Meeting with the enemy

A meeting between three prominent Arab Israeli MKs and relatives of Palestinian terrorists who carried out attacks against Israelis in recent months has drawn near-unanimous condemnation across the political spectrum, and, keeping with the general sentiment in the country, the Hebrew-language media has a tough time concealing its dismay.

Reports of the incident in Israel’s leading papers — generally susceptible to thinly veiled editorializing — are, unsurprisingly, heavily intertwined with criticisms of the parliamentarians.

“A hug for terrorists,” reads the main headline in Yedioth Aharonoth, alongside what some may consider to be unflattering photos of the three Joint (Arab) List MKs in question, namely, Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas, all of whom are members of the Balad faction. “They have no limits,” the underline determines in a tone reminiscent of a school teacher who has finally lost patience with the class’s most rowdy students.

The three lawmakers met the relatives of the terrorists on Tuesday, a day before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosted them in his Ramallah office.

A Palestinian organization representing families of “shahids” [martyrs] invited every lawmaker from the Joint List, a faction comprising all Arab parties in the Knesset, to meet in Jerusalem. The three MKs from Balad, one of the parties making up the Joint List, attended. The relatives asked the MKs to help them pressure the government to release the terrorists’ bodies for burial. The request by the families was transferred to the Public Security Ministry, a Balad party spokeswoman said. Some Israeli reports said that the meeting began with a moment of silence for the “martyrs.”

The indignation over the meeting is also present in the more-right leaning Israel Hayom, but the front page expresses what seems less like a condemnation, and more like utter astonishment, or perhaps bewilderment, in face of the MKs’ conduct. “The chutzpah of the Arab MKs,” the headline sighs, invoking a mental image of the editor-in-chief removing his glasses, staring at the ground, and rubbing his brow slowly. “They serve in the Knesset, and [yet] observe a moment of silence for the ‘shahids’.”

The entire endeavor is curiously absent from the front page of Haaretz, despite the fact that dozens of politicians, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his Likud party, through Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid and Zionist Union’s Itzik Shmuli, to the left-wing Meretz party’s Ilan Gilon, all reprimanded the Joint List MKs for meeting the aforementioned families. Instead, Haaretz’s front page leads with a report on the government’s initiative to confiscate funds from suspected terrorists, and the reservations expressed among some of the country’s leading legal experts over the proposed move.

According to the report by Jonathan Lis, the security establishment is seeking to greatly expand its authority over the forfeiture of funds designated for suspected terror use. But officials with the consulting department of the government’s Constitutional Committee have determined that such a move would violate property rights, and have raised concerns that the proposal may be an attempt to allow the defense minister to punish terror suspects without proper trial. The legal experts also stated that the move may not have the desired effect as a means to prevent terrorism.

In other news that has gripped the country and had many kids who grew up in the 1990s pumping their fists in joy, Israel Hayom and Yedioth both report gleefully on the scheduled reunion of Israel’s most successful boy-band to date, Hfive (or Hi-Five, depending on the whims of the group’s various musical producers and promoters). Sixteen years after the band members bid farewell to their droves of hormone-drenched, loud-pitched, mostly-female teenage fans, Michael Harpaz, Idan Jasskin, Eyal Dasau, Amir Gutman and Eyal Shachar announced Wednesday that they would play one more show at the Menorah Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv on April 9.

Those of us who were around during Hfive’s high days surely remember the inescapable presence of the local backstreet boys on the radio and on every street corner or shop. The group’s hit songs, which possessed such creative titles as Yom Meunan (Cloudy Day), Zman Mesiba (Party Time) and Tzoeket Ahava (Screaming Love), played repeatedly on local stations, and merchandise bearing images of the band members’ perfectly symmetrical smiles was sold everywhere.

Now that the band has traded bleached blond locks for receding middle-age hairlines, and over-sized flannel shirts for black leather jackets, will Hfive’s upcoming concert have what it takes to win back the group’s former fame and fortune? Who cares, just as long as everybody has a chance to dance again.