Hebrew media review

To stop or not to stop the presses

When word of Netanyahu’s political coup came at 2 a.m., some editors chose to rip apart their papers while others let yesterday’s news stand

Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor

A printing press (photo credit:Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
A printing press (photo credit:Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

No editor wants that call at 2 a.m., the one that says the government is not dead, and instead the prime minister just pulled off a secret coup, bringing the largest party into the coalition, canceling planned early elections in the process — one of the most startling dead-of-night-manuevers in Israeli political history. The call that says, that newspaper you just put to bed two hours ago is as valid as an old Israeli shekel, and wouldn’t even be suitable as fish wrap. When you get that call, the choice is clear: Roust yourself, yell STOP THE PRESSES and put out a new front page with the biggest political news in the last three years, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of shekels, or say screw it and go back to sleep.

When the call came this morning, two Israeli papers, Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom, decided to put out rushed new editions, while the other two, whose finances are not nearly as good, decided yesterday’s news was good enough. Thus, you have Yedioth’s screaming front page “Unity government,” and Israel Hayom’s “Netanyahu and Mofaz agree: Unity and no elections,” contrasted with Maariv and Haaretz both leading with news of the High Court ruling that the Givat Ulpana outpost must be pulled down by July 1. Remember when that happened? Us neither.

The mad rush that likely happened at the offices of Yedioth led to some strange bedfellows on Page 2, as its story on the late night deal between Netanyahu and Mofaz is accompanied by an incongruous picture of the Givat Ulpana outpost, the entrails of what was likely the paper’s original leading package that was scrapped from the page. Thus the paper unnaturally linked the two stories together, sticking the two grafs about the late night deal on top of a mostly unconnected story about the outpost decision.

Israel Hayom, which made sure to note on its front page that it put out a special 2:30 a.m. edition for all the excitement, managed to get a full piece on the drama in its pages, complete with responses from the now shrunken opposition. “The new government made a mega stinking maneuver,” said Zahava Gal-On, a reference to Shimon Peres’s unsuccessful attempt in 1990 to withdraw Labor from a unity government and form a rival government with Shas. Wonder what the president thinks of this move.

Courting trouble

On to yesterday’s news. The Ulpana decision was indeed a big deal, and Aeyal Gross writes in Haaretz that the court is finally showing the government what respecting the rule of law means, noting that it’s sad that the court even has to do such a thing: “So while it looks like the High Court was defending the rule of law, woe unto a generation that needs the High Court to tell the government that it’s meant to obey its rulings. No wonder the High Court had to append exclamation points to its question marks.”

The Ulpana saga will likely grow even larger as the Knesset tried to push through a High Court bypass law that allows them to ignore the court’s ruling. Maariv lays out who among Likud’s ministers is for and who against such a measure and the paper’s Ben Caspit also explains his opposition to a bypass procedure. “I will gain no pleasure if they evacuate five houses on the hill. But we’re still supposed to be a country of law. Anyone who read the court ruling from yesterday… understands that in the case in front of us there is no alternative. There’s no gulch, lacuna or tunnel that will save the five homes on Givat Ulpana and also not in Migron.”

Are you sure you don’t want new elections?

As the papers went to bed at midnight, most expected the Knesset’s minutes were numbered, and both Maariv and Yedioth ran highlight reels of the best and worst moments from the 18th government. On the two’s lists: Hanin Zoabi’s fight with Anastassia Michaeli; Michaeli’s water splashing incident, opposition members spraying air freshener in the plenum; Eitan Cabel’s roasting of Netanyahu after the Carmel fire: “You’re big, you dribble faster than Messi and jump higher than Jordan,” cockroaches and cats in the Knesset cafeteria, and pictures that emerged of Arab MKs chilling with Muammar Gadhaffi. Alas, it seems we’ll have another year of this kind of fun ahead of us.

Rambam rollin’

Haaretz has a story that details plans to revamp Maimonides’s grave, complete with a 3-d eternal flame and lasers(!), intended to turn it into a tourist extravaganza challenging that of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Meron. Only problem is, Maimonides was adamantly opposed to veneration of Jewish sages’ graves. If he saw this, “the Rambam would turn over in his grave,” Rabbi Donniel Hartman tells the paper.

Speaking of graves, and Meron, the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba’omer, otherwise known as that time when the country smells like a giant piece of burnt toast, begins Wednesday night, with thousands around the country planning traditional bonfires for the occasion. As in past years, the danger of fires getting out of hand is high, especially this year, Yedioth points out, as high and dry winds could make for nasty bonfire conditions.

Leftists and Zoabi

In the op-eds section, Maariv’s resident rightist Ben Dror Yemini writes that if leftists were really true to their values, they would be the ones behind an attempt to strip Arab MK Hanin Zoabi of Knesset eligibility. “Zoabi is not a representative of the Arab population. That is what the rightists have been trying to claim. Zoabi is an asset for racists across the country, Jews and Arabs. She is continuing the path of Azmi Bishara, her twin brother.”

Bishara, you will remember, was an Arab MK who fled the country after being accused of passing information to Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War.

Haaretz devotes its lead editorial to the crime wave that hit the country over the weekend, writing the police must step up their game and be given the resources to do so: “Although suspects were arrested quickly it certainly does nothing to counter the feeling that life in Israel has become cheap; that anyone — man, woman, teenager or elderly person — could be the victim of a senseless killing by a criminal or young hoodlum. This sense of contempt for life is also connected to the seeming lack of any deterrent against pulling a knife or smashing a bottle and stabbing someone. Any one of us could have been [stabbing victim Gadi] Vichman.”

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