The Sunday Times profiles the three women “widely seen as the leading defenders of Israel’s democracy”: protest leader Dr Shikma Bressler, Supreme Court President Justice Esther Hayut, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni linked the three’s work on opposing the judicial reforms to the wider battle for gender equality in Israel. “‘It’s clear that those supporting judicial reform do not accept equality as stated in the Israeli declaration of independence,’ she said. ‘Until now the Supreme Court forced the Orthodox community and the government to accord equality to women.’ Weakening the power of the court therefore ‘harms gender equality in Israel’. The country needed Bressler, Hayut and Baharav-Miara, she said. ‘They have this inner strength. And very strong spines.’”

The Guardian looks ahead to Netanyahu and Biden’s meeting. “There is no personal bond between Biden and Netanyahu, who have known each other for decades,” it writes, “although the US leader often describes himself as a ‘true friend of Israel’. Biden is well aware of the Israeli’s previous interventions in US politics in favour of Donald Trump and has called the current Israeli cabinet one of the most extreme he has seen in his long political lifetime.”

The Independent features UNESCO’s announcement yesterday that it is to list prehistoric ruins near the West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine. The decision was taken at a meeting of the UN World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Although Israel quit UNESCO in 2019 and objected to UNESCO’s acceptance of Palestine as a member state in 2011, it remains a member of the World Heritage Convention and sent a delegation to the meeting. “The property proposed for nomination is the prehistoric archaeological site of Tell es-Sultan located outside the antique site of Jericho,” Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO’s assistant director general, said during the meeting to discuss the site. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that the decision “testifies to the authenticity and history of the Palestinian people,” adding that “the state of Palestine is committed to preserving this unique site for the benefit of mankind.”

The Independent reports two cargo ships arriving in Ukraine, in defiance of Russia’s blockade of the war-torn country’s ports. The two ships – Resilient Africa and Aroyat – are currently located between the Danube River delta and the city of Odessa, and will load almost 20,000 tonnes of wheat for delivery to Egypt and Israel.

All the Israel media includes wide coverage of Netnayahu’s US visit. Yediot Ahronot’s Nahum Barnea focusses on the implications for US-Israel relations of Netanyahu being forced to visit the country for the first time since his re-election under the auspices of the UN General Assembly “We’ve been relegated,” he writes. “Leaders of third- and fourth-tier countries use the opportunity of the annual UN General Assembly to visit America. The invitation is issued by the UN… Even leaders who are boycotted by America, as was the case in the past with Ahmadinejad and Arafat, are invited and come. Those who aren’t boycotted find a way to extend their visit to include another city or two. That is a consolation prize for people who envisioned Washington in their mind’s eye but couldn’t go. Netanyahu is kicking off his visit in San Francisco.”

Kan Radio details that, as Netanyahu departed, thousands of opponents of the judicial legislation marched in Tel Aviv returning to demonstrate against the government when the Rosh Hashanah holiday ended last night. On the latest government thinking on who to proceed with the reforms, Israel Hayom quotes a senior coalition figure as saying that “We want to change the Judges Selection Committee, and then we’re prepared to freeze the rest of the judicial legislation for a long and extended period of time of a year and even more.”

Kan Radio reports that the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip will remain closed today, and the 17,000 Palestinian workers generally allowed to travel into Israel for work not allowed to cross. This follows hundreds of Palestinians gathering at multiple points along the Gaza border on Sunday to protest against Jewish worshippers entering the Temple Mount during the Rosh Hashanah holiday, as reported by Haaretz. Demonstrators burned tires, to which Israeli forces responded with crowd control measures. Of the wider significance of the events, the paper writes that sources inform it that “Hamas is not interested in a real military confrontation with Israel, but does want to send messages to Jerusalem, the United Nations and Qatar about the need to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Likewise, against the backdrop of escalation in the West Bank, Hamas wants to let Israel know that it can’t disconnect from the situation in Gaza.”

Yediot Ahronot’s Yossi Yehoshua analyses events on the border: “The security establishment is currently preoccupied with two urgent issues in addition to the fight against the Iranian nuclear threat: the Gaza border that is heating up because of riots on the border fence, and the introduction of standard-issued bombs into the arena that, if detonated, will change the picture of the fight against terrorism in Judea and Samaria, picture that is bad enough to begin with. Two unusual events took place last week, illustrating that the situation is worsening. The first was a large bomb in Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. At this stage, its ultimate objective is not yet clear. The second was the disturbances along the border fence in Gaza, which led the IDF to carry out an unusual attack on a Hamas position using a drone.”

Army Radio, meanwhile, covers news that a Palestinian terrorist took out a knife and tried to stab Border Police troops at the Mazmoriya checkpoint at the entrance to the Har Homa neighbourhood this morning. One of the combatants shot and neutralized the terrorist.

Channel 13 highlights a Palestinian official claiming that the Saudis are displeased with media coverage of the ongoing talks to facilitate normalisation with Israel, and that this has caused Riyadh to slow the pace of discussion. The channel also reports “the Saudis’ assessment that the current Israeli government will be hard put taking any action that might benefit the Palestinians. The Saudis have asked the Americans for clarifications about which kinds of steps the Israelis might take vis-à-vis the Palestinians in exchange for an agreement.” Senior Israeli officials denied that report as untrue, and Kan Radio reports Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan saying that he had now knowledge of any Saudi plan to suspend the talks. Of the Palestinian element to any deal, he said “It’s truly not a simple matter, particularly since the Palestinian leader today is an avowed anti-Semite who says surreal and disgraceful things that should have put him in the trashcan of history. And even so, the Israeli government will have to establish a set of priorities: what is more important.” Ynet, meanwhile, details Saudi and Israeli sources saying that Palestinian demands of the process were “unrealistic”, and that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has commissioned a survey among Palestinians which reveals that only 16 percent of them support the Palestinian Authority and its leadership, seen by them as corrupt.