The UK press includes wide commentary and reporting on President Barack Obama’s speech to AIPAC yesterday and today’s meeting between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Financial Times, Guardian, Times and Independent focus on Obama’s warning to avoid ‘loose talk’ on military action against Iran. The Times leader calls on President Obama to show solidarity with Israel over Iran. By contrast the Financial Times and carries a comment piece by Harvard political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt calling on Obama to ‘take a stand’ against Israel on Iran. The Independent has a comment piece with a similar theme written by historian Avi Shlaim, whilst the Telegraph analyses the policy dilemmas facing the two leaders and the Financial Times assesses what it considers Israel’s international isolation over Iran. The Iranian parliamentary election in which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is cementing his support is covered in the Times and the Financial Times. Ongoing developments in Syria continue to receive considerable attention in all the newspapers’ online coverage, and on the BBC.
Meanwhile the Independent has a comment piece criticising the political response to the controversial comments of Baroness Jenny Tonge against Israel, and the Guardian has a comment piece about the US TV drama ‘Homeland’, and its Israeli equivalent. Reuters meanwhile reports on an Israeli court decision to shorten the detention period of a female Palestinian prisoner affiliated with Islamic Jihad who went on hunger strike.
The Sunday papers also widely reported the forthcoming Netanyahu-Obama meeting. The Sunday Times reported that Obama was asking Israel to delay a strike on Iran until after the US elections and the Sunday Telegraph claiming that Netanyahu will tell Obama, ‘We’ll attack Iran if you won’t’. The Independent on Sunday had a comment piece arguing that Israel is probably bluffing about bombing Iran. The Mail on Sunday covered an internal showdown within the Conservative party in which Douglas Carswell MP accused Foreign Secretary Hague of being too tough on Israel, which the Foreign Secretary vehemently denied. The Sunday Times had a further comment piece on Baroness Tonge. The Observer printed an interview with Israeli author Etgar Keret, and with Holocaust historian and film maker Claude Lanzmann.
Two stories dominate the Israeli media this morning. The first is the today’s meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama on Iran following Obama’s speech to AIPAC. The second is the news that a draft report from the State Comptroller into the Harpaz affair has been sent to the officials implicated. The inquiry is into the origins of a faked document that was intended to smear Yoav Galant and sabotage his candidacy for the post of IDF Chief of Staff. It apparently reveals tension in the working relationship between Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who supported Galant, and former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi who was opposed to his candidacy. All the papers carry these stories on their front pages.
Obama’s speech to AIPAC, and his expression of readiness to use force against Iran, is relatively warmly received by the Israeli media, with Yediot Ahronot describing it as “a good speech for us”, and Maariv opining that it was intended for the ears of the American Jewish electorate. Israel Radio reports this morning comments from Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor that Israel still prefers a diplomatic outcome. YNet News is reporting a German media report that a suspected North Korean nuclear test in 2010 may have been carried out for Iran. The Jerusalem Post reports on an Israeli offer of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people via the Red Cross.