‘What is happening to us?’

The parking lot rape in Tel Aviv that took place Friday night dominates the Hebrew front pages on Sunday morning. Maariv leads with a story linking the rape and the recent knifing of a Netanya shopkeeper to the wave of violence that has swept the country in recent weeks, complete with large photos of the bathroom where the rape took place and a bloodstained floor from the Netanya murder.

The secondary stories in the daily are the obligatory coverage of Gilad Shalit playing basketball in his hometown of Mitzpe Hila with members of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and a report on the 5.3 earthquake that was felt throughout the country on Friday night.

Yedioth Ahronoth also runs a story of the rape over most of the front page, linked with the recent arrest for rape of the mayor of Kiryat Malachi. It also features a large picture of Shalit keying up to take a shot with Maccabi players, along with a quote by one the players saying that the former captive “has a true feel for basketball.”

The third lead story for Yedioth is a report entitled “The army throws the money down a hole” about the halted construction of a new IDF underground command center. “Tens of millions” of shekels have been spent already, but it was determined that the center was structurally unsound.

Israel Hayom also leads with the rape story — “Nightmare in Gan Ha’ir” (Gan Ha’ir referring to the city parking lot where the rape took place). It includes two editorials lamenting the event, “More officers needed” and “What is happening to us?”

The front page is rounded out by a story about the outgoing air force commander getting one last ride on a jet fighter, and the waning fortunes of the Maccabi Petah Tikva soccer team. Israel Hayom displays the renewed social protests of the weekend on its front page as well, with the snarky headline “The protests return — only 2,000 came.”

Which brings us to Haaretz, where the rape is relegated to the second half of Page 4 while a huge photo of the protest dominates the front page with the headline “Protest, generation 2.0: The people want all kinds of things.”

The paper leads with a lengthy piece by Ari Shavit about the drama around tomorrow’s Knesset vote for state comptroller.

Haaretz also features a piece about the Netanya murder on the front page, along with coverage of Maccabi Petah Tikva and a piece on Yair Lapid’s continuing political activity, despite the postponed elections.