The Independent, BBC News Online, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Telegraph,  the Sun and the Times report on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu’s visit to London to meet with UK Prime Minister Theresa May. Netanyahu pressed May to recognise that the Iranian nuclear deal is on the point of collapse and that a fresh plan is needed to stop Iran restarting its uranium enrichment programme. The visit follows Netanyahu’s talks this week with the other European supporters of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the meeting, May told Netanyahu of the UK’s concern at the shooting of Palestinian protestors in Gaza asked him to try to resolve the situation following a series of violent incidents. In anticipation of the visit, BICOM CEO James Sorene told the Independent “Netanyahu will be looking for support from Britain for Israeli action in Syria against Iran, sympathy for Israel’s terrible dilemma on the Gaza border and a willingness to listen to what Israeli intelligence unearthed about Iran’s nuclear secrets. Theresa May wants to save the nuclear deal in some form and will ask tough questions about recent Palestinian deaths in Gaza. For both leaders this is an opportunity to consolidate booming trade ties and compare notes on counter-terrorism.”

The Times, the Independent, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard report the cancellation of a pre-World Cup friendly football match between Argentina and Israel which was scheduled to take place in Jerusalem. The cancellation prompted calls for Israel’s sports minister Miri Regev to resign and a police investigation into the “politicisation” of football. The match had been scheduled to take place on Saturday at Israel’s newest stadium in Haifa. However, Regev wanted to move the fixture to Jerusalem. Palestinian pressure was put directly on players in the Argentinian national team, in particular Lionel Messi, who received a personal letter from the chief of the Palestinian Football Association asking him not to play. According to Argentine media reports, Messi’s family and other players in the squad were threatened with violence. Avi Gabbay, leader of the Israeli Labor Party, said that “the corrupt behaviour of the sports minister . . . needs to be investigated by the police”.

The Times and the Daily Mail via AP reports that Britain and other European countries have made a last-resort appeal to US President Donald Trump to allow them to continue trading with Iran, despite his decision to pull out of the nuclear deal. Foreign and finance ministers from Britain, France and Germany, three of the six countries that negotiated the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in return for a lifting of sanctions, said that they were still committed to upholding it. The letter, addressed to Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, asked for key areas of European trade to be excluded from the threat of “secondary sanctions”. These included energy, banking, pharmaceuticals, civil aviation, healthcare and infrastructure.

The Guardian reports that a UN team has concluded a five-day official inspection of Saudi Arabia, that it is systematically using anti-terror laws to justify torture, suppress all dissent and imprison human rights defenders. The report presents a damning assessment of Saudi’s human rights record and is made more powerful by the fact that it is the product of an official Saudi invitation. The UN’s special rapporteur on anti-terrorism, the British QC Ben Emmerson, met senior Saudi politicians, judges, police and prosecutors during his trip.

The Times reports that Qatar has made a new attempt at international engagement, saying that it hopes to join Nato. Khalid al-Attiya, the Defence Minister, pointed to its military links with the West and high defence spending as justification for membership. “Qatar today has become one of the most important countries in the region in terms of the quality of armaments,” he told a ministry publication.“Regarding the membership, we are a main ally from outside Nato. The ambition is full membership if our partnership with Nato develops and our vision is clear.” The comments are a shot across the bows of its more powerful neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have blockaded Qatar for a year over its refusal to follow them in trying to isolate Iran. They also accuse it of supporting terrorism because of its ties with Islamist movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Spectator has published a review of the Israeli TV show Fauda and says it “takes the more respectful path of simply showing things as they are: two peoples, often so similar in appearance you cannot tell them apart, often fluent in each other’s languages, yet utterly and impossibly riven by a set of inimical values derived from a wholly different religious and cultural mind set”.

The Sun has written an article about Sara Netanyahu and mentions Benjamin Netanyhu’s previous wives Miriam Weizmann and Fleur Cates.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that a new Jewish museum in Cyprus aims to be a bridge-builder to the Arab world and beyond, a place where visitors who may never set foot in Israel can learn about the Jewish faith, the Holocaust and the tumultuous beginnings of the Jewish state. Items going on display in the seven-story structure in Larnaca will include some of more than 100 Torah scrolls, that Russian authorities discovered in the Nazis’ possession and which for decades were kept at a military installation 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Moscow.

All the Israeli media focus on the cancellation of the friendly football match against Argentina. Minister for Culture and Sport Miri Regev was interviewed on Channel 2 News, she said the Argentinian’s FA decision was made solely in response to “terrorism,” in the form of threats to the lives of Argentina’s team members and their families. This morning’s newspapers also reflect on the decision. Maariv notes that “coupled with South American cowardice was  Israeli arrogance and smugness, which were the spark that led to the derailment of this game. First among the arrogant—Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev.” In Yediot Ahronot, there is criticism in general of right-wing politicians and it says that Regev implicitly belongs to, for becoming “a supplier of ammunition for the industry of hatred against Israel. The cancellation of the Argentinian national team’s game in Jerusalem was the peak. But it isn’t going to end there. In the balance between doing what is best for the country and what is best for themselves, right-wing politicians are going to continue to act in service to themselves. To hell with the country.” Both Israel Hayom and Yediot Ahronot cover the disappointment of young fans. The charity, Save a Child’s Heart had planned to take severely ill children to meet their hero Lionel Messi. Maariv also notes the potential “Snowball effect” that other international events in Israel may be cancelled. In a similar vein, Haaretz reports that Jerusalem’s hosting of next year’s Eurovision song contest could also be in doubt. This morning, Kan radio news reports that State Comptroller Yosef Shapira will expand his inquiry into the conduct of the Culture and Sports Ministry and Minister Miri Regev regarding the football match against Argentina. The scope of the State Comptroller’s Office’s inquiry will include the mechanism for distributing the tickets to the game, the decision-making processes, the decision to relocate the match from Haifa to Jerusalem and other issues.

Maariv looks ahead to anticipated large scale violent demonstrations on the Gaza border tomorrow. The paper reports the IDF will double the normal number of troops deployed on the border.  They note the IDF has seen efforts by Hamas to ensure high turnout among Palestinian demonstrators at the border fence tomorrow in hope of replicating the numbers achieved in the 14 May demonstration, in the course of which more than 60 Palestinians were killed.

Yediot Ahronot reports on the change of guard at the top of the IDF Southern Command. The ceremony was delayed four days due to the tension in the south. Outgoing Southern Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned Israel “must be prepared for escalation” on the Gaza border, as well as “draw conclusions and find a suitable solution for the kites terrorism as well. He is being replaced by Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi who until now served as head of Military Intelligence.

Haaretz reports the IDF shot a young Palestinian man during a violent clash in the West Bank village of Nabi Salah yesterday. According to the IDF, soldiers entered the village to arrest a suspect and were met by a group of more than 10 Palestinians who threw stones at them, the army responded with riot dispersal methods. The suspect threw a stone that hit a solider in the head. That soldier responded by shooting him. He was then treated medically at the scene before being declared dead.

Maariv reveals, according to Lebanese sources, that earlier this week there was almost a “head-on collision between Hezbollah and Russia”, along the Lebanon – Syria border. The surprise Russian military deployment was carried out without prior coordination into an area controlled by Hezbollah. The move, “aroused the wrath” of Hezbollah commanders, who saw the Russian move as directed against them.