Sex, lies and indecent rapture: 9 things to know for July 29

1. Free at last: For the second time in as many months, a high profile rape case has fallen apart, leading to questions, soul searching, and joy among some.

• It’s still not clear what exactly happened, with a number of different accounts as to what led the British woman to file the rape claim against the Israeli youths in Cyprus.
• A number of outlets report that the woman decided to try to get revenge after she was annoyed at being filmed having sex with some of the Israelis.
• However, Channel 12 reports that she made up the rape story because she was having sex with three guys and when she turned down a fourth person who wanted to get in on it, he kicked her out “and I didn’t even have time to grab my shoes,” the channel reports she told police.

2. The turning of the screw: There are also disputes as to how the case turned so suddenly. Walla News reports that there were videos “that complicated the case.”

• But it also speculates that the woman changed her mind and decided to try and extract herself from the rape allegations after her name was leaked to a blog in English and a video of her having sex started to make the rounds “and spread like wildfire… which she decided would not be good for her.”
• Channel 12 claims that a video showed the woman enjoying sex, which the cops confronted her about. But it also says the case was complicated by the fact that one of the Israelis who did have sex with her denied it at first.
• In any case, there is little love lost in the Israeli press for the British woman, which according to reports could find herself in jail for a year.
• “I don’t think the youths need to apologize. They didn’t do anything,” Israel Hayom quotes one of the youths saying (apparently placing himself outside the group). “She’s the one that needs to apologize. She needs to go to each and every one of the youths and apologize for the week we went through.”

3. Time to throw a ‘we didn’t rape anybody’ party: Many in the Israeli press celebrate the homecoming of the Ayia Napa dozen, cleared of gang rape accusations, as if they are soldiers returning from war.

• “The rape that wasn’t,” read headlines and kickers in several news outlets.
• “The celebrations started in the afternoon at the airport and continued into the night,” Yedioth Ahronoth reports, below a picture of two of the dozen former suspects running to hug someone at the airport.
• The newspaper’s online headline paints an even happier picture: “Champagne outside the prison.”
• “Until I set foot in Israel I won’t believe that I’m really free. This is an open miracle,” one youth is quoted telling Channel 13 news.

4. Good kids? Not quite: Despite the jubilation, others are less willing to jump for joy to celebrate what were essentially a group of teenagers whose rowdy vacation got out of hand.

• “These aren’t salt of the earth or good kids,” Michal Aharoni writes in Israel Hayom.
• On Twitter a picture of the kids book character Pluto the dog makes the rounds, only with the cur getting crunk on Red Bull and vodka and surrounded by condoms. “A new book for our good kids,” reads a caption.

ספר ילדים חדש לבני טובים pic.twitter.com/v4DHAVofGI

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— Freddie Bear (@FtheBear) July 29, 2019

• “Maybe they didn’t rape her, but it’s still not okay to film someone against their will and spread it around on social media. They disrespected her and hurt her, and that’s what made her complain to the police,” Yedioth quotes a friend of the woman saying.
• In Haaretz, Rogel Alpher slams the way Channel 12 reporter Barhaney Tagania gets all chummy with the former suspects. “He acts like he doesn’t get that even though he didn’t do anything criminal, he’s still rotten. This is not a good kid. … He’s not deserving of sympathy.”

5. This isn’t Entebbe: Poking fun at the coverage, consumer affairs watchdog Menachem Horowitz asks on Twitter where he can get a big white yarmulke like the ones suddenly sported by all the suspects upon being released from prison.

• Rabbi Haim Navon, considered a moderate voice within the national religious camp, tells Radio 103 that he’s bothered by the skullcaps, and by the fact that “they were received like they had returned from Entebbe.” “We shouldn’t forget that there wasn’t exactly model behavior here,” he adds.
• Haaretz TV critic Irena Melamed also criticizes the coverage of the youths, writing that “now we can forget that they — the youths and in some ways also the TV news channels — are really just the sons and faces of Israeli rape culture. … and then go to commercial.”
• Israel Hayom’s Haim Shine is also critical of the press, but for, in his words, jumping to the conclusion that the youths, and Israel as a whole, were guilty.
• “Now the media will stop caring and move on to something else to tar the country, its people and its army,” he charges.

6. The right unites, almost: That is only true if he thinks electioneering and mergers make Israel look bad as that is what continued to dominate media attention.

• With only days to go before the deadline for Knesset slates to be locked down, the biggest question mark regarding a joint right-wing slate appeared to be answered Sunday night, with URWP head Rafi Peretz announcing he had agreed to cede the top spot on a joint list to Ayelet Shaked.
• Haaretz reports that Peretz will take No. 2 on the list, followed by Bezalel Smotrich and Naftali Bennett.
• “Unity has turned a corner,” bleats Israel Hayom joyously.

7. Love position #9: But there are still reports that indicate it is far from a done deal.

• Zman Yisrael reports that the main point of contention remains New Right’s refusal to commit to recommending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its pick for premier after the election.
• According to Walla, though, the No. 1 beef is over who will take the ninth spot on the list. New Right, which is getting spots 1, 4 and 7 also wants 9, while URWP thinks New Right should be happy with the 10th spot.
• The news site quotes a source blaming Bennett for the kerfuffle, accusing him of “unnecessary stubbornness.”

8. Insults on Twitter? Now I’ve heard everything: Meanwhile, Smotrich is getting shellacked for a tweet in which he calls Stav Shaffir of the Democratic Camp an “idiot,” and engages in some other name calling, after she blamed the homophobic far-right for attacks on gays.

• While America may have gotten used to a president that refers to a congressman as “Adam Schitt,” it is apparently still a shock in Israel to hear below the belt name calling.
• “He and his colleagues and the ones who made him a minister should be thrown in the political garbage heap,” DC chief Nitzan Horowitz writes on Twitter.
• “No filter, no limits, everything goes,” chides former general Yair Golan in response to the minister.
• Smotrich later takes back the word “idiot,” saying he was “upset” when he used it and was wrong to do so.

9. Missing the joint: The Balad party meanwhile has made it a done deal by agreeing to join the Joint List of Arab political parties.

• The reunion gives the Seventh Eye a chance to look at the fact that Israeli news operations refuse to refer to the party by its name “Joint List” and always insert “Arab” into the middle to create the Joint Arab List.
• The column notes that while some occasionally make the mistake, Israel Hayom as a policy only refers to the list by the wrong name.
• “If when it first started out, and the list was still new, one could understand the confusion around the name, today, four years after it was founded, a mistake like this indicates malice, or at least some real ignorance,” Oren Persico writes.
• Persico notes that not putting Arab in the name is not just a technical thing: “Hadash, which leads the list, defines itself as an ideological party of Jews and Arabs. Adding the word ‘Arab’ to the name erases the idea of Jewish-Arab cooperation and redefines its essence, against its will.”