Schrödinger’s cat in Israel

Like a zombie that appears out of nowhere, the Ofek Buchris case gnashes its way back into the media spotlight Wednesday morning, thanks to a plea bargain reportedly coming together that will see the former general admit to some sexual offenses but avoid a rape rap.

Between the fact that Buchris will now be in a situation in which both his denials and his accusers’ claims against him won’t be wrong, and continued uncertainty about the Amona outpost and a Knesset bill that both will and won’t save it up for discussion, news readers might be forgiven for thinking that Schrödinger’s cat died and went a vacation to Israel.

The Buchris story leads the front page of all three major dailies, and all three are joined in the fact that they don’t bother offering any source for the reporting on the possible plea deal.

The three also make much of the fact that Buchris’s apparent admission of guilt will come after a plodding campaign to discredit his accusers and maintain his innocence.

“At the beginning of the proceedings there was staunch denial and it was claimed that the accuser was lying. The main thing of the admission is that he is taking responsibility, which shows that someone else was lying,” Haaretz quotes a representative of one of two officers to come forward against Buchris as saying in response to the plea deal reports.

Yedioth Ahronoth’s front page headline, “The lies and the admission,” leads into a stew of news and analysis from Yossi Yehoshua, who reports that the popular general was set to continue denying everything until he considered the fate of ex-president and current rape convict Moshe Katsav, going as far as consulting with Katsav’s lawyer.

“During the whole bargaining process Buchris was made to do, one and only name hovered around the room: Moshe Katsav. Those in the officer’s inner circle asked him to not make the same fateful mistake made by the ex-president, who was charged with rape and rejected any plea bargain – and at the end of the day was convicted and sent to seven years behind bars,” Yehoshua writes.

In a first sign that Buchris will now reclaim the good-guy status he once enjoyed (or possibly never lost, among some), Yedioth columnist Hen Ben-Artzi praises the officer and says it’s time to move on. Oh, but not before seeming to continue to doubt his accusers.

“It seems we’ll never know what really happened between the Hero of Israel and his charges. One on side are anonymous women, young, normal as far as we know and claiming the most serious offenses. On the other side is a decorated officer who has claimed all along that nothing happened,” she writes, conveniently forgetting his testimony that he did kiss one of the girls under his command. “It’s important to remember that the military prosecution chose to believe the girls. Despite an unprecedented campaign by his comrades, and subordinates, in arms, he was served with detailed and severe charges.”

From Amona to Chelm

While Israel Hayom leads its front page with the Buchris affair, it makes the strange decision to bury its actual treatment of the story on Page 11, behind reports of the Brazilian soccer team plane crash, recovery efforts from what it calls “terror arson” and some Knesset scuttlebutt.

The main scuttlebutt in the Knesset is attempts to scuttle the Regulation Bill, which is set to come up for a first vote today in the Knesset after a quick ride through committees.

The paper reports that both the Jewish Home party and the Prime Minister’s Office denied a story by Channel 2 that they had to an agreement to accept a compromise plan that would move the illegal outpost of Amona to another location nearby.

Instead, the vote on the controversial bill will go forward, though it both will and won’t include a clause pushing off the court-ordered demolition of the outpost for two years, the paper reports.

“Senior coalition sources are convinced that a majority for the bill is a lock. This is after an inter-party agreement was reached saying that the version of the bill to be voted on is not final and will include two alternatives. One will include a clause that allows for a delay of two years in carrying out the court decision, and the other won’t include it. Jewish Home is standing firm on its demand to include it, while the Kulanu party is against it,” the paper writes.

While the fat cats in Jerusalem discuss their fate, the settlers of the outpost are taking matters into their own hands, building even more structures to house of all of their closest friends whom they expect will come help them fight off the bulldozers, pictures of which are featured in both Yedioth and Haaretz.

In Yedioth, Yifat Ehrlich sets the scene from inside the outpost, reporting that several dozen residents of the former outpost of Migron, evacuated willfully several years ago under a government deal, visited Amona and told their counterparts not to make the same mistake and believe the government if a deal is offered. Unsurprisingly, the Amona settlers agree.

“A Palestinian never lived on this land, and if they, heaven forfend, evacuate us, they won’t come live here. That’s clear,” one Amona resident is quoted saying. “So why destroy the homes of 200 kids? If it happens, the youth of Amona will return here.”

The settlers of Amona are joined by Haaretz in being unhappy with the government, though saying they come from opposite sides could be the understatement of the year. In its lead editorial, the paper calls on the government to stop dragging its feet and just kick out the Amona settlers already, comparing the Knesset donnybrook to the wise men of Chelm trying to figure out how to cover tracks in snow without leaving more footprints.

“After a long and embarrassing series of tricks and evasions, the moment of truth has arrived: It’s time to obey the decree of the High Court of Justice, which has ordered the illegal outpost at Amona demolished by the end of December,” the editorial reads. “It’s time to stop this continuing farce in Amona. The scofflaw homes must be demolished and the theft law, known by the euphemism ‘regulation bill,’ must be rejected.”