B’Ivrit │ Kite Threats and Settler Violence amid Election Season
“B’Ivrit: A Hebrew Language Media Roundup” is a monthly look at the news through the eyes of Israeli media consumers.
1. Election season moving into high gear
With less than two months until Israelis go to the polls, election coverage has taken over much of the media discourse. Each major TV outlet has its own weekly poll (all end up with pretty much the same results) and party primaries and campaign events are being covered closely. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, notorious for his refusal to speak to the Israeli press, is suddenly showing up for interviews and podcasts, though still only with those who share his politics.
Currently, it’s all about building blocs and getting small parties to join forces before next week’s deadline of registering all the party lists interested in being on the October 27 ballot. This has basically forced Israelis into a daily routine of following the news with a calculator, trying to figure out the arithmetic viability of every possible combination.
“The moment of truth is approaching. A variety of new parties could determine the election’s outcome,” announced the right-wing daily Israel Hayom. The paper featured on its front page nine new lists, all hoping to pass the 3.25 percent threshold for qualifying votes needed to get into the next Knesset.
Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s largest newspaper, reported on “endless negotiations” going on between the major parties and the smaller new factions, adding in its headline that there is “chaos in Netanyahu’s camp.”
What’s all the drama about?
Under Israel’s parliamentary election system, the winner needs a majority of votes in the Knesset, usually achieved by building a coalition with like-minded parties. Netanyahu’s current coalition bloc is made up of his own Likud party, two far-right parties—one led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and the other by Bezalel Smotrich—and two ultra-Orthodox lists. But in the upcoming election, there are at least four other parties trying to win over the same voters. If they all get in, they’ll end up in a future Netanyahu coalition, but Bibi is concerned that some or all of these tiny factions will not pass the threshold, which means their votes will go to waste, making it harder for him to reach the magic number of 61 members of Knesset needed to have a majority.
“Netanyahu is trying to prevent wasting votes on the right; pressuring Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to unite,” read a headline in Haaretz, Israel’s liberal-leaning publication.
On TV’s main news channels, commentators and pollsters tried to walk the viewers through the bloc-building math: What happens if the two new far-right parties join forces? Can the two newly formed center-right lists get in if they combine?
Israelis, fearing that their votes will go to waste, are following the calculations, looking forward to next week when all lists will be finalized. Then, it will be time for the eternal dilemma of any voter in a multi-party electoral system: Vote for the party you fully agree with or for the one with the best chance of getting in?
2. Not all kites are beautiful toys
Residents of Israel’s southwest border, known as the “Gaza envelope,” looked to the sky last week, and so did the Israeli media. What they saw would be viewed in any other place around the globe as innocent and charming—a few colorful kites, tethered to a long thread, released in the Gaza Strip and landing in Israeli kibbutzim along the border. But in post- October 7 Israel, this is viewed as anything but quaint, peaceful child’s play.
“Threats blowing in the air,” read the main headline in Ma’ariv, a centrist daily, above a photo of a kite from Gaza stranded on a tree in an Israeli kibbutz. The story quoted Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, warning that Israel would “evacuate” entire regions in the Gaza Strip that kites are released from. Residents of the Gaza envelope told the reporter they are “concerned and confused” over the recent rash of kites landing in their towns.
What’s so scary about a blue and pink kite stuck on a tree? For residents along the Gaza border, and for all Israelis, it is a reminder of the months leading up to October 7. Dozens of kites flew across the border, many of them carrying small incendiary devices that caused fires in wheat fields. The residents warned that Hamas’s kite provocations should be taken seriously and could be a sign of the terror group’s future plans for a more significant attack. The government and military ignored their warnings, explaining there was no need to worry about a handful of kites. Then came October 7.
That is why this time around, the kites from Gaza have become a front-page story in all Israeli newspapers and a leading item on the TV evening news. “Returning to the Gaza terror routine,” warned a report on KAN-11, Israel’s public broadcasting network. Channel-14, a popular far-right TV network, turned the concern into a call for action. “This time, Israel’s response must be harsh,” said a military affairs expert asked to react to the latest kite threat.
At the end of the day, none of the kites that were flown into Israel carried any incendiary or explosive devices. It’s unclear if they were simply children’s kites that were carried by the wind or an attempt by Hamas to raise tensions or check the viability of future kite attacks. A day later, the press lost interest in the story. Residents of the Gaza envelope, however, are still glancing up at the sky once in a while, in fear and concern.
3. Settler violence makes it into the news
The ongoing harassment, vandalism and assaults by extremists within the Jewish settler camp against West Bank Palestinians has been covered extensively in the United States and across the world. In Israel, it was mostly covered by left-leaning publications or in passing by mainstream media.
But at a certain point, the Israeli press could no longer sideline the issue. Recent events at the Palestinian village of Qusra were the tipping point. A group of young Jewish extremists (now being called by some outlets “Jewish terrorists”), have been making the life of one family hell. They have regularly invaded their property, imposed a blockade on their home, prevented them from leaving and entering and even from getting food and supplies.
This past week, Qusra finally became a front-page story in the Israeli press. Perhaps because of the egregiousness of the actions, or maybe the IDF’s reluctance to take effective action to protect the Palestinian family.
“Jewish vandals have been blockading homes in Qusra for 20 days and IDF forces can’t put an end to this outrage,” reported Channel 13 News.
“Driving in on their white pickup trucks. Jewish provocateurs on their way to Qusra,” reported Israel Hayom, which is usually sympathetic to the settlers, adding a video of the extremists making their way to the village with no interference.
But while mainstream media described the events as acts of terrorism and vandalism, the right-wing media insisted on an alternative narrative.
Arutz 7 reported on “conflicting versions regarding the Qusra events.” And pro-Bibi Channel-14 went all out in support for the extremists. “It’s all a left-wing campaign inspired by the BDS movement,” said a settler leader interviewed by the network. He argued that it was all an “Arab provocation.”
[Read “Are Renewed Sanctions an Answer to Settler Violence in the West Bank?”]
4. But first, a look at the airport
Wars and elections are important. The future of Israel depends on them. But nothing is more important than Israelis’ summer vacations. After three years of endless wars, and with summer school break about to end, hundreds of thousands of Israelis headed to Ben-Gurion airport—be it a long weekend on a Greek island, a quiet vacation in Europe or a sun-filled family stay on the beaches of Thailand. It’s almost a necessity, given the ongoing stress, the oppressive heat and the need to entertain the kids now that summer camps are over.
The Israeli media was full of reports from the frontlines at Ben-Gurion and overseas. Selfie videos shot by passengers complaining about their flights being delayed, cancelled, or diverted quickly made it from social media platforms to major news outlets.
But nothing came close to the airport scenes on August 20, when in the midst of the busiest travel day of the year, airport workers walked off as part of an ongoing labor dispute.
Yediot Ahronot devoted its main headline to the “disgrace in Ben-Gurion Airport” alongside a photo of thousands of travelers stuck in the terminal. TV channels dispatched reporters into the crowd, leading each and every news show with scenes from the airport and interviews with distraught passengers. “We don’t know when this will end,” said a middle-aged passenger waiting with his family to a KAN-11 reporter. A woman next to him, holding onto her toddler added: “We’re very hungry, there’s no food here. When will this whole thing end?”
The strike ended a few hours later, and by midnight most flights had taken off. But for the Israeli media, the drama wasn’t over. Now came the search for those responsible for depriving thousands of nervous and hungry Israelis of a few days of peace and quiet. The culprit was quickly found: Pinchas Idan, head of the airport’s workers’ union, who called the strike. After being crucified by interviewers on TV and radio, the backlash led PM Netanyahu to announce he is dismissing Idan, an active Likud member, from the party. Two months before the elections, it’s just good politics.
5. When two grown women decide to disappear
File this story under “Only in Israel.”
Mali and Liel Yahalomi, a mother and daughter from Modiin, decided they had had enough. Plagued by debts, they decided to leave Israel behind and start a new life in Argentina. Wishing not to be located, they concocted an elaborate plan: Mali and Liel went on vacation to Austria, sent their family and friends videos from Vienna, changed phones, slipped out of the country to Prague, and from there to Argentina.
But in Israel, disappearing isn’t that simple.
When the family first informed authorities that the mother and daughter had not shown up for their flight back from Vienna, the entire nation went into a frenzy. Mali and Liel’s photos were on all TV shows, newspapers and websites. “Where did they disappear?” asked Ynet, Israel’s largest website, owned by Yediot Aharonot. “This doesn’t look good,” an unnamed source told the reporter.
Despite statements from local authorities that they’d ruled out any suspicion of foul play, the press wouldn’t let go. Speculations ran the gamut. The underlying concern, as expressed in reports and by experts, was that someone—presumably an enemy of Israel—was responsible for the disappearance of the two Israelis. The idea that two adult women decided to drop off the grid and start a new life elsewhere did not register with the Israeli press.
After three long days of an entire nation following their disappearance, Mali and Liel were located in Argentina. The Israeli police’s international division found them on a bus and even shared a video of an officer approaching them.
They were not arrested, because they had committed no crime. Their only crime was leaving the Israeli public on the edge of their seats after committing the unthinkable act of daring to leave the country and not informing their estranged family members—the father and his son—of their plans.