The BBC features a guide to Israeli media, writing “Israel’s press and broadcasters are many and varied, reflecting differences in language, political viewpoint and religious outlook. TV is the leading medium and commercial networks top the ratings.” “The Israeli media enjoy real freedom,” it says, “but Palestinian journalists experience major difficulties in exercising their profession, says media watchdog Reporters Without Border… Freedom House says the [Israeli] media ‘are vibrant and free to criticise government policy’. But it says diversity and editorial independence have been threatened by ‘financial difficulties in the industry’.”

The Financial Times publishes an editorial on the rise in violence in the West Bank. “Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians have surged since Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government took office in December,” it writes; “western democracies need to do more to hold the Israeli premier to account.”

The Independent reports Cyprus-Israel plans for a pipeline to move offshore natural gas from the two countries to Cyprus. The paper summarises the Cypriot energy minister describing the two countries’ two-stage plan for gas development: “The first foresees a pipeline to bring Israeli and Cypriot gas to the island nation for electricity generation to be consumed domestically with excess supply conveyed back to Israel via an undersea electricity cable. The second phase foresees construction of a plant to convert natural gas to liquid so it can be exported to Europe and elsewhere at a time when the continent seeks to diversify its supply in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The Guardian publishes an editorial on the UK Government’s legislation – currently working its way through the parliamentary process – barring local councils and other public bodies from enacting boycotts of foreign states. The legislation is seen as primarily targeting the BDS movement in the UK and its ability to persuade councils to single out Israel for boycott The paper writes “This is a cynical Conservative trap laid for the opposition. Principled objection to this alarming bill, from any level of the party, can be portrayed as evidence that Labour is just not serious about addressing prejudice in its ranks. But the legislation is not only a partisan diversion from the serious task of tackling antisemitism. It is also an assault on basic democratic freedoms.”

The BBC reports on Israeli film producer Arnon Milchan’s testimony in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial. Milchan is testifying remotely from Brighton, where “his evidence has brought colourful anti-Netanyahu protests to the English seaside city, close to where he now lives, providing an unexpected diversion for holidaymakers.”

Reuters reports on Israel’s 5,000-strong Sudanese community “watching in torment as family and friends have been caught up in factional bloodshed in Sudan’s Darfur region that has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing into neighbouring Chad.”

The Independent profiles 68-year-old East Jerusalemites Nora Ghaith-Sub Laban’s battle to avoid eviction from her apartment despite the Israeli Supreme Court rejecting her final motion for an appeal.

Haaretz and Kan Radio report further violence among criminals in the Arab Israeli community yesterday. Three people were murdered – in Shefaram, Kafr Kanna, and Rahat – and six more wounded in multiple attacks. This brings the total number of Arab Israelis murdered in 2023 to 107 – triple the number at this stage in 2022.

There is wide Israeli media coverage of yesterday’s announcement that Prime Minister Netanyahu is set to visit China, likely in the Autumn, after the Jewish High Holidays. Commentators position the visit in the context of the current state of Israeli-US relations – particularly with the fact that Netanyahu has not yet been invited to meet with President Biden since his re-election as Prime Minister in December 2022. Israel Hayom’s Ariel Kahana writes: “The time has come either to flex some muscles or to release a trial balloon—a Chinese balloon in this case… If Biden wants to be able to proudly present to his citizens Israeli consent to supply the Ukrainians with Iron Dome batteries, and if he doesn’t want to see any more symbolic damage done to the United States’ regional standing, he needs to invite the Israeli premier to meet.” In contrast, Yediot Ahronot’s Yossi Yehoshua says, concernedly: “Israel—certainly in its current strategic situation, which has changed for the worse and is mired in a severe domestic crisis that has encouraged enemies like Hizbullah to begin to take action against it—cannot even contemplate damaging its security relations with its best friend. We cannot annoy the Americans any further, and certainly not now. We need more than ever the security aid, which guarantees military superiority, and we mainly need the resilience that we will have to have in the event of a lengthy, multiple-theatre war, should one break out.”

Maariv brings further reaction, citing INSS Director Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman saying, “Netanyahu’s visit to China at a timing of this kind is a grave mistake. The visit won’t prompt the White House to invite Netanyahu. To the contrary, it will produce anger. As such, this is terrible timing from a tactical perspective.” In response to such concerns, the Prime Minister’s Bureau said in a statement that: “Netanyahu met today with American members of Congress and informed them that he has been invited to China. The intended visit will be the prime minister’s fourth visit to China, and the American administration was informed of that a month ago. The prime minister told the Congressmen that security and intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel is at an all-time high, and stressed that the US will always be Israel’s essential ally—and that it is irreplaceable.”

In coverage of the protest movement’s response to the re-instigation of the government’s judicial reform agenda – paused by Prime Minister Netanyahu in March – Yediot Ahronot reports how demonstrators yesterday targeted the reforms’ primary architect, Justice Minister Yariv Levin. Yesterday morning, prior to the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting to discuss the bill that seeks to abolish the Supreme Court’s grounds of reasonability, a contingent numbering in the hundreds – including many from the Brothers and Sisters in Arms group – arrived at Levin’s Modi’in home before dawn. They then blocked the entrances to the street with barbed wire, held up signs and Israeli flags, made noise with megaphones and drums and even set fire to tires on the road. Following the arrival of law enforcement, the protesters lay down in the road. Six were arrested as clashes broke out, with the police deploying tear gas. An angry Levin, not for the first time, laid much of the blame on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom he accused of enabling and even inciting protesters.

Yediot Ahronot quotes protest leader Dr. Shikma Bressler on the movement’s planned next actions. “These are critical days,” she says. “What began two weeks ago with the salami method is turning into an insane and vicious legislative blitz that will turn Israel into a de facto dictatorship in the next few weeks,” said, one of the protest leaders. “This Monday, on the day of the dictatorship votes in the Knesset on the criminals’ bill, the Kaplan Force will hold a legal and democratic demonstration at Ben Gurion Airport. It will be a non-violent protest that will make it clear to Netanyahu and to the gang of fanatics that has seized control of the state that the battle movement will not let them destroy Israel.” In response to the planned disruption at the airport, Maariv reports Tourism Minister Haim Katz writing to both National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Baharav-Miara urging them to act to prevent disruption to flights. Army Radio, meanwhile, reports that 110 Air Force reservist air crew members have written to Defence Minister Gallant, the chief of staff, and the IAF commander announcing that they will stop volunteering if the judicial reform bills were to be passed into law, including the bill to abolish grounds of reasonability.

Haaretz, meanwhile, details the Israeli police announcing yesterday that they are contemplating opening an investigation into former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan for encouraging civil disobedience. Both men have been prominent supporters of the protest movement and regular attenders of demonstrations. On Twitter, Barak responded to the news by calling it “an attempt at political intimidation of the kind used by corrupt regimes… We will continue to fight against the attempts to crush the judicial system and push Israel out of the family of democracies.”

Israel Hayom reports Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s announcement yesterday that Israel has seized cryptocurrency wallets worth millions of US dollars tied to Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah. “Whoever finances terror or maintains economic ties to terror groups are targets, just like those directing terrorism,” Gallant said. “There is a clear connection to terror that originates in Iran, which is the financier and purveyor of terrorism against Israel and many countries around the world, both directly and through its proxies.”