The Telegraph covers widespread media reports in Israel that the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is canvasing support to postpone the election of a successor to President Shimon Peres by six months, in order to investigate the possibility of scrapping the presidency altogether, a largely ceremonial institution. The report quotes commentators who suggest that Netanyahu is motivated by a strong personal dislike for one of the leading presidential candidates, Likud MK and former-Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin. The 120 members of the Knesset will vote for a new president this summer with Peres’ term at an end.

Meanwhile, the Guardian, Independent, Daily Express and Sun all mention that Nigeria has welcomed Israel’s offer to send anti-terror experts to the country in order to help Nigerian authorities locate more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted four weeks ago by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram.

The Guardian online says Egypt’s presumptive presidential candidate, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, said in an interview that if he comes to power he will stand down should there be popular support for him to do so. He added that the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed in Egypt during the last few months, has tarnished Islam and must “re-evaluate.” The Times online reports that an Al-Jazeera reporter, who was arrested covering a Muslim Brotherhood protest and subsequently began a hunger strike in a Cairo prison, could die within days.

In Syria, the Times online says that residents of Homs are returning to the city after opposition groups were defeated by forces loyal to the Assad regime last week, only to find that their homes have been destroyed due to fighting. The online edition of the Independent says Islamist opposition groups, who are focusing their operations on Aleppo, attempted to cut off the water supply to government troops, only to mistakenly disrupt the water supply to areas which they control.

In the Israeli media, the top story is today’s impending sentencing of former-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was recently convicted of bribery during his time as Mayor of Jerusalem. It is the top story in Yediot Ahronot, Haaretz, Maariv and Israel Hayom, the latter two publications leading with the headline “Judgement Day.” Writing in Yediot Ahronot, lead commentator Nahum Barnea argues that Olmert’s downfall is no cause for celebration, saying that, “There is not a single ounce of joy to be felt about a former prime minister going to prison.”

Haaretz covers the ongoing suggestion that Prime Minister Netanyahu is hoping to postpone this summer’s presidential election and subsequently review the relevance of the institution itself. Maariv publishes a poll which indicates that 55 per cent of Israelis are opposed to such a move. The daily’s lead commentator Ben Caspit calls Netanyahu’s initiative nothing less than a “political abomination, a substantive change to a basic law merely so as to accommodate a familial whim.”

Maariv and Haaretz also prominently cover the ongoing dispute between the Defence Ministry and the Finance Ministry over cuts to the defence budget. Military and defence officials have suggested that the army has run out of money and that the country’s military capability will suffer if additional money is not allocated. Haaretz suggests that Prime Minster Netanyahu will eventually agree to grant such an extra sum. Israel Hayom reports comments made by Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who said that the Finance Ministry is discouraging career officers by suggesting that the army is financially wasteful.