Brussels coverage trumps pope in Hebrew media

While Francis’s visit is certainly big news, it is overshadowed in the Hebrew print press Monday by an investigation into a Saturday shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels, which left four people dead, Marissa Newman reports.

While the papers concede that the ongoing Belgian investigation of the deadly shooting spree and the video footage released to the public on Sunday yield more questions than answers, they nonetheless dedicate much of their coverage to the ever-thickening plot.

Monday's Israel Hayom front page. A story about Belgium leads, the pope coverage below in blue. (Screen capture: Israelhayom.co.il) — Monday’s Israel Hayom front page. A story about Belgium leads, the pope coverage below in blue. (Screen capture: Israelhayom.co.il)

Only Haaretz leads with the papal visit, providing a blow-by-blow account of the pope’s itinerary on Sunday, and his upcoming stops on Monday.

In an op-ed for the paper titled “A Palestinian Victory,” Jack Khoury cites the pope’s decision to pray near the security barrier, and fly from Bethlehem to Ben Gurion Airport, as testament to his recognition and support of the Palestinian cause.

“The wide-ranging international coverage that accompanied the visit offered a great opportunity for PA spokesmen to get their message across precisely now, at the moment of crisis in the diplomatic process. But more than that, there is no doubt that the pope offered a tailwind to the Palestinians to their public relations campaign they’ve been advancing in past months,” he writes.

Read the whole media review here.