Trumping it up in the holy city

With no proposed peace process, all-out war, or political scandal to top the agenda for a change, the weekend editions of Israel’s three most influential Hebrew-language papers are full of exclusives, stories that had been previously placed on the back burner, and even cartoons.

Israel Hayom reporter Boaz Bismuth’s exclusive interview with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump dominates the paper’s front page like the argumentative presidential candidate has so far dominated the primaries. Softball questions, mostly regarding Trump’s stance toward the Jewish state, are thrown at the gold-haired candidate to easily swing at, hinting at the daily’s definitely positive, even admiring, attitude toward the polarizing business mogul.

“Trump to Israel Hayom: I am Israel’s greatest friend,” reads the paper’s main headline. The friendship theme is repeated by Trump time and again, sprinkled with harsh criticisms of President Barack Obama’s conduct in relation to Israel, Iran and the Middle East at large. The Republican candidate says he will consider moving the US embassy, currently located in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem if he becomes president, and the interview concludes with Trump wishing Israel Hayom’s readers farewell, with Bismuth stressing that the businessman uttered the phrase “Shalom” in Hebrew.

Haaretz uncharacteristically dedicates nearly half of its front page to a cartoon drawn by Amos Biderman mocking Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s recent announcement that Israeli schools this year will place special emphasis on highlighting Jerusalem’s unity and status as the undivided capital of the Jewish state. In the drawing, a smiling caricature of Bennett is seen above the Old City’s walls, which are decorated with a placard reading “united Jerusalem.” Beneath him are scattered Palestinian attackers holding knives, Israeli policemen and Border Patrol guards chasing after them, ambulances with wailing sirens, and ZAKA volunteers clearing up a bloody scene.

An article by Chaim Levinson and Gidi Weitz, two of the paper’s reporters, reveals that the Shin Bet security service had named a Jewish extremist who confessed to the firebombing murder of a Palestinian family last July as a target for surveillance a year before the deadly attack even took place.

Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, of Jerusalem, along with an unnamed minor, were indicted in early January in the July 31, 2015, firebomb attack on the home of the Dawabsha family in the West Bank village of Duma, which led to the immediate death of toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha and the deaths weeks later of parents Riham and Saad. Five-year-old Ahmed Dawabsha, Ali’s brother, remains hospitalized in Israel and faces a long rehabilitation. Ben-Uliel was indicted for murder; the minor, who is not alleged to have directly participated in the fire-bombing, was charged as an accomplice.

Yedioth Aharonoth leads with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s decision to transfer NIS 500 million ($128 million) to the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to calm tensions in the region by bettering economic conditions for residents of the West Bank. The funds are tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the PA. The transfer was presented for approval to the prime minister, who, Yedioth notes, did not raise any objections.

Last month, high-level government officials reportedly met to discuss the potential collapse of the Palestinian Authority, with Netanyahu instructing ministers to act to prevent the break up of the West Bank governing body. One of the proposed solutions to avert the crisis was to provide financial aid to the struggling, corruption-riddled PA, which has for years worked with the IDF to contain terrorist elements within Palestinian society, but is also blamed by the Israeli government for inciting the current terror wave.

Yedioth also dedicates a full-page spread to the IDF’s preparations for a possible outbreak of hostilities along the northern border with Lebanon. According to the paper, security authorities have been setting up a series of barriers on the Israeli side of the border in preparation for a possible invasion by Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah.

While an article of this sort seems to appear in one of the main Hebrew-language outlets about once every month, Yedioth attempts to reassure its readers that the IDF top brass does not expect Hezbollah to launch a full scale war against Israel any time soon. The paper explains that the group is heavily focused on the ongoing war in Syria, where an estimated 7,000 of its fighters are taking part in battles alongside the regime forces of Bashar Assad.