Laboring over a deal
The Hebrew-language media targets Eitan Cabel and Shelly Yachimovich, after a recording apparently revealed the two had been engaged in shady political agreements
As yet another apparent political scandal comes to light, the country’s major Hebrew-language newspapers take aim at former Labor Party chairwoman MK Shelly Yachimovich and veteran party MK Eitan Cabel, who allegedly struck a secret deal to support one another in a dual leadership bid for the party and Israel’s main labor union.
The shady agreement, which was exposed in a recording obtained by Channel 2 of a conversation that took place about a month ago, is dubbed by Yedioth Aharonoth as an “Avoda Baeinayim,” a play on words which includes the Labor Party’s Hebrew title, but also translates simply “fraud.” The paper makes sure to highlight that the recording was made public after Yachimovich and Cabel each vehemently denied reaching any deal on their respective bids. In the recording, the daily continues, Cabel can be heard saying to another political figure that he will back Yachimovich in her bid to become head of the Histadrut labor federation in exchange for her supporting his, as yet unannounced, bid for leadership of the Labor Party, the main faction comprising the opposition Zionist Union.
Israel Hayom calls the recording “embarrassing” and gleefully notes in a headline which stops just short of including the word “gotcha!” that despite indications by Yachimovich and Cabel to the contrary, “actually, there is a deal.” The paper also stresses, more than once, that Cabel can be heard badmouthing current Zionist Union party leader Isaac Herzog, who happens not to be one of Israel Hayom’s most favorite political figures. According to the daily, Cabel called Herzog a “conniving deceiver, worth nothing to the party.” Herzog, who has thrown his support behind current Histadrut head Avi Nissenkorn in his bid to retain the leadership of the union, said that the recordings show a serious level of corruption, and “a breach of confidence against the wider public and members of the Labor Party.”
Haaretz is less concerned with the deteriorating state of the Labor Party than with the destabilization of the Gaza Strip due to an ongoing humanitarian crisis and the new leadership of Hamas, the terrorist organization which rules the Palestinian enclave. Earlier this week, Israel’s state comptroller took military and political leaders to task for their failure to prepare adequately for the threat of attack tunnels ahead of the 2014 war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In a pair of long-awaited, highly critical reports, the state comptroller found significant gaps in the military’s intelligence in the lead-up to the war, as well as a lack of clearly defined operational plans for how to destroy the tunnels. Those failings may have led, the report said, to the unnecessary deaths of Israeli soldiers during the 50-day conflict.
Amos Harel, Haaretz’s military correspondent and defense analyst, ties in the comptroller’s reports with the current state of affairs in Gaza, pointing to the parallels between the situation in the Strip now and the situation before the Gaza war, which resulted in the deaths of 74 Israelis — 68 soldiers, 11 of whom were killed in cross-border tunnel attacks and six civilians, as well as more than 2,000 Palestinians — with Israel putting the percentage of civilians killed at approximately 50 percent and the Palestinians estimating it to be closer to 70%. “Many of the volatile elements that led Israel into war in the Gaza Strip in summer 2014, enumerated in the state comptroller’s report on Operation Protective Edge, are back in place in the spring of 2017,” Harel writes. “[T]he trouble with the water and electricity supply — the very high unemployment and sense of being choked off could lead to a violent eruption.”
Both Israel Hayom and Yedioth Aharnoth dedicate a portion of their front page to honor iconic photojournalist David Rubinger, “the photographer of the nation,” who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 92. The two papers present various historical photos taken by Rubinger, who chronicled the evolution of modern Israel through the decades. Rubinger gathered his years of photography in Israel in the 2008 book “My Lens — Sixty Years as a Photojournalist,” by Abbeville Press, which featured a foreword by then-president Shimon Peres, and held a traveling exhibition of his photos through Europe, US and Asia. He is survived by two children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Following in the footsteps of a whole bunch of bands and artists who recently announced they would perform in the Israel, the Pet Shop Boys seem to have set their sights on the Holy Land as well. According to Yedioth Aharonoth, the British duo are on the brink of finalizing a deal with Israeli promoters, and, if all goes according to plan, will sing at the closing ceremony of Tel Aviv’s next annual gay pride parade in HaYarkon Park. The last time the band performed in Israel was in 2013.