Vie another day: What the press is saying on August 24

1. OK, campers. Rise and shine, and don’t forget your ballots: The prime minister saw his shadow Sunday, which means it will be 100 more days until Israel is likely back where it started, once again hanging over the precipice of new elections as the governing coalition devolves into mutual recriminations.

• But all that is in the future, for now peace has broken out, at least according to Israel Hayom, which crows about Netanyahu’s decision to choose “peace over elections,” in a large front page headline.
• Despite the headline — which is the latest example of Israelis and others having trouble identifying what peace actually is (see under: normalization with the UAE, a country Israel was never at war with) — even Israel Hayom is skeptical that Netanyahu’s decision to agree to a compromise deal that will push off a budget deadline until late November does anything but push off the eventual collapse of the government.
• “The threat of elections is seemingly voided, at least temporarily, and that’s only if there are no more developments over the course of the day that would torpedo the apparent compromise,” reads the lede of the paper’s news headline.
• “Set your watches: About 100 days from now, barring any dramatic development, the Knesset will dissolve itself and Israel will hold an election,” writes Moti Tuchfeld in the pro-Netanyahu tabloid.
• “The disagreement over the state budget was always just an excuse. The real issue was key appointments in the legal system, and his big win was another chance to declare an election, this time, at the end of this coming November. We can assume that Netanyahu will agree to as many compromises and postponements as he needs to, as long as he keeps the option of an out before the rotation is implemented November 2021 – which will now most likely never happen,” he adds.
• “Until next time,” reads a top headline in Yedioth Ahronot, quoting a Blue and White source saying that “Netanyahu sounds like he’s deep in campaign mode.”
• “Despite accepting the compromise, the clock toward the next elections is continuing to tick,” writes the paper.
• “The early-election gambit isn’t over; it has just been pushed off a little,” writes ToI editor David Horovitz. “The temporary Hauser compromise still doesn’t give Israel an actual state budget for 2020-21 — with dire ongoing consequences for the public, and working class Israelis in particular — and therefore it leaves open the opportunity for Netanyahu to consider precisely the same maneuver a few months from now.”
• In Zman Yisrael, Shalom Yerushalmi notes that March elections fit Netanyahu’s calendar better anyway: “The timing is likely more comfortable for him, since he hopes the economy will stabilize, Israel will sign more agreements with Gulf Arab states and maybe the corona vaccine issue will advance.”

2. 1 vs. 100: Despite the apparent compromise, the scent of elections is still in the air, given questions about whether the still-pending deal, which has not been made fully public, will indeed scratch the 100-day itch.

• Haaretz reports that beyond the 100-day delay, the compromise would place “a 100-day freeze on appointments that must be approved by the cabinet, such as the state prosecutor. During these 100 days, a committee would be formed to discuss how the appointments will be decided upon.”
• “At this time, the government will focus on the coronavirus crisis and preparing for security challenges along the Gaza border and in the north,” it adds, with a totally straight face.
• In Walla, Tal Shalev writes that the government may not even make it until November, or Tuesday. “Yesterday, party representatives finished a series of meetings on ‘large differences’ and they have only a few hours until midnight to come to agreements in order to manage to pass the law pushing off the budget deadline in second and third readings to avoid elections.”
• Speaking to Army Radio, Science Minister Izhar Shai expresses doubts that the delay bill will pass muster with the High Court, and Israel Democracy Institute head Yohanan Plesner expresses similar concerns on ToI’s blog site.
• “The fact that Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for serious criminal offenses, is engaged in political negotiations that include a demand for greater influence over the appointment of the State Attorney and the Attorney-General whom he will face in the courtroom, lays bare the gravity of the conflict of interests involved. In fact, given the current circumstances, these negotiations are entirely illegitimate,” Plesner writes.
• Channel 13 publishes the results of a poll, taken when most still thought the government would not agree on the delay, that finds that the vast majority of respondents would blame Netanyahu for elections if they are called early, by 59 percent to 20% who would blame Blue and White head Benny Gantz.
• The poll also finds Likud weakening slightly, to 31 seats, with Yesh Atid and Yamina still at 19 and 18 seats respectively and Blue and White down to 11 spots.
• Nonetheless, Kan reports that Blue and White is projecting a sense of not being afraid of elections, which party leaders told activists is driving Likud nuts. “It frustrates them, angers them, scares them. There’s no significance to our compromise if [Netanyahu] is just looking for a ladder [to climb down on] — we’ll decide if we give it to him,” Science Minister Izhar Shai told the activists, according to the report.

3. Grace(less) period: Channel 12’s Dafna Liel leaves open the possibility that Blue and White may indeed tell Likud at the last minute to shove its compromise, since it places the party at a serious disadvantage, but this carries its own risks for Gantz’s party.

• “This is a political win-win for Netanyahu. If Blue and White accepts the Houser-Handel compromise, it will ensure a government operating in conditions that are to [Blue and White’s] disadvantage, and if Blue and White refuses the compromise, it will be seen as guilty for elections. The main loser is of course the Israeli public, which will continue to get a squabbling, non-functioning government.”
• Many also note the dissonance of Netanyahu’s call for unity at a press conference, which was accompanied by attacks on his “partners.”
• “The right side of his mouth spewed lies, distortions and political spin, which once again filled precious airtime – mainly to aggrandize himself and to belittle his partners. It was a passive-aggressive performance par excellence. The so-called Netanyahu Doctrine, as he called his own vision of peace, has a darker side. Bibi’s Shady Plan: peace with the Emirates, and perhaps with other countries – yes; a cease-fire with Kahol Lavan – anything but that,” writes Haaretz’s Yossi Verter, using the Hebrew term for Blue and White while describing the compromise as a poison pill — or a poison olive branch.
• “Netanyahu: Now is the time for unity, but I can’t miss out on one more chance to put down Blue and White,” tweets Kan’s Michael Shemesh.
• “Netanyahu: I want unity; Netanyahu 5 minutes later — puts fake news about [Justice Minister] Avi Nissenkorn on Live TV,” tweets Walla’s Barak Ravid.

4. Hit parade: The media is also continuing to look at the police violence seen at Saturday night’s protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem.

• Haaretz’s Nir Hasson notes that “The officers were more violent than they had been in recent weeks, their tolerance for provocations and shouts was low and they used much more force than usual.”
• He gives several different possible reasons for the violence, including a previous confrontation on Thursday, an unauthorized march, and allows that “it seemed as if many [demonstrators] made it their business to irritate the officers and unsettle them by yelling, ‘shame,’ making animal sounds, using their first names and other provocations.”
• But the paper’s lead editorial, which accuses police of an “onslaught,” notes that “none of this grants legitimacy to the level of aggression evident on Saturday night. Nor can it be justified by the fact that the police must kowtow to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, who wants to foster tensions to serve his master, Netanyahu, or that Jerusalem District Commander Doron Yadid wants to be police commissioner.”
• While most of the attention is focused on senior police officer Niso Guetta, who was filmed attacking protesters, Kan reports that a second investigation has been opened by internal affairs into commander Shimi Marciano, who it says was filmed forcefully dragging a female protester.
• Protester Daniel Lotem, who was one of the activists seen getting beaten by Guetta, tells Army Radio that “the strikes I took were nothing compared to the beating I got in the police cruiser. Two officers pummeled me with punches while I was cuffed.”
• Yedioth’s Ben-Dror Yemini takes aim at MK Moshe Ya’alon for telling police to read the 1990 book “Fulfilling Orders” by left-wing Israeli historian Yigal Eilam, which delves into Adolf Hitler’s orders to carry out war crimes against Jews.
• “It’s strange, since when Israel haters do nazification to Israel, they usually mean people like Ya’alon,” he writes, referring to his former roles as IDF head and defense minister. “Now Ya’alon himself is bolstering their distorted thinking, and carrying out auto-nazification. What the hell happened to this guy?”

5. Pompeo and circumstance: The visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo naturally makes headlines, though more for where else he is going aside from Israel, with each country seen as a bff-in-waiting for the Jewish state.

• Channel 12 news writes breathlessly about the “historic direct flight” that Pompeo will take from Israel to Sudan.
• “On the way from Israel, stopping in Sudan,” reads a headline in Israel Hayom, playing off the Hebrew name for the goofball “Hangover,” movie, which is always what you want people having in mind when they think about diplomacy around your country.
• But why stop at Sudan? “When Oman and Morocco come on board – a move likely to be followed by Saudi Arabia – it would form an impressive coalition, one that clearly demonstrates the dramatic shift in Middle East policies prompted by Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan’s brave decision to pursue full diplomatic ties with Israel independent of any future resolution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” writes the paper’s Oded Granot.
• Pompeo also generates a bit of controversy as news emerges that he will deliver his keynote at the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem.
• ToI’s Eric Cortellessa notes that the move “breaks decades of precedence in not using the office for partisan purposes.”
• Obama administration diplomat Wendy Sherman tells McClatchy that “At a time when peace and security in the Middle East is so tough, this political appearance is more than shameful. Jerusalem should not be a prop in the Republican convention. Pompeo should not tarnish his office by this unprecedented action.”
• Not only will he happen to be in Jerusalem, but using the power of pre-recording, Pompeo will harness the city and its golden-hour sunset as a backdrop for his speech, reports Globes’s Tal Schnieder. Hope the evangelicals like it.