Trading the hard news for awesome, shiny objects

Eventually, all news cycle must die. However crucial, however significant, however extensive and far-reaching, even the most important news stories have a limit to their longevity.

But when a story just won’t go away, continuously offering endless developments to be reported on time after time, the public — and in some cases, the media — seeks a distraction to offer some respite.

Such was the case this week with the unending machinations over the controversial outpost bill, which passed its preliminary and first readings in the Knesset. (The story so far: The bill to legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land was initially dropped from the Knesset agenda over its clause on retroactively recognizing outposts — which some deemed anti-democratic — despite having already passed a preliminary reading. But the cabinet eventually agreed to allow the vote — minus the retroactive part that essentially aimed to preserve the Amona outpost, something the attorney general said was illegal given years of High Court rulings to demolish the place.) And that was when an artist offered an exciting escape from this legislative merry-go-round by placing a golden statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square.

The sculpture gave news editors an opportunity to fill pages with something other than political horseplay and, four days later, grants the more highbrow weekend columnists the perfect metaphor for every issue they may want to raise.

Somewhat ironically, Haaretz columnist Ravit Hecht uses the incident to highlight just how much the public has been distracted from the real issue.

“While leftists were busy with the statue and the act of toppling it, the Knesset was passing the so-called Regulation Bill – a creation from the school of the radical right that legalizes the expropriation of land, including land owned privately by Palestinians, for the benefit of illegal settlement outposts and the expansion of illegal settlements that were established with the state’s encouragement or while it turned a deliberate blind eye,” Hecht writes.

“It’s true that, paradoxically, the bill is liable to destroy the policy of legal ambiguity that enabled the occupation and the settlements to exist. The state is acknowledging its responsibility for the settlements and for moving people into them. Nevertheless, we can’t rely on the world, whose current leader is Donald Trump, and which even under Barack Obama stood on the sidelines in the face of much worse atrocities, to enforce international law against Israel. This battle must be waged by Israel’s citizens – the very people who are instead fixating on a golden statue,” she concludes.

And the Israeli tabloids are also distracted by something shiny, this time in the form of the new “awesome” F-35 planes currently making their way from the US to Israel.

The first two F-35 jets purchased from the US are expected in Israel on Monday, and will land at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel where a reception ceremony will be held. The two planes form the vanguard of 50 aircraft that Israel has agreed to purchase from US giant Lockheed-Martin.The stealth fighters set out from one of the company’s Texas locations earlier this week, making a stop near Portugal, before spending the weekend in Italy and then setting out for Israel on Monday morning.

Both Israel Hayom and Yedioth Aharonoth feature huge front page images of the stealth fighters in flight, along with multi-page coverage of their journey to Israel that includes several photos of one of the planes refueling in mid air.

Yedioth headlines the story, “Awesome strength,” playing on the name — Adir in Hebrew, meaning awesome — given to the planes, while Yedioth goes for “The Adir will bring us victory.” Both papers have interviews with the Israeli Air Force pilot set to fly one of the new additions and the welcoming ceremony.

“‘The weather will probably smile on us. It’s a big celebration, and we’re excited. Everything’s getting polished,’ said Lt. Col. Yotam, head of the Israeli Air Force’s Golden Eagle Squadron,” Yedioth reports. “With two new F-35 stealth jets due to arrive in Israel on Monday, Yotam is due to make history as the first Israeli pilot to fly the jet. Referring to the F-35’s maiden IDF flight, Yotam said, ‘Without singing my own praises, let’s just say they got the best.'”

Yedioth even publishes a full column by Yotam in which he describes his excitement before the event.

“As soon as I accepted the role of squadron commander, I was tasked with making the most important decisions, such as who would be joining me on this fascinating journey to acquire Israel’s new fighter jets. We will make the rest of the decisions together, and they will be influenced by the quality of the people, their diversity, and their vision,” the pilot writes.

“I decided to view the formation of the squadron as if I was forming a family, [only] we get to choose our family, which is a big advantage. The relationship between the people in the squadron is very important, and it has a huge impact on the final results. Throughout the process, we were with our families in the US. The disconnect from home and the intimate atmosphere led us to truly form one big family; it was an experience we will never forget.”

For news on the impending evacuation of Amona, which activists say is likely to happen on Saturday night, Yedioth and Israel Hayom readers will have to push on past the extensive coverage of the new national treasures.

But even when they do get there, Israel Hayom offers little analysis of the complicated legislative moves to prevent the evacuation or the possible consequences of the impending demolition, including a modest report on the efforts to prevent violence when the army eventually arrives to remove the settlers.

The reason for the brevity on the issue from a paper often viewed as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu, may be found in the coverage it gets in Yedioth and Haaretz. Both run op-eds saying that despite Jewish Home chair Naftali Bennett’s inability to prevent the Amona evacuation, the fact that the outpost bill looks likely to become law and prevent future such evacuations proves that he and not the prime minister is holding the reins of power.

“While Wikipedia says Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister and Likud is the ruling party, that’s only in theory. It’s part of Israbluff. The real prime minister is Naftali Bennett and the party that determines the course of our lives is the settlers’ party (formerly known as Jewish Home),” writes Haaretz’s Nehemia Strasler.

“It has been doing this for about 40 years. It began with Gush Emunim, which forced Israeli governments to recognize the settlements in the center of the West Bank. And it continues today with even greater momentum, with the settlers’ party having taken over the government. This week, Bennett succeeded in driving an entire country crazy and focusing everyone’s attention on a tiny illegal settlement with 40 trailer homes, located on a small hill near the settlement of Ofra.”