Rhetoric surrounding the emerging agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme continues to attract coverage. The Times, Financial Times and the online edition of the Guardian all cover the candid comments made by Susan Rice, US President Obama’s National Security Advisor, who described the decision by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address US Congress next week on the Iranian nuclear threat as “destructive” to the fabric of the US-Israel relationship. Netanyahu has been accused of colluding with Obama’s political opponents by delivering the speech.

However, the Telegraph reports that Netanyahu said yesterday that the deal being discussed shows that the world has “given up” on its commitment to prevent Iran’s nuclear armament. A Telegraph editorial warns that Netanyahu “might have a point” and that if as reported, the accord in question would merely delay the Iranian nuclear threat by a decade or so, it would be “cowardly and unconscionable.”

Meanwhile, the Independent i and the online editions of the Times and Guardian all report that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard yesterday conducted an elaborate televised live fire naval drill in which its forces destroyed a mock US aircraft carrier.

The Guardian covers the publication yesterday of a damning report by Israel’s State Comptroller on the country’s housing market. With housing increasingly expensive in relation to the cost of living, it is a significant election issue. The report points the finger at administrations under Netanyahu and his predecessor Ehud Olmert, plus various bodies and institutions. The Guardian says the report could be damaging for Netanyahu just three weeks ahead of the general election.

The Independent i covers a so-called “Price Tag” attack yesterday at a mosque near Bethlehem, where offensive graffiti was scrawled. “Price Tag” attacks are acts of vandalism against Palestinian and Arab property by extremists opposed to curbs on settlement building.

The Guardian includes a feature on injured Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip six months after Operation Protective Edge. The article also focuses on a number of British doctors who have travelled to Gaza to help treat those injured in the summer conflict.

The Daily Mirror covers a King’s College study which indicates that exposure to peanuts from an early age may prevent peanut allergies. The study compared Jewish children in the UK to those in Israel, where a popular peanut-based snack is a children’s favourite.

In the Israeli media, the main item in Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Maariv is the State Comptroller’s report into housing. The Yediot Ahronot front page headline simply proclaims, “The failure,” with commentator Sima Kadmon highly critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response to the report, which she says was cursory. Kadmon writes, “He glazed over it, as if these were mere trivialities, unimportant issues that petty people latch onto instead of focusing on the real thing,” the threat of a nuclear Iran.

Meanwhile, the top story in Haaretz is the comments made by Susan Rice in which she criticized Netanyahu’s upcoming address to Congress. The story is also covered in Maariv, while Israel Hayom counters Rice’s claims by reporting comments made by former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who described the Obama Administration’s behaviour towards Netanyahu as “rude.” In Maariv, Ben Caspit pens another sharp attack on Netanyahu, saying that although he “knows better than anyone about our fragile country’s absolute dependence on the American umbrella,” Netanyahu “nevertheless decided to smash everything and leave scorched earth behind him.”

Israel Radio news reports this morning that another apparent so-called “Price Tag” incident took place overnight, with an arson attack in the bathroom of a Greek Seminary in Jerusalem.