Reuters reports Arab soccer fans at the first World Cup in the Middle East are shunning Israeli journalists in Qatar trying to interview them, illustrating challenges facing wider “warm peace” ambitions two years after some Gulf states forged formal ties with Israel. Israeli officials have voiced hope that the US-brokered Abraham Accords reached with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020, and later Sudan and Morocco, would spur further normalisation, including with Arab heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

The Times reports that an aristocrat accused of throwing red paint at the London headquarters of Israel’s largest arms firm has told how she wanted to raise awareness without causing harm. Doone Stormonth-Darling, 28, was allegedly carrying buckets of paint when activists attacked the offices of Elbit Systems in 2020. Giving evidence yesterday, Stormonth-Darling said she had been held in custody for nine hours after the incident. She had been inspired to protest Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories after working in “the Jungle” migrant camp in Calais in 2016.

The Telegraph reports Iran’s match with England at the World Cup, saying the audience included female football fans who were attending a football match for the first time in their lives because they are not allowed to do so in their home country. It came as the head of Israeli intelligence claimed that Iran had considered “disrupting” the World Cup, which is being held in Qatar, around 100 miles from Iran by sea.

The Guardian reports on Syria, as Turkey, Israel and Russia have all launched raids in recent days, reaffirming that a decade-long war remains a rumbling conflict with the potential to escalate on at least three fronts. But even as attention focuses on the escalating conflict in Ukraine, the unfinished business of the Syrian war casts a growing pall across the rest of an incendiary region.

The Jewish Chronicle reports on UK Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech at yesterday’s Labour Friends of Israel event, including her promise that a future Labour Government would increase trade ties between Britain and Israel. Hi-tech would feature prominently, especially AI, where she was keen to “explore the lessons we can learn from Israel’s success”.

Reuters reports Israel’s Bank Hapoalim reporting 48% rise in quarterly net profit, boosted by a rise in interest rates.
Kan Radio reports that coalition talks between Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party “are in a state of crisis. Religious Zionist Party officials accused the Likud of backing out of agreements that had already been reached and of returning the talks to their starting point. Likud officials denied that they had backed out of agreements, and said that they were unwilling to accede to new demands that Smotrich made after an agreement had already been concluded. Likud officials said they stand by the agreement to have Smotrich serve first as an alternating finance minister, and to have the Religious Zionist Party be given the settlement portfolio and the immigration and absorption portfolio.”

Maariv discusses the immediate legislative agenda of Shas head Aryeh Deri, likely to be appointed to lead the expanded Transportation and Interior portfolios. His first priority, says the paper, is to pass an amendment to the Basic Law: Government ‘as a “pre-emptive” measure that would deny Central Elections Committee Chairman Yitzhak Amit the discretion to disqualify Deri from serving as a cabinet minister’ on the grounds of Deri’s previous criminal convictions. The paper also reports on internal Likud anger at the manner of coalition negotiations, MK David Bitan telling Radio 103 FM that Netanyahu has been outmanoeuvred by his coalition partners at the expense of the influence of Likud and its MKs.

Yedioth Ahronot’s Nadav Eyal also comments on the anticipated coalition’s plans for judicial reform. “With every passing day a new trial balloon gets released into the air: a proposal to repeal Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty; a proposal to change the way in which judges are selected that effectively would strip the judicial branch of its independence; a proposal to abolish reasonability as legal grounds for the court’s intervention, grounds that a few years ago allowed the High Court of Justice, for example, to inform Interior Ministry officials from Shas that they could not prevent Teddy Stadium from being built in Jerusalem; and, of course, a proposal to pass an override clause that would facilitate violating human and civil rights that are enshrined in basic laws. Essentially, those proposals are all designed to allow the coalition to do, more or less, anything it wishes.”

The paper also reports on Likud plans to move ministerial legal advisors from being answerable to the Attorney General to instead reporting directly to the relevant minister.

Kan Radio reports on presumptive Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s threats to continue controversial visits to the Temple Mount once in post. The Jewish Power leader is promising to coordinate such visits with police and to avoid giving advance notice of them in an attempt to avoid clashes with Israeli Arabs.

Kan Radio also features Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi’s ongoing trip to Washington, during which he has urged US officials to “accelerate operational plans against Iran and its proxies.” Next week will see the US Air Force and the IDF hold a joint exercise to simulate strikes on both Iranian nuclear facilities and external pro-Iranian militia.

Israel Hayom reports head of the Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva’s warning that Iran is planning imminent attacks, with targets possibly including the Qatar World Cup. All that is “holding them back [from attacking the World Cup] is how the Qataris will react.” The paper further reports Haliva’s warning that “Iran is acting in the worst, most unusual, and shocking way. In London, they are preparing for an Iranian attack and they know what they are talking about. Iran is conducting terror activity in the United States as well. I’m not convinced that the world understands the power [of Iran] and the huge problem it represents.”

The paper’s commentator, Ariel Kahana, continues the theme, discussing yesterday’s announcement of the increase in Tehran’s Uranium enrichment capabilities. “Iran once again escalated its insolence by expanding forbidden enrichment to 60%, using its new centrifuges in the underground Fordo plant. In other words, everyone who thought that the Iranians were in a position of weakness, or that they might come crawling back to the world powers were simply deceiving themselves.”