Making America late again

As a new dawn rises in the US, the headlines of this country’s major Hebrew-language papers look slightly comical, having been printed several hours before last night’s drama unfolded and failing to report the only news anyone cares about — Donald Trump’s stunning upset over Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom, the country’s two most widely distributed tabloids, are filled with anecdotal articles about voters in rural America, as well as tidbits about the electoral process, major obstacles that the next president might face, and policies that are expected to be revisited during the term of the free world’s next leader. In short, a rehashing of the papers’ content over the last several months. On the sidelines of its inner pages, Yedioth also runs a series of trivia facts regarding former US presidents, including the shortest and longest presidential victory speech (George Washington 135 words, and William Harrison 8,445 words, respectively), the number of presidents who died of natural causes while in office (4) as well as the number who were assassinated while serving (4), and finally, the first president to appoint a Jewish member to his cabinet (Theodore Roosevelt, under whom Oscar Strauss served as secretary of commerce and labor from 1906 to 1909). Israel Hayom, on the other hand, looks for the Israel-related angle of the race, and highlights Trump’s fiery words against President Barack Obama, whom the former accused of being the “worst thing that has happened to Israel ever.”

In Haaretz much more emphasis is placed on analysis and comments about the state of American politics and internal relations between the various segments of society in the country. Contributor Amir Oren writes that the Democratic and Republican parties will need to work together, no matter what, in order to assure that democracy functions and that the Trump campaign does not leave a permanent stain on Washington. Yael Sternhell claims that Trump’s rise was due to the changing demographics of the United States, and the feeling among factions of American whites that their country has shifted from its original ideals and goals. Chemi Shalev writes that Obama, while campaigning for Clinton over the past weeks, finally showed the vigor and energy that had been the mark of his ascent to the White House eight years ago, and wonders where those traits had been hiding throughout his presidential term.

Since the results of the elections had not been announced by the time the Hebrew-language newspapers were put to bed, other, more parochial stories are prominently featured in the major dailies. One such story, which rocked Israeli social media circles, was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unprecedented attack against veteran journalist Ilana Dayan, who ran a report on her show “Uvda” on the workings of the Israeli leader’s inner circle. Instead of responding to Dayan’s claims and questions in light of her investigation, Netanyahu accused the journalist of being “a left-wing extremist” bent on bringing down his government. Dayan, the prime minister’s office wrote, “does not have an iota of professional integrity” and is “one of the ringleaders of the orchestrated attacks on… Netanyahu.”

Diplomatic reporters from both Yedioth and Haaretz, like their peers in almost all other major media outlets across the country, heavily criticized Netanyahu’s response to Dayan. Israel’s Diplomatic Correspondents Association on Tuesday released a statement saying it “strongly protests the prime minister’s unbridled personal attacks against the television program ‘Uvda’ and its host Ilana Dayan, one of the most senior journalists in Israel.” The statement notes that though “of course the prime minister has a right to respond, but the Diplomatic Correspondents Association regrets that the response given did not at all deal with the findings of the investigation but consisted merely of a letter lashing out at Ilana Dayan. In a democracy, the government cannot intimidate journalists.” Reports in both papers about the response to Dayan’s damning TV investigation reflect this critical sentiment.

But in the Netanyahu-friendly Israel Hayom, the details of the investigative report are nearly absent from the report. The paper instead chooses to print the prime minister’s attack, word for word, on nearly half a page. Interestingly enough, Shlomo Zesna, Israel Hayom’s diplomatic correspondent and himself a member of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, did not sign the letter of protest over Netanyahu’s response as did almost all the rest of the members of the group. According to the Israeli media watchdog site the Seventh Eye, Tzena confirmed to them that he had wanted to sign the statement, but was barred from doing so by his editors at Israel Hayom.

Finally, Yedioth reports that the Liverpool Football Club in the United Kingdom has offered the State of Israel the chance to be one of the team’s official sponsors. In return, the name of the Jewish state will be featured in the team’s jerseys and on banners in Anfield, Liverpool’s famous soccer stadium.