Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Moment before the storm - Close race for US presidency to be determined in four days
• Netanyahu trying to convince Kahlon to retreat from establishing party
• Life close to death - Eli Wiesel in interview to Haaretz: "I don't understand why Netanyahu compares between Iran and the Holocaust"
• Kilo of flour, liter of oil - Cooperatives in Jerusalem neighborhoods in crisis, now, when the idea became a trend
• Interior Ministry prevented mixed Israeli-African couples from living together
• The transgenders' protest: The approval process grueling, and the only surgeon is on a sabbatical

Yedioth Ahronoth

• 13 mandates to Kahlon - Yedioth poll says 81 days to elections
• Testimony from hell - Former employee in Neve Yaakov psychiatric institution speaks
• Bonus for outstanding teachers: Up to 8,000 shekels a year
• "I shot Abu-Jihad" - The story the military censor allowed to print for the first time

Maariv

• Church of the Holy Sepulchre in danger of closing - International crisis (Hebrew)
• The social justice minister? An exam into Kahlon's achievements as minister of social welfare reveals a different reality (Hebrew)
• Sawing the house - Four months after an agreement to evacuate settlers from Givat Ulpana outpost, the sawing of the first house has been completed
• The Horowitz family accuses - A year after the death of Eli Horowitz, the man who founded the giant pharmaceutical company, Teva, his family won't forgive the treatment at the hospital
• The US votes in 4 more days

Israel Hayom

• Romney and Obama: The last run
• The people of Israel live - Prime Minister and wife visit Jewish school in Toulouse with French President
• The lesson from the (Home Front Command) drill: Advance 'Plan 38' (to strengthen buildings against earthquakes)
• On Kahlon: Stop debating and stay with us
• Iran admits: "We are completing installing centrifuges at Fordo plant"
• Following the abuse: Neve Yaakov psychiatric institution to close
• Security rating of flights to Israel returned to Level 1
• Fear of lack of eggs: Producers stopped selling

News Summary:
US and Israeli elections news lead the main Israeli newspapers this Friday morning.  Yedioth reports on the criteria recognizing outstanding teachers - but fails to highlight the mix of military with education, while Maariv reports on the mix of military with politics in the location of polling stations for primaries for a far right-wing party. Maariv's 'Journal' supplement looked at the term of hardliner Likud Minister of Culture Limor Livnat and asked if there were more culture or more politics during her reign.
 
Lots of discussion in all the papers over whether former Likud Minister Moshe Kahlon will start his own party. A Yedioth poll found that Kahlon would get 13 Knesset seats if he decided to start his own party. Five of those seats would come from the new joint Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu list, but others would come from Labor and Yesh Atid.
 
Kadima party promised to reveal embarrassing information about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Yesterday party leader Shaul Mofaz told reporters at a press conference that Netanyahu is obsessed with Iran and that the prime minister's office is aware of the problem. "The prime minister had a 94-member coalition to resume the negotiations, prevent the establishment of a bi-national state, change the system of governance and introduce a social budget – but all he did was choose to focus on bombing Iran," Mofaz said. More here from Haaretz. 

 
Maariv asked whether the Minister of Culture Limor Livnat [who sits on the hard right side of the Likud party - OH] was a stately and innovative, giving budgets to the periphery and changing agendas or a petty politician who advanced Zionism at the expense of art and terrified the institutions she budgeted. Quoting people from within the ministry and from the institutions, the reporter, Hilo Gelzer concludes that she was the latter and not the former. 

In an article titled 'The money is for them,' Yedioth reports on the Education Ministry's new bonus for outstanding teachers: 8000 shekels a year. Half of the criteria to determine whether a school has made it is for academic achievements and half are for 'social achievements.' A pie chart reveals that a whopping 20% of the criteria is based on whether the students go to the army or serve in National Service. Yedioth fails to note that this not only mixes military with education, but it also removes the chances of Arab schoolteachers of being 'outstanding.' The paper reports that the weight of each criterion reflects the importance it receives in the Education Ministry. Only one other criteria got more weight than that: 'quality of matriculation certificate' got 22.5%.

In an article titled "Politics in the military,' Maariv reported that the [far right-wing - OH] party Habayit Hayehudi plans to use nine hesder yeshivas (linked with the military) as polling stations for their primaries this coming Sunday. Half of the yeshiva students there are conscript soldiers. This is problematic, explained Maariv, because government ministries finance the yeshivas and because the military prohibits soldiers from being involved in any political activities. The Defense Ministry was surprised to learn about this and said it would investigate. (NRG Hebrew)

Quick Hits:

• PA President: As long as I am in power, there will be no third intifada - In an interview to Israel's Channel 2, Mahmoud Abbas says although he is a refugee from Safed, he supports a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders; the rest, he says, is Israel. (Haaretz)
• Court orders indictment of settler, not only of Palestinian, on assault charges - Video footage of confrontation between settlers and Palestinians shows the plaintiff hurling a stone at a woman. Investigators failed to watch copy of film sent to the police. (Haaretz)
• Israeli security forces, settlers clash after state moves to demolish West Bank outpost - Settlers accuse police of using brute force in clearing of 'Hasruga' outpost near Yitzhar; Haredi IDF soldier defects over demolition; Likud minister: Barak has lost his senses. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Beginning to move the houses of the Givat Ulpana outpost - The agreement with the 30 settler families was that they would evacuate voluntarily in exchange for the transfer of their homes to a new location inside Beit El settlement and off privately owned Palestinian land and the building of another 300 housing units. [The article in the pro-Netanyahu paper did not mention the high cost to taxpayers. -OH] (Maariv, p. 6)
• Palestinian Authority seeks November UN vote on status bid - Palestinians eye Nov. 15, 29 as possible dates for vote on status upgrade bid in United Nations; Israel attempting to block move. (Ynet)
• Flags of enmity in Nazareth Illit - Enormous Israeli flags were placed at the entrances of the mixed Jewish-Arab city raising the ire of the Arab residents who said it's a provocation. Mayor Shimon Gafaso: "Whoever doesn't like it and go screw himself." Arab MK Hanin Zouebi of the adjacent Arab city of Nazareth said, "The size of the flags is unnatural and their placement in front of Nazareth conceals a provocation and a political message...This is a message that the flag represents the Jews and not the Arabs." (Maariv, p. 9)
• Israel's military attaché to Washington retires from IDF - Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni's announcement takes his candidacy for the position of IDF deputy chief of staff off the table. The leading candidate, preferred by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, is Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot. (Israel Hayom)
• Defense Ministry downsizes New York mission - Government to cut more than 40% of staff after significantly downsizing operations in Europe. (Yedioth and Ynet)
• **Here I come - Miss Young Israel, Lina Mahoula, arrived in Jerusalem to study law at the Hebrew University and believes she will break stigmas as the daughter of an Christian Arab father from the Galilee and a Russian mother. Next month she's competing for Miss Young (Yedioth Jerusalem 'Mosaf' supplement, p. 1)
• PM at Jewish school in Toulouse: Nation of Israel lives - Netanyahu, French President Hollande visit Jewish school targeted by radical Islamist terrorist. PM tells ceremony 'hatred of Jews threatens humanity.' (Ynet and Haaretz)
• US upgrades Israel's aviation safety rating - Upgrade means Israeli airlines can expand service to US, form partnerships with US carriers. (Agencies, Ynet)
• 'Mismanaged' Magen David Adom may come under state supervision - Deputy health minister wants to put MDA under close watch, citing state comptroller's reports criticizing ambulance service. Donations to the organization, totaling around $52 million, are the sole responsibility of the organization's chairman. (Israel Hayom)
• Conscript Border Police accused of beating Arab E. Jerusalem resident with rifle butt - Afterwards, the two border guards claimed that he was the one who attacked them. (Yedioth Jerusalem, p. 38)
• Field without playing - Residents of the Arab E. Jerusalem neighborhood of Um Tuba complain: The municipality put mobile class buildings for ultra-Orthodox pupils in our soccer field. Municipality considering finding another soccer field for kids. (Yedioth Jerusalem, p. 54)
• Israeli rabbi: US got a 'nice hurricane' - Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak implies superstorm Sandy was message from God against Israel's dependence on America, lashes out at 'President Obamba' for 'enslaving Israel.' (Ynet)
• Romney who? The Mormons at the Mormon University on the Mt. of Olives don't express excitement over the Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "We don't get involved in what is happening in the US. We are an academic campus and don't take a side in the elections...Our policy is to be neutral." (Yedioth Jerusalem, p. 48)
• Battle over properties of Guma Aguiar arrives to city - Lawyer Thomas Panze, lawyer of Jaimie Aguiar, arrived from Florida in order to survey properties of her husband. Lawyers of his mother, Ellen say: It's an attempt to find proof of guardianship over buildings. (Yedioth Jerusalem supplement, p. 32)
• Poll: 85% of Americans in Israel voted for Romney - Democrats decry survey as 'unscientific,' citing ties to conservative backer Ronald Lauder. (Haaretz)
• Iron merchant caught transferring money to Hamas - Shin Bet, police trace Gazan iron merchant that used his Israeli visa to transfer millions of dollars and iron to Hamas military wing. (Ynet)
• Tunisia says foiled plot to kidnap local Jews - Interior Ministry says security forces thwarted plan to abduct young Jews in Zarzis, hold them for ransom. Jewish leader: Intimidation campaign underway. (Agencies, Ynet)
• In debate over Egypt's new constitution, Muslim law sparks a holy war of words - Muslim Brotherhood's recent announcement that the country's forming constitution will be based on Sharia law represents an attempt to appease both liberals and Islamists. (Haaretz)
• Iran confirms completing centrifuges installation in Fordo - Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency addresses report by which Iran completed installing centrifuges at underground nuclear plant. (Ynet and Haaretz)

Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.