After roping the current wave of terrorism into a campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Noni Mozes' Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper and website have launched a new "social" campaign, over "cuts to the periphery." Let's be clear: No one likes it when their benefits are cut, and rightfully so. But we need to put the move in perspective, and as we've seen in the past, Yedioth Ahronoth doesn't let the facts distract it from its mission. To justify using the misleading headline as criticism of Netanyahu, Mozes brought up the settlements, with a subhead that read: "And in the meantime, the settlements are taken care of." Taking care of the settlements? Not exactly. The person who made that clear on Tuesday was Education Minister and Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett, who addressed the debate on which communities would receive tax benefits by saying he supported the original benefits map, which did not include the settlements. The facts are that the government allots money in one form or another to 403 communities designed "peripheral." That's the blanket provision and from time to time, the specific makeup of the benefits is altered. Two-percent cuts to tax benefits are instituted for one place, and in another the tax exemption is raised. True, an exemption of 11% is better than one of 9%, because we all want more. The fact that someone else is benefiting isn't really any comfort to the people whose benefits are cut. But even a change like that doesn't comprise a death sentence for a given community. Let's not get carried away. But what does it matter? Mozes is using his paper to call for a revolt in the periphery. Journalist Amnon Abramovich, known for his criticism of Netanyahu, was quick to write that "almost every year, the settlements come out with the upper hand." He promised that the members of Habayit Hayehudi were threatening a coalition crisis if the benefits map left out Judea and Samaria. Journalist Merav Batito also lent her hand to the mission, and offered a surprising explanation for the fact that so many people actually live in central Israel, writing that "3.5 million Israelis chose to crowd into the smoggy cities of [the Tel Aviv area] rather than gamble with fate and trust the state to meet its obligation toward them." Oh, really? Is that the reason for the birth of the "state of Tel Aviv"? Not the tendency to live close to opportunities for action, employment, and leisure? Are the residents of "smoggy" Tel Aviv refugees who fled the periphery because of a possible cut to their tax benefits? And interwoven into all this is the one-line response from MK Itzik Shmuli (Zionist Union), whose smiling picture appears over and over in the pages of Mozes' paper. Remember that he was one of the supporters of the anti-Israel Hayom bill and since then has been on the paper's list of favorite sons? If it weren't so sad, it would be funny. Noni Mozes, under the pretext of worrying about the disadvantaged, is throwing sand in their eyes and employing every possible manipulation for one purpose -- looking out for himself. In the last election, Mozes' paper and Ynet news site brainwashed the residents of the periphery with the goal of bringing down Netanyahu. It didn't help. The public turned away from the paper and its Ynet website. Ever since, Mozes' paper keeps losing readers and is trying to do everything, absolutely everything, to oust Netanyahu. Mozes probably believes that's the only way he can retake the nation that once belonged to him.
