Morsi’s 48 hours

Tuesday’s Hebrew dailies all focus on Egypt, reporting on the 48-hour ultimatum the army presented to President Mohammed Morsi as millions took to the streets of Israel’s neighbor to the south protesting the rule of the Islamist leader.

“On the verge of a coup,” reads the headline in Haaretz, describing one possible scenario facing Egypt. The country’s defense minister, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and the military he controls on Monday afternoon told Morsi he had two days to solve the crisis before el-Sissi took over.

In a statement, el-Sissi said that if the demands of the people weren’t met, the army would “present a new roadmap and the moves needed to enforce it.” One hour after the announcement, the paper writes, army helicopters flew over the Tahrir square with large Egyptian flags in tow.

Israel Hayom highlights not only the ultimatum but also the demonstrators’ riots at Morsi’s political home — the Muslim Brotherhood. Protesters stormed and burned the group’s headquarters in Cairo, and the tabloid reports that Islamist flags were torn off the roof and replaced with Egyptian ones.

“Armed action against us will force the Brotherhood to form armed militias for self defense,” the group said after the incident. “We won’t tolerate violent and armed attacks against our people or institutions. If Egypt’s security forces can’t provide us with protection, we’ll act.”

Veteran columnist and former diplomat Boaz Bismuth writes that the Egyptian army is “an army of the people,” noting that even those who were surprised when the generals backed the masses during the protests against Hosni Mubarak take it “almost as a given” that they once again are on the side of the protesters and not the president.

Bismuth says that while the coalition in Egypt has so far been made up of the military, secular-liberals and Brotherhood, the emerging coalition of liberals and army — without the Islamists — is a “much more natural one,” which could prove better for Egypt, “and maybe even for us in Israel.”

Though also focused on Egypt, Maariv features a piece about the need to enact law quickly — or forcibly draft 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men.

The Tal Law, which had determined the relationship between the army and the ultra-Orthodox, was struck down over a year ago and talks for a bill to replace it have taken place over the past months. However, the paper reports, since the Knesset has yet to authorize new regulations, thousands of ultra-Orthodox 18-year-olds received draft call-ups for the upcoming summer.

If no solution is found within the next few weeks, the tabloid explains, the army will need to draft the 3,000 men, most likely against their will. An unnamed military source quoted in the paper says the army would be very pleased if the Knesset could sort out this problem. Otherwise, he notes, there will be thousands of people legally described as draft dodgers — but any action the IDF or police take against them would most likely spark mass riots and tear apart Israeli society.

Yedioth Ahronoth features two domestic tragedies on its front page. The first article telling readers about a 9-month-old girl who died after her father forgot her in the family car, and the second reports that Daniel Maoz was convicted of murdering his parents.

“Our paramedics found a baby of about 9 months in the back seat, lying unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing,” MDA spokesperson Zaki Heller said. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors had to pronounce her death after revival attempts failed.

Maoz was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for murdering his parents after the Jerusalem District Court found him guilty of the crimes. He denied killing his parents, Noah and Nurit Maoz, and instead claimed it was his identical twin brother, Nir, who stabbed the two to death. Maoz was also sentenced to an additional five years for destroying evidence.

In an interesting report, Maariv reports that Rabbi Ratzon Arusi, the rabbi of Kiryat Ono, recently changed his registered birth year from 1943 to 1944. According to the report, one very likely reason could be Arusi’s hope of running for the position of chief rabbi — a job which people over the age of 70 can’t hold.

The rabbi, who also holds a PhD in law, told the paper he recently discovered his real age and decided to change it. The move, he says, “has no connection to the elections or timing of the elections.”

On a happier note, Haaretz is the only Hebrew daily to feature the news of a second Israeli headed to the NBA on its front page, reporting on the verbal commitment between Maccabi Haifa’s guard Gal Mekel and the Dallas Mavericks.

The deal, which means Mekel would join Omri Casspi as the second ever Israeli to play in the NBA, will be inked later this month, once league regulations allow teams to officially sign free agents.