The revocouption

It’s no surprise that the ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi Wednesday night dominates news coverage of Israeli papers, much like an Islamist president with an Islamist parliament dominates his country. And like Egypt, Israeli papers are split on whether what they witnessed was a revolution (Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel Hayom) or a coup (Haaretz, Maariv).

The Yedioth tabloid has arguably the most festive front page, festooned with a picture of Tahrir exploded in an orgasmic celebration of fireworks, laser pointers and flags, a badly photoshopped photo of Morsi with an “X” over him floating awkwardly in the sky, and the simple word “Revolution” stamped above it all.

In all the hubbub, the paper seemingly forgets to include a traditional inverted-pyramid-style news story, instead filling its 10-page package with color and analysis. Eldad Beck, on the ground in Tahrir, makes the utterly unique statement that “joy like this has not been seen since the announcement of the resignation of the last president.”

Meanwhile, the paper’s Alon Pinkus lets loose on Israel for its somewhat muddled response to the goings-on in Egypt. He’s probably also angry that the word for denial in Hebrew sounds nothing like a river in Egypt.

“Israel denies. Israel is in denial that Mubarak was a good keeper of the peace, that Morsi was ‘okay,’ that his ouster was good or bad. Everything that happens in Egypt is an internal matter that doesn’t interest Israel and contributes to the weakening of the Arab world,” he writes.

Maariv, in a coup de grace, goes with a more restrained front picture, of a man waving a flag and giving a peace sign next to a tank in Cairo. Of course leaning on the tank is a guy in a “Greece” shirt checking his cellphone, clearly this generation’s Tiananmen Man.

Arab world expert Prof. Mordechai Kedar writes in the paper that what is happening in Egypt has all the ingredients needed for a civil war, and the army was forced into making a move, even if there was no good move to make.

“The army made a bad decision. There was no good decision to make. Any step it took would turn out to have destructive consequences,” he writes.

Israel Hayom, apparently unable to decide on whether it liked Yedioth’s front page art or Maariv’s better, slaps both on the cover, because why use a dominant image on a historic day, when you can throw conventions of page design out the window. It’s a page design revolution!

Hailing the overthrow as a “second revolution,” the paper tries to delve into who Egypt’s army chief is, saying he’s now more a strong man and less an al-sissy.

“[Abdel-Fattah] el-Sissi is known to have good contacts with senior Washington officials and is thought to be in good standing with the Americans, and most Western countries. Yet despite that, he has promised more than once that he has no political plans.”

Prof. Eyal Zisser in the paper calls the coup a version of military democracy, with the army carrying out the will of the people.
“In today’s Egypt, the army is the only responsible adult. But the army also knows that it won’t be easy to put the revolution genie back in the bottle once it is out. The army is the one that will steer the country, but the true authority are the masses in the streets, which will elect and anoint a new president and activate him.”

Haaretz only devotes the top half of its front page to Egypt’s turmoil, but packs a whopping six opinion/analysis pieces into that slot. The paper’s graphics department shows off with a nice timeline of Morsi’s rise and fall, and Anshel Pfeffer offers four reasons why he thinks Israelis will actually miss the Islamist president, mistaking Morsi not being as bad as everybody thought he would be for Morsi being actually good for Israel.

1. He affirmed the Camp David Accords
2. He didn’t try to stop Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza
3. He clamped down on smuggling into Gaza
4. He rebuffed Iran

Sounds like a regular Likudnik.

Arabs need not apply

Believe it or not, papers have other news as well. Maariv carries a report that, in a scene older American Jews may find familiar, an Arab was not allowed in a country club (which usually just means pool and fitness room in Israel) because he is an Arab. According to the story, Tahar Marisat, who was born in Tamra but has lived in Beersheba for 11 years, tried to go for a swim in a pool at the city, but was turned away by an employee and told that the pool is only open for city residents. However, he says that he knew plenty of people already in the pool that were not city residents.

“I immediately understood that they were wrong and they are not letting us in because we are Arabs. I suggested [the employee] check 10 random people and find out if they are from Beersheba, but she didn’t agree,” Marisat told the paper. The pool says that only area residents are allowed in, and if others gained entrance it was a mistake and will be dealt with harshly.

Haaretz’s editorial also has nothing to do with the land of the Pharoahs, instead tackling Rabbi Shlomo Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed who was recently hauled in for a hearing with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein over his past statements. Haaretz writes that he has no place being considered for the chief rabbi slot and Weinstein should have taken action sooner.

“Eliyahu has attained a reputation for racism and apartheid and for incitement against Jewish-Arab coexistence. He has ruled that people should not rent their apartments to Arab students in the city, and at a convention in Ramle in April, he said that in Safed people do not sell land to non-Jews, nor do they rent to them. “In Safed the halakhic ruling worked! Praise God,” he said, adding: “Neither the religious nor the secular” sell apartments to Arabs in that city. For some reason, nothing about these statements led to Eliyahu’s removal from his post. But ahead of his possible promotion to chief rabbi, Weinstein and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni have become alarmed, fearing damage to the image of the State of Israel.”