The BBC, Guardian, Financial Times  and the Telegraph report on diplomatic efforts to resolve the case of UK academic Matthew Hedges, convicted of spying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The BBC reports that there are signs that Foreign Office staff may be close to resolving the case. The UAE’s ambassador in London is due to issue a statement at 10:00 today, amid speculation he will talk about progress in the 31-year-old’s situation. On Thursday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he had “constructive” talks with his opposite number. BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams tweeted that things were “looking a bit more positive” for Hedges, with Foreign Office sources suggesting there had been an “olive branch” from the Emirati foreign minister.” The UAE may feel that having allowed the legal process to run its course, the time has now come to show magnanimity and not risk a very real diplomatic breakdown with a close, important ally,” he added. On Thursday evening, Hunt tweeted he had “just had a constructive conversation with UAE FM [Foreign Minister] Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed”. The Guardian reports that the UAE has said it wants to reach an amicable conclusion to the dispute. The UAE said on Thursday afternoon: “Officials from both countries have discussed the matter regularly over recent months. Both sides hope to find an amicable solution to the Matthew Hedges case.” It insisted that Hedges had been treated fairly and said it was determined to protect its important strategic relationship with Britain – a key ally. Rejecting claims that Hedges had been forced to make confessions under duress, the UAE foreign ministry said Hedges had been provided with translators and “it is not true that he was asked to sign documents he did not understand”. The Telegraph reports that senior Whitehall insiders turned on Hunt on Thursday night over the jailing of Hedges, claiming the Foreign Secretary had upset two crown princes by ‘lecturing’ them on human rights. A well-placed Government source suggested Hunt’s attempt to intervene in Hedges’s case on a tour of the region 10 days ago had backfired spectacularly. According to the Whitehall source, Hunt had been confident of securing Hedges’ release after meeting Abu Dhabi’s powerful Crown Prince on a flying visit to UAE on November 12, the Foreign Secretary claimed the source, had also upset Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on the same trip, by raising the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The Guardian reports via journalists Nazia Parveen and Peter Beaumont that Hedges may have made himself a target because of his “clear, sharp analysis” of the shifting planes of the UAE’s security politics. Academics who knew the University of Durham PhD candidate, described him as an expert on the UAE defence sector due to his work with various organisations in the country and time spent there as a child.

The BBC, Times, Telegraph and Reuters report on Saudi Arabia and the continued aftershocks of the killing of Saudi journalist Khashoggi. The BBC reports that US President Donald Trump has said the CIA did not conclude that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of Khashoggi. Officials told US media such an operation would have needed the prince’s approval. But Saudi Arabia maintains it was a “rogue operation”. “They didn’t conclude,” Trump said when asked about the CIA’s reported evaluation by reporters in Florida. His comments on Thursday came as the Saudi crown prince began a regional tour of the Middle East, starting with the UAE – his first official trip abroad since Khashoggi was killed. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed, tweeted to say the UAE “will always be a loving and supportive home for our brothers in Saudi Arabia”. The Times reports that France has imposed sanctions on 18 Saudi Arabian citizens over the killing of the Khashoggi, and warned that more may follow. The move was made in co-ordination with Germany, which has banned all arms sales to the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has said that it has placed 21 people in custody over the murder, and five could face the death penalty. The Telegraph and Reuters report that, according to a Turkish news website, the CIA has a recording of a phone call in which Crown Prince Salman gave instructions to “silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible”. Gina Haspel, CIA director, is said to have revealed the existence of a wiretapped call between Prince Mohammed and his brother Khaled bin Salman, who is Saudi’s ambassador to the US, to Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara last month. The Independent reports that Turkey has accused President Trump of turning a “blind eye” to Khashoggi’s murder.

The BBC and Reuters report on the 10 year jail sentence handed to an American-Israeli man convicted of making thousands of hoax threats to Jewish centres in the US, UK and other countries. The BBC reports that Michael Ron David Kader, aged 20, from southern Israel, was found guilty in June of making more than 2,000 threats. He threatened to bomb or attack Jewish schools, community centres, police stations, airports and airlines.

Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom report that the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) uncovered a Hamas terror plot in the West Bank. The Shin Bet released footage from the interrogation of an assailant, who in all likelihood was recruited in the West Bank by Hamas’s military wing in the Gaza Strip, and was trained to manufacture explosives and identify crowded targets for attacks. The Shin Bet also found that the connection between the military wing and operatives in the West Bank had been made through residents of Gaza who received entry permits to be admitted into Israeli hospitals for life-saving treatment.

Yediot Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz lead with Hamas publishing images on Thursday that allegedly show the Israeli soldiers who took part in the covert operation in the southern Gaza Strip last week. The Israeli military censor issued a rare statement asking media not to publish the photos. “Hamas is currently involved in an attempt to decipher and understand the event that took place deep in Gaza on November 11 and every piece of information, even if it is considered harmless by those publishing it is liable to endanger human lives and cause harm to the country’s security,” the statement read.

In Yediot Ahronoth Yossi Yehoshua writes that “immediately after the special unit whose operation inside Gaza was exposed and disrupted … IDF officials predicted that Hamas would publish details about it. Within the Israeli effort to draw conclusions from the latest rounds of violence, psychological warfare is high on the list. The IDF is not fully to blame for the failure. The politicians and their problematic, and sometimes contradictory, messages vis-à-vis Hamas also has great weight. In some cases the psychological warfare actions failed so badly that they unintentionally affected the Israelis rather than the citizens of Gaza. The IDF invests a relatively minor annual sum, about NIS 20 million, in this sphere. A recommendation has already been placed before the new chief of staff to double the amount next year.”

Ronen Bergman argues in Yediot Ahronoth: “From the Ben Barka affair [the Moroccan opposition leader in whose assassination the Mossad was involved], through the failed assassination in Lillehammer, the Mordechai Vanunu farce and the Khaled Mashal fiasco … we have proven that we are mistaken in 100 percent of the cases in our understanding of the information and media world.” He adds that “the futile attempt to stop the publication not only gives Hamas confirmation, but also an important psychological victory”.

Yediot Ahronot and Maariv report that four days after assuming the post of defence minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the recommendation of the incoming chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and approved the appointment of Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir as the next deputy chief of staff. In Yediot Ahronoth, Nahum Barnea describes Maj. Gen. Zamir as a “professional, levelheaded, experienced and non-partisan officer” but argues that “Netanyahu harmed him by pushing his appointment prematurely. The competitor, Nitzan Alon, is no less professional and experienced than he, and equally non-partisan. He is a brilliant military man. Unfortunately for Alon, he served as OC Central Command. Since he worked to enforce law and order in Judea and Samaria, he became the enemy of the settlers. It’s difficult to know whether it was the false propaganda of the settlement extremists tipped the scale against him, or the virtues of Maj. Gen. Zamir”.

Kan Radio News reports that US President Donald Trump defended his decision not to take action against Saudi Arabia for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He said that Israel would be in “big trouble” without Saudi Arabia.

Maariv reports that the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported that US President Donald Trump has decided to postpone the release of his plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians until next February in order to placate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel, the UK, Canada, Estonia, South Korea, New Zealand, Uruguay and new member states Mexico and Portugal which make up the D9, were in Jerusalem to sign a charter expressing their commitment to share best practices and expertise. The group meets annually to identify how to improve digital services, collaborate on common projects and support their growing digital economies. “The State of Israel is a digital leader and one of the founders of the forum, and the occasion of signing the international charter is exciting and important,” said Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel after signing the charter.

Maariv reports on comments by former deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, who lambasted Education Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday after the latter said that soldiers were “more afraid of the judge advocate general than of Sinwar”. Golan, who retired from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) after not being appointed chief of staff, said on 103FM Radio that “Bennett has been weakening the army and the country. The fact that of late, in this age, elected officials have been making a habit of abusing civil servants, who were not elected and who cannot talk back, is an offensive custom”. He adding that “it undermines public confidence in the operational agencies of the State of Israel. The operational agencies also include all of their operational organisations. They should be treated in the reverse manner, and confidence in them should be strengthened”. Bennett replied: “The fact that an IDF major general is criticising a security cabinet member shows that we are apparently going through processes that must be stopped, just not the type that he’s talking about. If he wants to go into politics, let him at least undergo a cooling off period.”

The Times of Israel followed up a Channel 10 News report that an Israeli submarine mistakenly torpedoed a boat carrying refugees and foreign workers off the Lebanese coast during the 1982 Lebanon War, killing 25 people, after the IDF finally lifted military censorship on reporting of the 36-year-old incident. According to Channel 10 News, the incident occurred off the coast of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in June 1982 as Israel was enforcing a naval blockade of Lebanon.