This duck is a populist duck

The prime minister’s eleventh-hour decision to ease the price hike on fuel by 15 agorot earned him wall-to-wall headlines this morning. But not all are favorable. This is the second time in a month that Netanyahu has swooped in to save the day at the last minute and some, including Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, are beginning to see a pattern that has “elections strategy” written all over it.

“Once again at the last minute, and once again going over Steinitz’s head,” reads the main headline in Maariv, referring to Netanyahu’s decision to counter the Finance Ministry’s policy by reducing taxes on gasoline. “The person who cuts taxes 10 minutes before elections doesn’t always win them,” Maariv quotes Fisher as saying.

Yedioth Ahronoth cites Netanyahu’s fear of renewed social protests as the reason for the last-minute reprieve on gas prices and points out that electricity prices are still rising by 8.3 percent. Financial columnist Sever Plotzker takes a page out of Netanyahu’s own speech book, writing: “If it looks like an elections economy duck, walks like an elections economy duck and quacks like an elections economy duck, it definitely is an elections economy duck.”

Haaretz’s main headline reads: “For the second time within a month Netanyahu intervened and eased the jump in gas prices.” The story runs alongside a photo of social justice protesters in Tel Aviv demonstrating against the high cost of living.

Israel Hayom also refers to the Tel Aviv protest in its Page 1 story, choosing to run a photo of an altercation between police and activists.

Another story that appears on the front page of all the papers this morning reports on an ugly sports-related incident that took place in Petah Tikva yesterday after a game between the local Maccabi Petah Tikva and Hapoel Haifa. A fight that broke out between the two teams at the end of the match resulted in one player suffering major head injuries apparently caused by a Maccabi team official. Cameras caught a member of the coaching staff head-butting the Haifa player and another man, wearing an official team badge, kicking him after he went down. Needless to say, the photos made it to the front page of all the papers.

The incident, coming on the heels of post-game rioting by Beitar Jerusalem fans in a mall last month, raises tough question over the persistence of violence in sporting events.

A ray of light comes in the form of a positive sports-related story on the winner of yesterday’s national rowing championship. Yasmin Feingold, who three years ago nearly died during a training accident, completed her recovery by winning the gold medal. Maariv displays a photo of Feingold holding up the medal and standing next to the man who saved her life, a good Samaritan who dove into the river to rescue her.

All the papers report on the weekend’s major political developments, which include Labor chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich announcing her plans to become the next prime minister and Kadima’s new leader Shaul Mofaz electing for his party to chair the Knesset’s key Economics Committee instead of the far more lucrative Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.

On page 14, Maariv writes about five teenagers who won the privilege of sitting in on today’s Cabinet meeting. The youths earned the opportunity that many a veteran reporter would die for by suggesting new legislation bills in a Facebook competition. Among the suggestions: a prohibition on using cellphones on public transportation, mandatory placement of recycling bins in schools and severe punishment for animal abusers.

Maariv’s back page is dedicated to Canadian immigrant Kathleen Reiter’s winning Israel’s version of the popular television song competition “The Voice.” Reiter, who moved to Israel nine months ago and was mentored on the show by Sarit Hadad, won with her performance of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.”

Yedioth Ahronoth on Page 10 reports on a child who suffered a vicious attack by two dogs last week. According to the article, the 10-year-old boy was bitten all over his body by two mastiff dogs who attacked him for half an hour, despite attempts by neighbors to pull them off.

On Page 16, Yedioth reports on a new academic initiative in Rahat, Israel’s largest Bedouin city. The project, which aims to see a college take root in the city, is being spearheaded by President Shimon Peres and will see guest lecturers from Harvard and UCLA.

Israel Hayom features an exclusive on what  appears to be severe medical malpractice at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital. According to the Page 17 story, the hospital’s doctors performed radiation treatment on a patient suffering from a brain tumor, but aimed the radiation on the wrong parts of the head, damaging healthy tissue and resulting in partial blindness and other disorders. Moreover, the hospital failed to report about the case in writing to the Health Ministry.

Please Mr. Mofaz, be an alternative

Haartz’s Gideon Levy challenges the new opposition leader, Shaul Mofaz, to become a real alternative to Netanyahu, but seems pessimistic that he will. “That is the way it is when there is no hope, when politics is treading shallow water; when it seems that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain in office forever, having no real opponent either inside or outside his party, and there are no major differences among the parties. Suddenly Mofaz is a new and stirring promise,” writes Levy. “So come on, Mofaz, surprise us: Mikhail Gorbachev and F.W. de Klerk started out like you. But we have very serious doubts.”

Yael Gvirtz complains in Yedioth of Netanyahu’s lack of initiative and indecisiveness, on big issues as well as small ones. Gvirtz argues that Israel has become a country in waiting, waiting for Netanyahu’s last-minute decision. “And what happens to a country in waiting?… It becomes haunted by despair, racist demons and ill spirits. It loses its soul. It forgets all the reasons for existing apart from the constant reminders/threats of the Jewish Holocaust. It forgets the fact that pigheadedness, bullying and shamelessness are not decreed from above,” she writes.

In Maariv, Lilach Sigan writes about the need for defined goals looking ahead to the summer social protests. “When there are sensational headlines, we often forget that we need to place a clear target on the table and not remove it until it is reached. Winter is over. We want a ‘hot summer,’ and the public is right in demanding change. However, if we fail to understand the nature of the changes we demand, we will once again get stuck with widely reported protests and lots of slogans, after which the summer will be over and winter will return with the real social injustice making a comeback.”