitalized soldier after he was badly beaten, stating that he felt he was “saved by a miracle.” The soldiers who beat the corporal have been arrested and are being investigated.

Stop blabbing

In Israel Hayom’s opinion pages, Dan Margalit reacts to the former intelligence officials sharing their opinions about a possible attack on Iran. “Why are senior IDF officers, who are subordinate to the civilian government, rising up against Benjamin Netanyahu?” he asks. All the public discussion of whether or not to attack Iran doesn’t help the government decide the correct course of action.” Margalit then goes for the jugular in his concluding sentence, “It seems that some talkative Israelis behave as if they were members of the Revolutionary Guards.”

In Haaretz, Druze commentator Salman Masahla writes about the social movement and the occupation in his piece “The people choose social damage.” He writes that social justice is inconsistent with an occupation of an entire people and the continued discrimination of the Arab communities inside the Green Line. “Therefore it must be said clearly and without embellishment: as long as there is no clear demand to end the occupation on the one hand, and social equality and civil totally on the other… then nothing good will come of protests, now or in the future.”