The heat is on

The self-torching of a social justice protester during a mass rally in central Tel Aviv last night made the top headlines in all the papers this morning. The horrifying images — captured in high-resolution and from various angles — of Moshe Silman burning alive, are displayed on all the front pages.

Yedioth Ahronoth is the only paper to provide the protester’s name. The rest refer to him simply as a man and give his age, which ranges from 46 to 58. All the papers provide a photograph of his suicide note, in which he identifies himself and blames the state, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in particular, for pushing him to commit the desperate action.

Inside, the papers provide extended coverage of the traumatic incident, interviewing friends and fellow protesters and providing what background they could dig up to explain what led Silman to try to kill himself in such a public fashion.

Another story that appears on all the front pages this morning reports on the thwarting of a terror attack on Israeli targets in Cyprus. The arrest on Friday of a Lebanese man suspected of leading a Hezbollah cell planning to blow up an Israeli plane and kill Israeli tourists in the popular vacation destination of Limassol, was made, according to the papers, with the help of the Mossad. Defense officials reportedly believe that the planned attack is part of a renewed effort by Iran and its proxies to carry out a wave of terror aimed at Israel.

Defense reporter Alex Fishman writes in Yedioth that the terrorists have learned that attacking official Israeli installations, like embassies or diplomats’ residences, is difficult because of the high level of security around them and will now focus more on what he calls “soft targets” — Israeli tourists.

Maariv’s Gidi Lipkin writes that following the arrest, security has been beefed up at Cyprus airports and hotels.

Israel heating up

As Israel enters its second week of a scorching heat wave, the papers display major headlines warning of worse to come. “Yesterday was hot and tomorrow will be too,” reads the headline in Israel Hayom above a picture of a toddler wading in a swimming pool. “Record heat: fear of power outages,” blares Yedioth. Wednesday is apparently the day to fear, with temperatures expected to reach the high 40s in several parts of the country.

Yedioth dedicates three full pages to the weather, including how-to guides on heat stroke and dehydration prevention and recommendations on how to save on power despite the stifling heat.

Being the startup nation comes at a cost. On Page 14, Yedioth reports on a study by the World Health Organization that gives Israel the dubious honor of being the country whose teenagers spend the most time surfing the web. The study found that 28.5 percent of 11-15 year-olds spend more than four hours a day glued to their screens. Israeli teens just beat out their Romanian counterparts at 27.2% and left everyone else far behind, with Macedonia in third place with slightly over 18%. In the US, only 6.9% of the teens spend that much time online.

But the achievements don’t stop there. Israeli teens came in second when it comes to viewing television. According to the WHO, 35.8% of teens spend more than four hours in front of the box, barely beaten out by Armenian youths.

Marking the fifth anniversary of Shimon Peres’s swearing-in as president, Maariv offers up on its back page some stats on the number one citizen’s activities. According to the President’s Office, during his term Peres has held 1,205 meetings with foreign dignitaries at his residence, attended 662 state ceremonies, held 1,000 interviews with the foreign press, answered 100,000 letters from Israel and around the world and visited 50 countries on five continents. The 88-year-old statesman says he “enjoys every moment.”

Never mind the draft, Haredi education is key

Uzi Baram writes in Israel Hayom’s opinion page that the ongoing saga of drafting the ultra-Orthodox public into the military is missing the point and that if Israel truly wants to see equality achieved in all aspects of life, the emphasis should be placed on education — especially on forcing the haredim to study the core subjects of math and science.

“The leading rabbis in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak are opposed to the study of core subjects. They realize that these subjects will enable their bible-studying public to access gainful employment and entrance into the Israeli job market and therefore reject it vehemently,” writes Baram, arguing that forcing Haredim to study secular subjects is more achievable than forcing them to serve in the military and will have a more positive impact on Israeli society.

In Haaretz, Niva Lanir speaks out against the government’s silence on the core issues of the day — its failure to reach a decision on drafting haredim, its continued ignoring of the social justice protests, its lack of transparency on the possibility of a strike on Iran – and concludes that the state leadership simply doesn’t care about its citizens.

“A democracy that is conducted without public discourse, and in effect also without an opposition, is a sick democracy. A democracy which conducts itself in silence, on the eve of fateful decisions, is a very sick democracy. And there is no better symptom of its disease than the silence of those who head it. And there is another possibility too − perhaps they also couldn’t care less about us,” she writes.