White and blue in the face

Every party must come to end, but the papers that hit newsstands and stoops Wednesday morning represent a battle between those determined to continue to revel in the good times and those who swiftly move on, forgetting the essentially news-less Independence Day celebrations ever happened.

On one on end of the spectrum is Yedioth Ahronoth, which ignores the actual news that occurred over the holiday — a rarity for a day where the news is usually of the man walks dog variety (to say nothing of anything biting anyone) — and instead goes white and blue in the face showing just how populist and gung-ho it can be for Independence Day celebrations and the awarding of the Israel Prize.

On the other end is Haaretz, which makes nary a mention of Independence Day celebrations on its front page, instead leading off with a preview of Wednesday’s meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US president Donald Trump, as well as stories surrounding riots in France, tensions with North Korea, and a Jewish suicide-by-cop would-be stabber in the West Bank.

Somewhere in the middle lies Israel Hayom, which leads off with both celebrations and news, a feat it pulls off by representing the government opposition to a UNESCO decision Tuesday afternoon that condemned Israeli activity in Jerusalem.

“Davka on Independence Day, UNESCO decided that Israel is an ‘occupying power in Jerusalem,’” leads the paper’s top story, which is headlined with the quote “Jerusalem — our capital since King David,” which is actually a mashup of angry statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin. The word “davka” roughly translates to “exactly” but is freighted with a sense of exasperation, as in “You davka had to base your claim on Jerusalem on a character for whom little historical evidence exists.”

The paper’s news story also posits that the fact that fewer European countries supported the resolution than did earlier, similar measures means that “fewer countries are opposed to Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem,” which is likely reading a bit too far into their lack of support for the measure.

Columnist Nadav Shragai in the paper writes that Israel’s response to the decision shouldn’t just be angry words and denunciations, of which there were plenty, but action.

“The main response should be the renewal of building projects in Jerusalem after years of deep freeze under Obama,” he counsels.
The UNESCO decision also makes for the top newsy-news story in Yedioth, once it finally gets past Independence Day bric-a-brac.

Columnist Shlomo Pyotrkovsky has much the same idea as Shragai, comparing the resolution to a UN decision over 40 years ago calling Zionism racism, but he says as long as Israel “stutters” over its sovereignty on Jerusalem, it has no authority to respond the same way the country did in 1975.

“When the Israeli government broadcasts hesitantly that building in Jerusalem is the concern of countries around the world, the international community is very happy to fill the anti-Israel role,” he writes. “Israel is the one that surrenders to every whim of the Waqf on the Temple Mount and prohibits Israeli Knesset members from visiting the mount. In a situation like this it’s no wonder that UNESCO countries back the narrative of the Waqf over what’s happening on the mount. If we want the world to change its positions regarding our rights to Jerusalem, we have to broadcast confidence in our rights and not stutter.”

One doesn’t need a political science degree to know what would happen if Israel were to take these steps in response to an essentially meaningless UN decree.

Meanwhile, Haaretz leads off with a story that could have greater import regarding the fate of this little corner of the world, reporting that Trump will ask Abbas to commit to helping restart peace talks when the two meet Wednesday.

“The president personally believes that peace is possible, and that the time has come to make that deal,” a White House official is quoted telling the paper. “The president has noted that such a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but that it would also reverberate positively throughout the region and the world.”

With no newspaper on Tuesday, Wednesday offers the first chance for covering the new and improved Hamas charter. While Israel Hayom reports on Israeli anger surrounding over the new platform, which Jerusalem terms “a deception,” Haaretz’s Amos Harel surmises that they really weren’t the target audience for the document.

“In everything not connected to Israel, the document proves that Hamas is an organization attentive to criticism. Or as political chief Khaled Meshal put it Monday, it knows how to evolve and renew, and recognizes the danger of ossification. The main internal Palestinian criticism (aside from criticizing the politicization of religion) has been that Hamas isn’t a Palestinian national movement but rather serves a foreign agenda,” he writes.

And even if Haaretz mostly chooses hard news over grills, F-35 flyovers, award ceremonies and bible quizzes, the other two papers do not follow suit, or in the case of Yedioth — dress. The tabloid-sized paper shows it can be a tabloid in style too, with a full page spread devoted to the massive dress worn by singer Rita during the opening ceremony for Independence Day, including a column calling it the “national dress” and crowning the pop diva Cinderella.

The paper also writes about a secular teen winning the Bible quiz for the first time in decades, and Bible expert and linguist Avshalom Kor, himself secular, writes that in the past the secular kids would always win the competition, since they learned Bible verses in school. Today, he writes, that’s not the case and even religious kids aren’t learning it the way he used to.

“I hope this phenomenon of a secular student winning the Bible quiz will happen again, but to make sure it does the nation of Israel needs to understand that this is the property of all of us. Our heritage belongs to all of us. We all left Egypt. We all stood before Mount Sinai, Judah the Maccabee belongs to all of us, but for many there is an aversion to things seen as religious and many hold fast to the belief that civil freedom is freedom not to recognize or learn our roots. It’s not freedom not to know where we came from, but ignorance.”