The man in the mirror

Benjamin Netanyahu looks out at readers from every major Hebrew newspaper Thursday. Whether in photos on the front pages of Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz or the heavy subtext of Israel Hayom’s headlines, the prime minister’s presence dominates the coverage of the day’s top news.

But when readers meet the gaze of the prime minister, the person they see reflected back may vary wildly depending on which publication they are reading.

In coverage of a multi-billion shekel controversy involving Israel’s purchase of German submarines being allegedly pushed by an aide of Netanyahu’s who was in the German shipyard’s pocket, some papers present Netanyahu as victim of a mean-spirited media campaign while others suggest he may be involved in highly damaging pay-for-play politics. Some reports of the government efforts to legalize West Bank settlements describe a weak and desperate prime minister scrambling for Knesset votes, while others give the impression of a heavy-handed authoritarian pushing through dangerous legislation.

Haaretz’s lead story on the submarine scandal makes clear the subjects of the allegations with headshots of Netanyahu, his lawyer David Shimron and Israeli businessman Miki Ganor heading the article.

“In addition to reports that David Shimron, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal lawyer, works for a representative of the German company,” the paper reports, “Germany’s ThyssenKrupp, which makes the submarines that Israel buys, has been involved in bribes of officials across the world to push the sale of its submarines, according to German news reports in 2015 and early 2016.”

According to a report by Channel 10 on Tuesday night, Shimron serves as the representative of a German company trying to sell Israel military submarines that Netanyahu has been pushing for Israel to buy against the will of the IDF and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon.

The Haaretz report, casting additional shade on ThyssenKrupp, raises further questions about why Netanyahu was so determined to complete the deal, despite well documented suspicions of the company.

“German financial newspaper Handelsblatt reported in August 2015 that ThyssenKrupp launched an internal investigation into suspicions that company employees had bribed people to push submarine deals abroad. The report, which was quoted in the German press and by international news agencies, was based on thousands of pages of documents from the internal investigation, which the German paper obtained,” the report adds.

Yedioth Aharonoth, often criticized by Netanyahu for its negative coverage of him, is unrelenting in its coverage of Netanyahu’s involvement in the deal, featuring a huge photo on its front page of the prime minister emerging from a submarine.

“Ya’alon vehemently opposed the submarine deal,” reads the paper’s main headline. The accompanying text doesn’t beat around the bush: “Netanyahu, with all his might, pushed for the purchase of three German submarines despite strong opposition from his defense minister.”

A two-page spread inside the paper casts further aspersions, drawing links to the former senior official who was questioned by police on suspicion of corruption, named as Avriel Bar-Yosef, the man Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had wanted to serve as national security adviser.

Columnist Alex Fishman fleshes out the stories with accounts of how Ya’alon and Netanyahu fought over the submarines’ purchase, bringing him to the key question of his analysis, which the paper prints in bold: “Why did Netanyahu push to close the deal even though it won’t come into effect for a decade? And why, despite all the professional advice, did he make the decision on his own?”

In Israel Hayom, however, Netanyahu barely makes an appearance.

“The IDF’s procurement of three additional submarines and four surface ships from Germany was done in a professional manner without any external influences, the National Security Council said in a statement on Wednesday,” the paper’s coverage opens.

“Meanwhile, the State Attorney’s office will investigate the procurement deal, in accordance with Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit’s directive to formulate an opinion on the matter,” the report continues, omitting any mention of Netanyahu in the opening paragraphs.

The papers’ coverage of the other story of the day — the bill legalizing outpost settlements which passed its first reading int he Knesset on Wednesday — follows a similar pattern.

Israel Hayom’s political correspondent Mati Tuchfeld also nearly omits Netanyahu from his coverage of the heated Knesset debate.

“Coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud) said Kulanu would not support the bill if its final language undermined the High Court of Justice. This means that it will not include a provision to undo the High Court of Justice ruling on Amona. In other words, the Knesset has already given up on saving Amona legislatively,” Tuchfeld reports. “But that hasn’t stopped MKs from fighting over who should get credit for a bill that will serve no one but themselves, a bill that will definitely not help Judea and Samaria communities and won’t help resolve the real battle over Amona — and over the fate of the cabinet.”

The prime minister is only mentioned to have “intensified discussions over the fate of the outpost.”

According to Haaretz however, “Netanyahu could have prevented the vote by filing an appeal against the approval of the bill by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, either in person or through another cabinet member. That would have forced a discussion in the entire cabinet before submission of the bill to the Knesset.”