Pakistan or Palestine?

The editors of Israel’s dailies had to ask themselves a tough question late Tuesday night: what’s the more important story – the horrific terror attack in Pakistan or Palestinian diplomatic moves?

For Yedioth Ahronoth, the artwork of an injured survivor and the headline “132 children massacred” clearly show its decision. The paper translates an article from a reporter on the scene in Peshawar, with heartbreaking quotes from the victims of the attack. One survivor said, “We were in class when the terrorists broke in. I saw my best friend in the world take his last breath, and I couldn’t do anything to save him.”

The paper’s Ben-Dror Yemini writes, “This isn’t just jihad of Islamists against Muslims, it’s jihad against children.” He struggles to understand the world’s muted reaction to the attack, which doesn’t seem to be interested in a “self-inflicted genocide.” But what this latest attack proves is the jihad doesn’t have anything to do with the West or Israel, occupation or suppression, he says. “It is the opposite; its goal is to impose a reign of terror.”

On the other side of the news spectrum, Israel Hayom pushes its reporting of the massacre to page 12 and instead puts the Palestinians on its front page. “Kerry to the Palestinians – postpone or veto” reads the front page headline, referring to the Palestinian efforts to pass a resolution in the UN Security Council that would “end Israeli occupation in two years.”

The article on the meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reads more like an angry op-ed than a news story. In it, the paper accuses the Obama administration of interfering with Israel’s elections after Kerry asked the Palestinians to wait to submit their proposal until after the elections.

The Americans aren’t the only ones interfering in Israel’s elections, as columnist Dan Margalit says that the Palestinians’ moves will also affect the elections. He writes that the bid at the Security Council is the culmination of a series of moves that will end up hurting the situation, not helping it. Not only will it cause bad blood between the PA and Israel, Netanyahu will use it to rally against the Palestinian/Western pressure on Israel, while Isaac Herzog will use to show that under Netanyahu, Israel has been hurt in the international arena.

In deciding how to organize its front page, Haaretz divides its space between diplomacy and terror. Its story on the Palestinian diplomatic moves frames the story a bit differently than Israel Hayom. “The US will support a UN resolution that doesn’t include unilateral steps,” the headline reads. The paper notes that an automatic veto is not guaranteed any more for Israel, which might signal a change in America’s policy. US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said of the Palestinians’ Security Council resolution that if it included principles for returning to negotiations, the US would not consider it one-sided and may support it.

Covering the paper’s other top story, analyst Zvi Bar’el writes that the massacre was in Peshawar but the message was intended for Washington. He writes that the Taliban is being hurt by repeated US drone strikes, with leaders being killed as recently as last week. According to Bar’el, the Taliban was trying to send two messages yesterday: one against the cooperation between Pakistan’s military and the US, and the second against the Pakistani army which has been upping the fight against the Taliban over the past year.

New party problems

Looking at the election scene, aside from the fiasco that opened Eli Yishai’s new party, there may be some other setbacks to his chances to be in the next Knesset. Haaretz reports that Yishai’s party won’t have any women on the ticket, as Yishai’s rabbinical authority ruled against it. This presents a major obstacle for Jewish Home’s Uri Ariel, who has been toying with joining Yishai’s new party and breaking away from Jewish Home. “This would force Ariel to choose between Yishai and his faction colleague MK Orit Strock or any other woman in the future,” the paper writes of Ariel’s decision.

Meanwhile, on a personal level, Israel Hayom reports that there has been a strong reaction to Eli Yishai leaving Shas. Yishai’s wife said since her husband broke with Shas, the entire family has received threats. “The children shouldn’t be victims of this, we’re talking about small children,” she said.

As for the possibility of a merger between Moshe Kahlon and Yair Lapid’s parties, Yedioth seems to say don’t hold your breath. “The window is not completely closed, but unity [between the two] doesn’t look close,” the paper writes. Despite evidence that both would win more together than apart, Kahlon seems determined to run alone in the upcoming elections.

Finally, all the papers celebrate the Hanukkah holiday, which began Tuesday night. As Hanukkah overlaps with election season, there are lots of pictures of politicians lighting Hanukkah candles and handling out jelly doughnuts. Only Haaretz is in a critical mood, charging that a candle lighting with Likud members turned into a free political rally for Netanyahu. He framed his speech as Israel being modern-day Maccabees, “We see a wave of global hate, Australia, Canada, Pakistan and also here. We are fighting it, few against many, and we can overcome.”