Tragic flames and political flameouts

Tragedy once again rears its ugly head on the front pages of Israel’s papers this morning, this time the deaths of a father and his five children killed in one fell swoop by a house fire in Rehovot.

Yedioth Ahronoth lays out the horror in full detail in big block letters: “Father tries to save five kids and is engulfed with them.” Alongside the headline is a heartbreaking picture of an unidentified relative sobbing after the fire.

Maariv has the non-breakfast-test passing front-page picture of a too-small body bag being wheeled out of the home, and the headline, “Father and five kids engulfed in fire.” Israel Hayom uses the headline “Five children burned to death in their beds.” Haaretz is the only paper not to lead off with the fire (choosing a political story instead; more on that in a bit), though it still displays a large picture of the scene and the headline “Father and five children killed in house fire in Rehovot.”

Because the fire happened late at night, most papers are short on details and long on pictures of shocked neighbors, fire trucks and heartbreaking stretchers.

The other big story in Israeli papers this morning is Tuesday’s primary heat for Kadima leadership between incumbent Tzipi Livni and contender Shaul Mofaz. Yedioth’s Sima Kadmon hypothesizes that the loser, whoever it is, will likely leave the party. “The only thing for certain is that this morning we wake up with one Kadima and tomorrow we will wake up with a completely different Kadima. Once the results are announced the party won’t remain how it was.”

In Israel Hayom, Matti Tochfeld isn’t so sure there will be a split in the party, but even if there is, who cares, he asks, positing that Kadima will always be a party of also-rans. “Kadima hasn’t been an important party for a while… In socioeconomics, Kadima didn’t have anything to offer in the past and doesn’t have anything to offer now, especially since Shelly Yachimovich is at the head of the Labor Party. Also in the civilian and anti-Haredi front, Kadima as a party lags behind Yair Lapid and Zehava Gal-On. Even on the diplomatic front — a flagship Kadima with Livni at the helm would be about as interesting as a discussion of prices for the Hermon in August. “

Vlad the visitor

Haaretz leads things off with a scoop on Russian president-cum-premier-cum-president-elect Vladimir Putin’s plan to visit Israel in June. The trip would be his second after he assumes the presidency (for a third time) in May — following a visit to the US for a G8 summit. The senior Russian official who is the source for the story says Putin is also interested in attending an unveiling for a monument to Russian soldiers in Netanya.

Maariv reports that the families of the Toulouse victims are preparing to return home now that the seven-day mourning period has ended. The parents of Miriam Monsenego plan on visiting the Ozar Hatorah school, where she was killed, in order to “meet with her friends and strengthen the students and parents.”

On Monday, the parents were visited by French Ambassador Christophe Bigot, who said he wanted to be there again on their last day of the shiva. The parents also visited Sephardi rabbi Ovadia Yosef. They plan on returning to Israel next week for Passover.

The paper also reports that a 72-year-old Jewish man in Morocco was killed on the street after being struck by a hammer. Police are searching for the culprit, who was the victim’s tenant and owed him money. The killing comes a day after an Israeli diplomat was forced to flee the country when large protests erupted outside a building he was in in Rabat.

Fringe problems

Haaretz reports that the Health Ministry is considering allowing gay men to donate blood, which they have not been able to do until now. The committee that makes recommendations will meet after Passover. Men who had homosexual intercourse within 10 years would still be banned from giving blood, as they are in many other countries, Haaretz reports.

Yedioth has a story that a trio of men were arrested recently for stealing NIS 32,000 of home furnishings from a Tel Aviv boutique. Why did the men need so many fancy home furnishings? Why, of course it’s because they needed gifts for Passover, but didn’t have any money for it. Isn’t that what everybody does?

Maariv’s back page reports that religious soldiers are finding themselves in a knot now that the army has stopped providing them with traditional fringes for their clothes. It would not be a big issue, but for the fact that the army used to provide them with khakhi sets, allowing them to wear it with their uniform, but the only ones available at stores are white, which are against army regulations to wear when on a mission.

Amputation nation

Israel Hayom’s op-ed page is almost all Migron all the time, with three pieces and a cartoon on the court’s decision to all but cancel a deal that would have let the settlers stay in the outpost for another three years. Yossi Beilin is for the court’s decision, Uri Heitner calls it one of the worst decisions ever made, and Dror Eider squeezes himself in between. “The layout of the land of Israel desires the creation of this settlement or that. [But] sometimes you have to cut off a finger to save the body.”

In Maariv, Shmuel Hollander slams the train workers union for taking the country to the brink of another strike, saying the Histadrut labor union wields the strike card all too often. “Even someone that supports a strong Histadrut that watches over organized labor… needs to be worried about the federation’s use of the strike weapon to protect at any price the unions… Not everything is allowed when dealing with a professional battle over organized labor.”

In Haaretz, Yitzhak Laor is not happy about Nicolas Sarkozy and Benjamin Netanyahu’s reactions to the murders in Toulouse last week, saying they were cynical and hateful. “The innocent victims found eternal rest in a world where a xenophobic president takes Yad Vashem in vain and reaps political gains from cheap melodrama, along with our prime minister — who, even before the blood was washed from the pavement, hastened to make sure everyone would know: Anyone who condemns the killing of the innocent in Gaza identifies with the murderer of Jews by al-Qaeda.”