The BBC and Independent report that an EU-funded online business forum organised by Iran has been suspended after four European countries (France, Germany, Italy and Austria) withdrew their ambassadors following the execution of an Iranian opposition journalist by the Islamic Republic at the weekend. Ruhollah Zam was accused of using a messaging app to stir up dissent. The journalist had been granted asylum in France after documenting mass protests in Iran in 2017 on his online news feed. He was later captured in Iraq and taken to Iran. France called the execution “barbaric and unacceptable” and said it ran counter to Iran’s international obligations. The EU also strongly condemned the killing “in the strongest terms”. France announced on Twitter that its ambassador to Iran would not participate in the Europe-Iran Business Forum, along with the three other envoys. At the foot of the tweet the ministry used the hashtag #nobusinessasusual, likely in response to Israeli Prime Minister’s caution on Sunday for the international community to not return to the Obama-era of negotiation with Iran when President-Elect Joe Biden returns to the White House in January 2021.

The Telegraph reports that Israel has established full diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Bhutan. “The circle of recognition of Israel is widening,” said Israeli foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi. “The establishment of relations with the Kingdom of Bhutan will constitute a new stage in the deepening of Israel’s relations in Asia.” With a population of around 800,000 people, the Kingdom of Bhutan is wedged between neighbouring giants China and India. They have long relied on the latter for guidance on foreign and defence policy.

The Financial Times’s editorial board writes that US president Donald Trump’s latest “peace” deal between Israel and its Arab neighbours is among the strangest his administration has struck. The decision to recognise Western Sahara as Moroccan sovereignty, the paper says, “will not only fail to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It may actually ignite a new conflict [between Morocco and the Algerian-backed, pro-independent, Polisario Front]”.

The Times writes about the new relations between Israel and the UAE, which have allowed for Jewish tourist to discover the beaches of Dubai. “This week, 50,000 Israeli tourists are expected to visit the UAE — taking advantage of cheap flights and a lack of quarantine regulations to escape from Israel’s harsh lockdown and visit the Gulf, which has barred them for decades.”

The Telegraph, Guardian and Independent report that Iran has sentenced a British-Iranian anthropologist to nine years in prison after convicting him of carrying out “subversive” research work, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim. Kameel Ahmady, who had researched controversial issues such as child marriage in Iran, was detained in August 2019 but released on bail three months later, according to human rights groups. Iranian authorities say that work fomented violence during the 2017 anti-government protests.

The Guardian reports that an oil tanker off the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah has suffered an explosion after being hit by “an external source”, a shipping company said, suggesting the latest in a series of attacks on vessels in the kingdom amid its years-long war in Yemen.

The Financial Times reviews Haim Bresheeth-Zabner’s An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Force Made a Nation (Verso 2020), which it describes as “a woefully narrow lens through which to measure an entire country”. The paper adds: “Just as Israeli hasbara, like all propaganda, is a constellation of lies, obfuscating half-truths and convenient truths, Bresheeth-Zabner’s version of anti-Zionism is a foregone conclusion in search of supporting evidence.”

In the Israeli media, Kan Radio News reports that Israel will approve the Pfizer vaccination in the coming days and begin its mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Sunday. The first to receive the vaccine, possibly even on Saturday evening, will be the prime minister and health minister. The Transport Ministry and the Health Ministry have issued new directives to prevent over-crowding at Ben Gurion Airport. The number of check-in counters for outgoing flights will be doubled and they will open four hours before flights. Disembarking from planes returning to Israel will be in groups of 20 to 30 passengers. It was also decided that no more than four planes will be connected to the jet-ways at one time and no more than two planes that are returning from countries defined as red. Meanwhile, Prof. Nachman Ash, the coronavirus project coordinator, admitted in closed-door meetings that the National Security Council had decided not to enforce the coronavirus directives on the Temple Mount because “there is nothing we can do”. Kan News aired last night a recording from a meeting between Ash and security officials in which they discussed prayer services in al-Aqsa Mosque, where prayers are attended by thousands, without masks and without social distancing.

Yediot Ahronot follows the altercation between Health Ministry officials as to whether to categorise the UAE, which has become a very popular destination for Israeli tourists, as a red “coronavirus” country. On the one side of the divide are Health Ministry Deputy Director General Professor Itamar Grotto and International Health Department Director Dr Asher Shalmon, who are opposed to defining the UAE as a red country. Pitted against them is Director of Public Health Services in the Health Ministry Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis. The coronavirus cabinet sources said the data pertaining to the scope of morbidity in the UEA clearly indicate that the country is well on its way to becoming a red country. Foreign Ministry officials are also opposed to that categorisation and warned about the diplomatic fallout that would ensue. At the moment, everyone returning from Dubai can return home without having to submit to a coronavirus test or quarantining.

All the Israel media report Israel is close to reaching 3,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with the official death toll now at 2,999. The Health Ministry said that on Sunday 1,707 people tested positive for coronavirus after 50,641 tests had been conducted, putting the infection rate at 3.4 per cent. There are 353 patients in serious condition, of whom 122 are on ventilators.

Also, in Yediot Ahronot, Amihai Attali writes, “How is it thinkable that thousands of people arrive on flights every day with no supervision, and that not a single official is anywhere to be found to instate any order? What is going on? Doesn’t anyone have even a drop of sense? Since vaccines are on the way, with a few tens of thousands of doses already in the warehouses, does this mean that we are immune? Does this mean that the virus, which has killed thousands, has suddenly become less fatal?” Health Ministry officials anticipate that 595 people would be returning to Israel infected with COVID-19 by the end of December. According to Health Ministry calculations, 211 out of the 22,000 Israelis who are expected to return from Dubai by the end of the month are expected to have COVID-19.

Maariv follows the latest political developments in the coalition to avoid early elections, noting that any amendments made to the “Basic Law: Government” will require the support of 70 MKs. It writes, “Under the current circumstances, this compromise proposal does not enjoy broad support of that kind. The Likud is working in an attempt to muster the necessary support. To that end the cabinet meeting that was scheduled to be held today has been postponed until Wednesday.” However, Likud officials told Maariv that extending the term of the unity government, as proposed by Likud Finance Minister Yisrael Katz, constitutes only an internal tweak of an existing agreement and requires a regular majority of 61 and not a special majority of 70.

Israel Hayom reports that the immediate impact of Gideon Saar’s new party on polling figures has resulted in a further rift between Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and his senior colleagues. One senior Blue and White official told the paper: “The reports in the past few days about the absence of leadership in Blue and White, as well as the polls that show a dramatic drop in the number of Blue and White’s seats and Benny Gantz’s unsuitability for prime minister, oblige us to reconsider how to move forward and to reassess whether a change in the party’s leadership is needed. Blue and White has to remain a governmental alternative, and in its current composition, that is in doubt.” Despite not wanting early elections, one senior ultra-Orthodox politician is quoted, “Everyone is playing make-believe. They think they can do something and can’t do anything. I don’t see how it is going to be possible to reach a compromise between the Likud and Blue and White. They’ve lost control of the event, and this is going to end at the polling stations.”

In Channel 12 News, Amit Segal says the Arab Joint List is on the verge of breaking up, despite winning its record number 15 seats in the last of the three elections. The Knesset is expected to vote in the next several days on two initiatives that are very important for Arab society: a decision to lift construction-related restrictions that resulted in a wave of illegal construction in Arab cities, towns and villages; and the plan to eradicate crime in Arab society. If both are passed by the Knesset, it will give United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas the personal achievement needed to withdraw his party from the Joint List and run independently in the next election.