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Media Summary

Qatari state news hacked with “fake news” story on Israel

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The i, Guardian and Times all continue to report on US President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia. The i reports on US President Donald Trump’s visit to Bethlehem on Tuesday, during which the president used a public address to reaffirm his commitment to peace in the Middle East.

A Guardian editorial says Trump’s handling of the visit has shown he is unfit to be President of the US. The Daily Mail reports that Trump has pledged to increase defence aid for Israel during the visit.

An editorial in the Times evaluates the possibility of Trump brokering the “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians he has spoken of. A separate article says that the trip was “all pomp and no policy,” while a third by Gregg Carlstrom notes that Trump has come under fire from critics in Israel over his new arms deal with Saudi Arabia, which the President signed on Sunday.

Writing in the i, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown covers the aftermath of the terror attack in Manchester which killed 22 people, many of them children. She outlines some measures which Britain could implement to combat Islamic extremism. In the Telegraph, Juliet Samuel compares the state security apparatus of Israel and the UK in the wake of the attack.

The Telegraph also reports that Qatar’s state-ran news agency was hacked with a fake news story about Iran-Israel relations. The story claimed that relations between the two countries were “good” and described Iran as “a regional and Islamic power that cannot be ignored and it is unwise to face up against it”. Several Gulf states blocked all Qatari media in response to the incident, including broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

An article on same-sex marriage in the Guardian notes that Israel is one of only seven countries outside of Europe that allow the practice by law, and is the only one in the Middle East.

The Guardian also reports that leaked guidelines for Facebook moderators have revealed that Holocaust denial is permitted on the site, provided the comment does not originate from Germany, Israel, Austria or France.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot leads with the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.  The paper includes a dramatic aerial shot that shows some of the 80,000 people that danced with flags through the city.

Israel Hayom also covers the celebration but leads with an exclusive that suggests President Trump told Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that he supports the implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative at the first stage of the peace process. According to a senior Palestinian source, the president first want to see normalisation between Israel and the moderate Arab states and only afterwards intensive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the core issues. According to the source the Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians agree to this approach.

Both Israel Hayom and Haaretz cover comments by US Secretary of State Tillerson that the president put pressure on both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Abbas to resume negotiations and to compromise. Secretary Tillerson told travelling reports: “The president was very forceful in his encouragement to both of them to be serious about approaching these discussions in the future and recognise they have to compromise, everyone has to compromise.”

Maariv also has an exclusive that suggests Likud MK Dr Anat Berko presented a plan to the Prime Minister to separate some of the Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem from the Jerusalem municipality and hand over control to the Palestinian Authority.

Maariv, Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot all report on dramatic developments in the vote for the new head of the Labour union.  The Tel Aviv District Court ordered a halt to the vote count at the request of MK Shelly Yachimovich, who claimed that there had been systematic fraud. The hearing will take place in court this afternoon. Yachimovich’‎s team said that over 500 suspected fraudulent ballots have been found, whereas incumbent Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn’‎s team said that nothing would change the fact that Yachimovich was defeated at the polls.

Haaretz continues to cover the investigation into the Manchester terror attack and the terrorist being part of a network.  They also claim the British are furious over the Americans leaking part of the intelligence.

Maariv reports that senior Israeli figures are concerned over the huge arms deal that was signed between US and Saudi Arabia. However Israel is not going to try and prevent the deal as it does not want a confrontation with President Trump.

Yediot Ahronot covers the vote in the Czech Parliament that recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, to coincide with the celebration of Jerusalem Day.  In addition, the Czech Republic condemned the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its recent anti-Israel resolutions.