Mudslinging, Israeli style

There are a plethora of clichés one could use to describe Monday’s front pages: no holds barred, no quarter given, my dad can beat up your dad. But alas, it’s best to call it what it is: good ol’ fashioned mudslinging.

Israel Hayom proclaims on its front page, “Yedioth and Ynet [its website] have crossed the line.” The paper’s Itzik Saban attacks Yedioth for criticizing Netanyahu’s demeanor during his recent visit to France, for a recent article about the closed “Bibitours” investigation, and now, for attacking Sara Netanyahu (more on that later). It lambastes Yedioth for having a clear agenda: knocking Likud out of power. “It seems that under the guise of journalism, they’re leftists working for the left.”

Israel Hayom isn’t satisfied with just one op-ed, so the paper’s Haim Shine also joins in. Shine blames the lack of civility in this election on the left. “The majority of the Israeli public understands that you cannot leave the future of the country in the hands of the left, which provoked the wrath of the media and caused an outbreak of filth that pollutes the public space,” he writes.

He goes on to imagine what an awful situation Israel would be in if the Zionist Camp won. “Iran would be happy to send Herzog, Livni and their partners barrels of oil decorated with flowers if Obama agrees to make Iran a nuclear threshold state. If Herzog establishes a government, then Abbas will issue a commemorative postage stamp in honor of the Zionist Camp that gave him a capital in Jerusalem. And Islamic State will dance around bonfires on the country’s borders.”

So what has gotten Israel Hayom all riled up? Well for one, the first six pages of Monday’s Yedioth Ahronoth are taken up attacking Netanyahu’s planned speech in front of Congress in March. “He lost America,” proclaims the front page and inside, the first two pages are taken up by an Nachum Barnea op-ed that proclaims the speech is a “gift to Iran.”

Barnea writes that Netanyahu has put himself between a rock and a hard place. “If he decides not to go [to Washington] he’ll be thought of as a loser; if he does go, he’ll pay the price.” In the end, Iran will become a nuclear threshold state. “That’s the bottom line and a failure of Israeli foreign policy,” he writes.

(For good measure, Barnea also throws some of his own mudslinging in. He takes aim at Naftali Bennett for advertising that Israelis shouldn’t apologize when he is the one politician who does the most apologizing: to Netanyahu, to Sara, and to citizens who live around the Gaza Strip.)

As if a long op-ed isn’t enough proof, the paper also includes an article about Fox News commentators Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace attacking the speech. “When America is mad,” reads the headline and recaps the the exchange that was broadcast on January 23.

But the one story that really riled up Israel Hayom is Yedioth’s inside look in the Netanyahu household, mainly at Sara Netanyahu and her treatment of the house staff. Among the many accusations against Sara Netanyahu is that she is degrading, yells at the workers, and wakes them up in the middle of the night “to heat up a bowl of soup.” On top of that, Yedioth writes that all these things are made worse when she drinks a lot of alcohol.

Menny Naftali, the former house manager, is suing the Netanyahus in Labor Court over his treatment at the house. But not all has been well since he filed his suit, as he tells the paper. “Since I’ve filed my lawsuit Mr. Netanyahu has not ceased harming me and issuing defamatory statements about me to the press.”

Meanwhile, above the fray

Election mudslinging is noticeably absent from Haaretz, whose top story is a first person account by Damian Pachter, the Argentinian reporter who broke the story of Alberto Nisman’s death and fled to Israel. Pachter recounts the whole story, which sounds like something straight out of a movie. After reporting on Nisman’s death, he was followed by Argentine security personnel, his phone tapped, and fake tweets were posted in his name, he writes.

He quickly decided that he was no longer safe in Argentina and left the country,  through Uruguay, then Madrid. He arrived in Israel on Sunday. “Argentina has become a dark place led by a corrupt political system,” he writes. “I still haven’t figured out everything that has happened to me over the past 48 hours.”

The paper’s other top story is the revelation that Housing Minister Uri Ariel has allocated money to expand the settlement of Efrat beyond the West Bank security barrier. The plan allocates NIS 850,000 (about $215,000) to a hill to the southeast of Efrat that lies beyond the fence. According to the article, last week the Civil Administration destroyed a Palestinian wheat field on the site, citing that it was there illegally. However, the article points out, it didn’t destroy the road or illegal outpost built on the land. The Housing Ministry (which didn’t comment on the article) is pushing the initiative forward, without coordinating with the Defense Ministry, it says.