Media Summary
02/10/2014
The Telegraph and Times report on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Barack Obama yesterday. The Telegraph piece notes that Iran was a main topic of conversation between the two leaders. The article quotes US officials as saying that they would allow Iran to retain some nuclear enrichment centrifuges in a deal, a position opposed by Israel. The Times quoted Netanyahu’s comments that Iran was trying to “bamboozle its way to an agreement,” while also commenting on Obama’s support for Israel during the summer conflict.
The Times notes that US-Israel tensions have been raised following the announcement of plans for construction in Givat HaMatos, a neighbourhood in southern Jerusalem beyond the Green Line.
The Guardian’s G2 supplement looks at a photojournalism project by the charity ActionAid, showing Gazans with possessions that they salvaged after the recent round of conflict.
A report on British jihadists by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, reported in the Times, reveals that many British jihadists were already involved in activist groups focusing on “global Muslim issues” such as “the Palestinian conflict.”
A long feature piece in the Independent and Independent i by Grant Feller details how his experience of both anti-Jewish and anti-Israel prejudice, especially during the summer conflict, led to his re-identification as a British Jew.
The Evening Standard quotes Today Programme editor Jamie Angus as saying that “difficult, distressing foreign news stories” like Gaza and Ukraine has turned off listeners.
A letter in the Daily Mail contrasts the lack of media coverage of civilian casualties and damage in the US/UK bombing campaign against ISIS to the widespread coverage of the same in Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Gaza.
The BBC reports that Israel has provided Jordan with details of 1960s-era spy equipment planted in the Kingdom to enable the Jordanian government to remove it.
In the Israeli media, most papers lead on the Obama-Netanyahu meeting including Yediot Ahronot, Maariv, Israel Hayom and Haaretz. Israel Hayom notes that Netanyahu committed to the principle of two states for two peoples at the meeting, drawing criticism from coalition partner Naftali Bennet of the Jewish Home party. An analysis piece in Yediot Ahronot characterised the relationship between Mr Obama and Mr Netanyahu as based on “indifference”.
Israeli press also discuss the construction project in Givat HaMatos. Yediot Ahronot cited an official who claimed that the construction plans were deliberately leaked to damage the Netanyahu-Obama meeting.
Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv both carry interviews with IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
Haaretz reports that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is threatening to cut all security cooperation with Israel if a UN Security Council resolution recognising a State of Palestine doesn’t pass.