Political jabfest, Elton lovefest

The relative absence of dramatic developments after a stormy week of politics leads the Hebrew-language papers to focus on their parliamentary foes Friday morning, with each daily targeting a different lawmaker of choice and highlighting their perceived misdeeds.

Israel Hayom launches a full-scale deflection of a recent state comptroller report that raised concerns about Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous travel expenses, with attack against Zionist Union’s Tzipi Livni for her own pricey foreign trips as an opposition MK in the current Knesset. “Hypocrisy to the sky,” reads the daily’s lazily written headline. “Tzipi Livni, at the top of the list of flying MKs.”

Should the average reader be unaware of what the number of Livni’s foreign trips has to do with her hypocrisy levels, Israel Hayom contributor Mati Tuchfeld explains: “The same MKs who hollered when the state comptroller’s report uncovered that the prime minister traveled at the expenses of private bodies… finished sending their statements to reporters and hurried to board the nearest plane to London, Paris, New York — at the expense of external donors, of course.”

Haaretz, on the other hand, focuses on Netanyahu, and pronounces that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is close to a decision on an investigation into allegations of wrongdoings involving the Israeli leader’s foreign travel finances. Sharon Pulver reports that two senior advisers to former attorney general Yehuda Weinstein claim the report about the so-called “Bibi Tours” case — in which Netanyahu allegedly received funding from businessmen and others for trips abroad for him and his family when he was finance minister over a decade ago — constitutes enough evidence to prosecute the prime minister.

Yedioth Ahronoth, meanwhile, goes after incoming defense minister Avigdor Liberman. The paper begins with what at first glance seems like a neutral report, stating that Liberman spent the past couple of days meeting with senior IDF officers in the hopes of alleviating their concerns about his ability to serve in this demanding position. But reading between the lines, it is not hard to spot the contempt for Liberman, with the minister’s lack of military background stressed more than once.

Both Israel Hayom and Yedioth, normally on opposite sides of every argument, agree for once that Sir Elton John’s Tel Aviv concert certainly lived up to the hype. “From Elton, with love,” Yedioth’s headline says alongside a picture of the 69-year-old rock-and-roller on stage at Park Hayarkon. Israel Hayom leads with “Tel Aviv yelled out ‘Yes Sir!’.” Forty thousand fans of the British performer — young and old, sabras and olim, secular and Orthodox — packed the park last night, singing along to the Rocket Man’s major hits and swaying to his piano-led anthems. (As one of those fans, I can say with full confidence that it was definitely a spectacle worth seeing.)

Haaretz also covers the depressing state of state-funded shelters for abused women, and wonders aloud why these women are the ones forced to live in a secluded area, and not their abusive partners. The report follows on from the murder of 29-year-old Anastasia Rosnov, who had been staying at a shelter, at the hands of her former partner. The paper says that in light of such attacks on women, four hostels for abusive men will be opened by 2017.

Finally, all three papers touch on the ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Israeli actor Moshe Ivgy, all of which he denies. The papers say that the police have recommended indicting Ivgy for cases relating to three women. Ivgy had appeared on stage at the Haifa Theater and taught at a school in Tel Aviv, before deciding to retire from acting in light of the allegations. Ivgy still insists that all of the alleged instances of assault had actually taken place “in a friendly manner.”