Terrorists, bad tests and protests (and clowns)
Papers go domestic with front page stories ranging from a murder motivated by terror to cheating in school (and of course Iran, and the red-nosed menace)
Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor

With tensions over the fate of the Iran nuclear deal not going anywhere, Israel’s newspapers take a partial break from international affairs to peer at more domestic concerns Monday morning, from cheating in high school to court rulings to terror both clownish and real.
While nobody leads with the news that Elkana settler Reuben Schmerling’s death was ruled a nationalistically motivated murder on their front page, coverage of his killing is about the only thing that is prominent in all three papers.
While Haaretz goes with the straight news, that two Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of carrying out the Kafr Qassem killing last week, Yedioth Ahronoth decides to run as a headline a quote from a family member saying essentially that “we were right all along.”
Indeed, the family had insisted that the attack was terror before the police said the same, and Yedioth’s coverage continues to look at the case sympathetically through their point of view.
“The sukkah in the Schmerling’s yard in Elkana was filled with people, yet inside there was no holiday joy, but rather bitter, painful sadness. This was supposed to be a festive decorated sukkah, which grandkids coming in and out, singing and laughing. Now the family sits mourning, sad, longing,” the paper’s lede read. It’s only after several similar sentences that the story gets to the news about the Shin Bet arresting two people and announcing terror suspicions.
Haaretz’s lead headline also goes native, reporting that “The High Court urged the cancellation of the requirement to get a permit for protests,” and plays up a quote from Justice Esther Hayut that “in a democracy you don’t need a permit to protest.” While most of the reporting is centered on weekly protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the home of attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the paper also quotes the Movement for Quality Government saying it is “a huge victory for civil society, freedom of expression and the Israeli public in general.”
Israel Hayom’s lead story is even more out of left field, reporting on an increase in the number of students taking the Bagrut matriculation exam whose tests were disqualified for suspected cheating last year.
The paper makes it seem like the 11,563 tests thrown out is a massive increase over years’ past, and while it is a jump from 2015’s 9,962 spoiled tests, it’s only slightly more than the 11,090 bad tests in 2014.
“The Education Ministry has invested in recent years millions of shekels to make sure the tests are not compromised and to stop copying, but it seems there are still some who take the risk,” the paper reports, though it later adds that some tests are thrown out for reasons unrelated to cheating, like using the wrong kind of writing utensil.
Perhaps the kids are just bored and like a challenge. At least that seems to be the driving force behind the clown terror gripping the country, according to Yedioth.
“I was bored and we wanted to joke around with friends,” the paper quotes from one bozo who was arrested by cops in central Israel.
The paper also reports that there has been a 60 percent rise in purchases of self-defense products, like pepper spray, as well as realistic looking toy guns, as people look for ways of fighting back against the red-nosed menace.
Yedioth notes that even though minors are not allowed to use pepper spray, many parents are giving it to their kids anyway, perhaps as an homage to Smokey Robinson.
Toy guns, on the other hand, can’t do much, but they do look scary. Waving around weapons and threatening to use them is the name of the game when it comes to Iran and the fate of the nuclear deal, which does still get a bit of play on the op-ed pages.
Haaretz accuses Netanyahu of waving his toy gun around too much in his push to get the US to back off the Iran nuclear deal, writing that the whole gambit could backfire faster than a clown car.
“Netanyahu, directly or through organizations and people who follow him, will push the senators to increase the pressure on Tehran, and in doing so endanger the agreement. In the best case Netanyahu could suffer a similar defeat to that inflicted by Obama in 2015, or in the worst case he could be painted as the person who pushed the United States into a diplomatic conflict that could deteriorate into a military confrontation,” the paper’s lead editorial reads. “This is a reckless gamble even if we accept Netanyahu’s reservations about the agreement, and much more so if we think the cancellation of the agreement will be bad for Israel.”
In Israel Hayom’s op-ed page, though, Eyal Zisser takes US President Donald Trump at his word when he says he’ll take on the nuclear agreement, though he also tries, Netanyahu-like, to do his part to nudge the leader of the free world toward what he sees as the correct course of action.
“It appears that the biggest challenge facing Trump is Trump himself. Boorish behavior, crude and offensive language toward his rivals and enemies, threats and unpredictable behavior are all valuable assets in dealing with the neighborhood bullies in North Korea and Tehran. But the task remains to turn lofty remarks and tweets into policy and even more, into a practical plan of action for the US,” he writes. “Tehran is impressed by action, not by words, and Washington is currently taking exactly the wrong course of action: submitting to Russia’s bear hug and handing Iraq and Syria over to Iran while abandoning its loyal allies in the region – the Kurds,” he writes. “Trump’s expected announcement of Iran’s noncompliance is a step in the right direction. But without consistency and determination to stay the course, this step won’t yield any results.”