Israeli Press
Israel's Sunday papers argue over lists while Qusra stays sealed
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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Ten days before Israel's candidate lists close, the Sunday press is mostly a negotiation conducted in public. The occupied West Bank appears in it as a problem of image and command, rarely as a place with residents.
Ynet ran the widest spread. Its news desk published an interview with a Palestinian homeowner at Qusra who says an officer threatened to demolish his house, alongside the army's statement that no allegations of violence are known to it.
Separately the site reported the former Central Command chief Nitzan Alon telling an Israeli youth conference that the army's values are eroding and that soldiers in the West Bank stand by during unlawful acts and sometimes cooperate with them.
Its election desk asked who Bezalel Smotrich will run with and who will read the polls and withdraw, and reported Yair Eisenkot's two newest recruits — the former Yeruham council head Tal Ohana Hakmon and Colonel (res.) Nir Hajbi, whose son was killed on 7 October.
Maariv stayed on coalition arithmetic. Its politics desk reported Avi Maoz warning that pressure on the small parties could damage the right-wing bloc and declaring that Noam is preparing to run alone, with the education ministry named as his price.
The paper also carried the demand by MK Yulia Malinovsky that the attorney-general examine reported contacts between the businessman Shlomi Fogel and Hamas, following a disclosure by the columnist Ben Caspit that the contacts were conducted with Benjamin Netanyahu's knowledge — a claim the prime minister's circle has not confirmed.
The Jerusalem Post covered Saturday's settler violence as an institutional dispute. Its defence desk reported the army and the police blaming each other after settlers barricaded themselves in a Palestinian house at Qusra and attacked residents at Jalud, and asked in the words of its headline where the military was.
The paper also reported the assault on an NBC News crew filming an interview with a Palestinian woman in the West Bank, and published an exclusive on a letter from Mohammad Dahlan's Fatah Democratic Reform current proposing an end to Palestinian infighting.
The English edition of Ynet supplied the number the campaign is trying not to discuss: defence officials say $5.03 billion in agreed funding remains frozen, leaving shortages of vehicles and munitions and sinking a helicopter purchase.
For a reader in Qusra, the arrangement of the day is legible enough. The army says it knows of no violence in the village, the police say it was the army's job, the prime minister condemns rioters in general, and the closed military zone stays closed around three besieged families.
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