The Financial Times runs two stories on problems facing the UK and other countries whose solutions may lie in following Israeli models. The first focusses on Britian’s growing water shortage, and asks “How is it that an island noted worldwide for its soggy climate can struggle so frequently to keep its waters flowing?” In partial answer, it finds that “the regional water monopolies are struggling to invest adequately in infrastructure despite the growing population,” and that “no new drinking water reservoirs have been built in England and Wales since 1992, while about a fifth of water in pipes is lost to leaks. There has been little of the innovation shown in countries like Israel, which recycles wastewater and use desalination plants.” The second covers the global shortage of skilled workers trained to combat cyber crime. It quotes Roy Zur, chief executive of cyber security and digital skills provider ThriveDX, saying that “university and college degrees are not an effective way to generate cyber talent, as they take too long and are often broad — in computer science or engineering, for example. Instead, he points to the success of Israel’s 8200 cyber warfare unit, which trains school-leavers in six to eight months.”

The Times’ Anshel Pfeffer writes on Prime Minister Netanyahu not yet having received an invitation to visit US President Joe Biden. “The omission by the White House is being seen as a protest at the inclusion of far-right parties in Netanyahu’s coalition,” says Pfeffer, “which Biden has called Israel’s ‘most extreme’, and a sign of his displeasure at the new government’s plans to weaken Israel’s Supreme Court.” Netanyahu “may have to make do with meeting President Biden at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month”.

The Guardian and The BBC feature Netanyahu’s call for the immediate deportation of Eritreans in Israel following last week’s riot in Tel Aviv in which over 150 people were wounded (including at least 30 Israeli police officers) as Eritrean protesters clashed with law enforcement. A “red line” had been crossed, said the Prime Minister.

The Guardian also profiles the Mego programme in Tel Aviv, “a 14-month-long vocational training programme preparing ultra-Orthodox men with little knowledge of the modern world for careers in the lucrative hi-tech sector.” Yitzik Crombie, Mego’s founder, an entrepreneur also behind BizMax, a Haredi startup accelerator launched in Jerusalem in 2017 said that “there are about 300,000 people working in the hi-tech industry, but only 3% are Haredim. We are building programmes and tools to show the community what is possible.”

The Israeli media continues to report on the aftermath of violent rioting between rival Eritrean groups on Saturday. The riots were triggered when the Eritrean embassy hosted an event celebrating their independence, which many of the Eritreans regarded as celebrating a brutal and violent dictatorship. Kan News reports that police are trying to understand how 15 Eritrean demonstrators were wounded by live ammunition, despite officers confirming that they had hit only a few demonstrators with live rounds. The police suspect that some of the demonstrators used guns, with Kan News claiming to have obtained video footage documenting one rioter holding a gun.

Israel Hayom reports on yesterday’s meeting of a special ministerial committee formed to address the issue of illegal migrants in Israel in the wake of Saturday’s riot. The committee resolved to target the removal of 5,000 Eritreans resident in Israel by the end of 2023. It was also agreed to revoke work permits from every Eritrean who failed to apply for refugee status. Ministers also authorised the placing of those who participated in the riot under administrative detention, and also to proceed with legislating Basic Law: Immigration. The Foreign Ministry was further tasked with finding countries that might agree to admit the migrants Israel wishes to deport, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will also instruct the Israel Tax Authority to target enforcement action against all of the businesses in southern Tel Aviv run illegally by “infiltrators”.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “The problem  of the people who entered before the fence was completed remains… We removed 12,000 of them voluntarily by means of various incentives and a range of measures. We wanted more. We proposed a series of measures, including a deposit recently, but regrettably all of them were rejected by the High Court of Justice.” Before leaving for a trip to Cyprus, he also said that he was considering building an obstacle along the Jordanian border similar to the one that was built along the Egyptian border.

Yediot Ahronot features Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s weekend declaration, in an official opinion to the High Court, in favour of striking down the July amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary annulling the court’s use of reasonability in reviewing government decisions. “This is an extremely exceptional situation,” she wrote, “in which an amendment mortally undermines the foundations of the democratic regime.” She added, “The executive branch has harnessed its coalition power to promote basic law legislation by means of which the court’s ability to have oversight of it and to ensure that it does not abuse its power has been immediately limited.” The amendment would in practice put the government “above the law,” she also argued, continuing that “banning the High Court of Justice from hearing petitions relating to the reasonability of how governmental authority is exercised deliberately creates a constitutional black hole in the principle of the separation of branches.” Ilan Bombach, a private attorney who will be representing the government at the court hearing, which begins on September 12^th, responded with a request to postpone the hearing by a few weeks, giving the government “time to formulate an appropriate response in the unusual circumstances in which the position of the attorney general does not reflect that of the government and, in fact, strengthens and supports the petitioners.” Of Baharav-Miara’s position Bombach added that “The attorney general has endorsed a very extreme position, she supports the most extreme step in Israeli law—declaring basic legislation to be invalid. This is an earthquake in Israeli law.”

Kan News reports Justice Minister Yariv Levin saying that “it was very difficult to work with Baharav-Miara, but that for the time being the option of firing her was not being considered. Levin said: It’s no secret that it is very problematic to fire an attorney general and that isn’t being considered.” Levin also reaffirmed his commitment not to convene a meeting of the Judicial Selection Committee until its composition has been changed. A change to the committee, giving the government de facto control, is a central element of the judicial reform programme, and Levin’s refusal to convene it has also been subject of a High Court petition.

Israel Hayom reports that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, backed by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, has moved to appoint Brig. Gen. Hisham Ibrahim as the new head of the West Bank Civil Administration without the knowledge of Bezalel Smotrich who, as well as being Finance Minister, enjoys a Defence Ministry brief under the auspices of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit. The paper alleges that Smotrich’s own candidate for head of the Civil Administration was rejected by Halevi and Gallant.

Amid the continued fallout from the revelation of Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s recent meeting with (now former) Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush, Ynet features Israel Attorney Mordechai Tzivin confirming that he, too, has met with senior Libyan officials in recent years, including the deputy prime minister and the son of General Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army and ruler of Benghazi, who he met in Jordan. The site reports that Tzivin “came to know that they [Libyans] actually love Israel, hate the radical Islamists and even remember and ‘miss’ their neighbours from the Jewish community, with whom they had good relations. ‘These are people of the greater world, not religious extremists and, contrary to popular opinion, they are people of the culture,’ according to Tzivin. ‘They emphasise that Israel is their preferred country for receiving help in various fields.’”

After sources close to Education Minister Yoav Kisch said last week that he is considering replacing Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan, Haaretz covers over 120 prominent Holocaust scholars signing an open letter opposing any such move. “Each attempt to seek political control over Yad Vashem is a clear threat to the memory of six million victims of the Shoah, and a challenge to the legitimacy of an institution which enjoys tremendous, and well-deserved prestige, worldwide,” wrote the signatories, who included Professors Jan Grabowski, Jan T. Gross, Yehuda Bauer, Alvin Rosenfeld, and Barbara Engelking. “We call on the education minister and the government of Israel to make sure that Chairman Dani Dayan and Yad Vashem be allowed to continue their mission unhindered.”