The Independent reports on the story dominating much of the Israel media, on the shooting of 32-year-old Hermesh resident Meir Tamari by Palestinian gunmen on Tuesday.

Reuters covers Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi saying in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio that Israel remains unclear and “in a fog” over the current state of American negotiations with Saudi Arabia, said to include the prospect of a normalisation deal between Israel and the Gulf state. “We are not really aware, right now, of what is happening in the Saudi-American corridors,” said Hanegbi.

The Financial Times features the speech on Tuesday of the governor of Israel’s Central Bank, Amir Yaron. The Israeli economy has suffered “a significant domestic shock,” from the repercussions of the battle of judicial reform, he said. “This does not mean that all of a sudden the world will stop trading with Israel. It also does not mean that we will not see significant investments in the Israeli economy. But it does mean that continued uncertainty has significant economic costs. Therefore, the decision makers must restore certainty about the economy in Israel . . . To the extent that constitutional changes are made, they must maintain the strength and independence of the institutions.”

The Telegraph and the BBC report the death of Shimoni Erez, 50, a retired Israeli security officer, along with two Italian intelligence agents in a boating disaster on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy on Sunday. According to Italian news outlets, the boat had been carrying about 25 people who were celebrating a birthday when a storm developed over the lake, later turning into a “small hurricane”.

The Daily Mail covers the latest controversy over Palestinian activism on US campuses, with New York’s CUNY university under fire over the May 12^th commencement speech of student Fatima Mousa Mohammed, which included accusing Israeli of ‘settler colonialism’.

There is wide Israeli media coverage of yesterday’s shooting attack in the West Bank, which left 32-year-old Hermesh resident Meir Tamari dead. Kan Radio reports that Tamari was driving in his car when a car containing two terrorists overtook him. The assailants shot him at close range before fleeing. He was critically injured before being pronounced dead at Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera and will be laid to rest today. He leaves behind a wife and two children. Israel Hayom reports Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, the main party in the governing Palestinian Authority, claiming responsibility for the attack. Hamas, meanwhile, responded to the attack, saying “the resistance in the West Bank moves from place to place and continues to spread in the face of the Zionists’ helplessness to stop it. This attack proves the resistance’s ability in the West Bank to surprise the occupation army despite the preparedness of the Zionist defence establishment.” Islamic Jihad also praised the attack.

Israel Hayom also covers local settlement officials hitting out at Israeli political and security leaders, Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan saying “The writing was on the wall. The attack took place just a few meters from the roadblock; had it been active, this attack would have been prevented… Had the Israeli government not bowed to international pressure by removing the security roadblocks, including this roadblock, Meir would be with us here today.” The manhunt has begun for the terrorists, believed to be from a local cell. Security officials told Kan Radio that in the wake of Operation Shield and Arrow, Hamas and Islamic Jihad headquarters have continued to urge West Bank Palestinians to commit terror attacks.

Yediot Ahronot’s Yossi Yehoshua writes that the attack on Tamari is “indicative of three trends: increased terrorism in the Jenin area where terror organisations have marked the Gilboa communities… as a target for shooting attacks that are liable to increase using makeshift mortar shell launchers. The second is increased terrorism from Tulkarm, which took responsibility for yesterday’s fatal terror attack. A few hours before Tamari’s murder, an IDF soldier sustained moderate injuries in the Nur a-Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm, which had been quiet relative to Nablus and Jenin up until recently. The third trend is the shooting attacks on the roads in Judea and Samaria. It is important, in this regard, to point out that the Hermesh settlers’ complaint is well-founded: the IDF has removed the soldiers from positions that had previously been set up on the road. The army has no magic solution for these shooting attacks aside from placing soldiers on the roads, not just in [stationary] positions. That would enhance the sense of safety.”

Yehoshua also comments on the government’s recent decision to flout American disapproval and authorise the previously illegal West Bank outpost of Homesh. Focusing on the break with protocol which saw settlers authorised to return by the political echelon before such a move had been agreed by the IDF and other relevant planning authorities, he writes: “Under cover of the political and social uproar of the last few months, the political leadership placed the IDF in a difficult dilemma, in which the chief of staff was forced to decide between subordinating the army to the government and his commitment to the rule of law.”

Israel Hayom covers over 100,000 people attending the funeral of Ponevezh Yeshiva head Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, who died on Tuesday at the age 100 in the central city of Bnei Brak. Edelstein, the leader of the “Lithuanian” stream of Ashkenazi Orthodox Judaism was the president of the Council of Torah Elders of Degel HaTorah, part of the United Torah Judaism political alliance in the Knesset.

Yediot Ahronot also details the latest developments on judicial reform, with tensions mounting ahead of the election of Knesset representatives to the fiercely-contested Judges Selection Committee. With the deadline for the nomination of two MKs to the committee falling in a week, Justice Minister Yariv Levin is quoted as saying that “I don’t care” who is elected. The paper suggests that Levin, who is seeking control of the committee as a central plank in the judicial reforms, will refuse to convene any committee elected under the current rules. Such a gambit from Levin would have serious consequences for the compromise negotiations taking place under the auspices of President Herzog. Prime Minister Netanyahu is said to be in earnest in his stated desire to reach an accord with the opposition, but Opposition Chair Yair Lapid has been firm in his insistence that the selection committee must be convened once its new members are duly elected. “The Knesset must elect its representatives to the Judges Selection Committee, including representation for the opposition, the committee must convene and start to work in keeping with the rules that were in place throughout all the years,” Lapid said, “otherwise, any dialogue is a fraud and we will not be able to lend a hand to this fraud.” Ma’ariv reports that Lapid and opposition colleagues from other parties will meet today to identify their candidate for nomination, likely to be one of Karin Elharar (Yesh Atid), Pnina Tamano-Shata (National Unity Party) or Efrat Rayten (Labour Party).

Maariv also cites a recent position paper written by four eminent Israeli legal experts – Prof. Amnon Reichman from Haifa University, Prof. Barak Medina from Hebrew University, Dr. Ronit Levine-Schnur from Reichman University and Dr. Ori Aronson from Bar Ilan University – arguing that the presence of an opposition MK on the committee is vital to Israeli democracy and “a practice that reflects fundamental constitutional principles.”