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Media Summary

13/01/2015

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The Telegraph reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticised in some quarters for inviting French Jews to move to Israel following last week’s terror attacks in Paris, which included a shooting at a kosher supermarket. Netanyahu has been in Paris to show solidarity, but apparently French leaders and some Jewish community leaders have been irked by his encouragement for Jewish citizens of France to emigrate. The Financial Times though focuses on Netanyahu’s denial that he has in any way cynically used the Paris commemorative events to encourage Jewish emigration. Netanyahu apparently also denied reports that the French government originally asked him not to attend Sunday’s huge rally in order not to divert attention towards the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The Independent and Independent i both include a feature on the French Jewish community and the dilemma which many of its members face over whether to leave the country and immigrate to Israel. Those interviewed in the article include some who intend on leaving France and others who plan to stay. It also quotes the head of the representative body of French Jewry who commented, “We are in a war situation.”

Both the Guardian and Independent i briefly report that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met Turkey’s President Erdogan in Ankara yesterday, which included a lavish welcome ceremony in Erdogan’s vast new presidential palace.

The Independent i quotes the Qatari Foreign Minister who denied that the Gulf state had expelled the Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who has been based in Qatar since being forced to leave Syria in 2012 and Jordan before then. It had been reported last week that Mashaal had been asked to leave as Qatar reconfigures its regional relations with the likes of Egypt and other Gulf states.

The online editions of the Guardian and Telegraph both cover a surprising decision in an Egyptian court yesterday which found 26 men not guilty of debauchery in a high profile case thought to have been targeting the country’s gay community. The men has been dragged from a public bath and charged in an arrest operation widely broadcast on television. The court had been expected to deliver a guilty verdict yesterday.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Maariv and Israel Hayom is the funerals which will take place today of the four Jewish men killed in Friday’s terror attack at a kosher supermarket in Paris. In a ceremony which will be attended by President Rivlin, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog, the four victims will be laid to rest at a cemetery in Jerusalem.

In Yediot Ahronot, Netanyahu’s conduct during the huge solidarity rally in Paris on Sunday is criticised. He is accused of having pushed his way to the front line of dignitaries by engineering a handshake with the President of Mali. However, Israel Hayom defends Netanyahu, saying that criticism of his conduct in France is politically motivated. Maariv quotes Netanyahu saying, “What the world saw was significant—the Israeli prime minister marching with the world leaders in a unified effort against terrorism.”

The top story in Yediot Ahronot is a leaked classified Foreign Ministry report, which apparently told Israeli emissaries abroad that they should expect mounting political pressure and economic boycotts as a result of the deadlocked peace process with the Palestinians.

Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Haaretz all preview today’s Labour Party primaries to select its list of parliamentary candidates. Labour leader Isaac Herzog will be the first name on the list followed by Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni, with the two parties having agreed to run a joint ticket. MKs Shelly Yachimovich, Eitan Cabel, Merav Michaeli and Erel Margalit are thought to be in the running for third slot.