Front Page News:

Haaretz

• At last moment: Attorney General weighs gathering additional testimonies in Lieberman case - Submission of indictment of Foreign Minister postponed yesterday
• Cut need for budget: Almost 20 billion shekels - because of drop in taxes
• Chronicle of a fake gun: Life and death of a toy terrorist
• Jump in number of children in single-parent homes - report on Situation of children in Israel
• Battle against the Women of the (Western) Wall intensifies: Wave of arrests and new prohibitions
• Cuts at Channel 2: Two major news programs cancelled

Yedioth Ahronoth

• "My siblings and I, we are the hungry children from the report" - N., 12, writes about the horrible reality behind the statistics of the Israel National Council for the Child; almost 1 million poor children
• "I lost my voice. Forever" The last surgery took his ability to speak and perform, but actor Sefi Rivlin is still optimistic
• US: "Israel is a serial provocateur" - Administration condemns with unprecedented severity Netanyahu's policy of construction in the Territories
• In the name of the son - Actress Idit Teperson, mother of an autistic boy, is battling for him and his friends
• Getting far from home - Worrying statistics: New apartments are running out - even in the periphery

Maariv

• Members of Foreign Ministry appointments committee: "We understood that Ben-Arieh needs to be chosen" - Attorney General delayed submitting indictment against Avigdor Lieberman in 'ambassador affair' (Hebrew)
• In Likud they admit: "The multiple approvals for construction in Judea and Samaria (W. Bank) and Jerusalem is our election campaign" (Hebrew)
• Special documentation from the tunnel of the State - Maariv went 80 meters underground to document the national project of a tunnel to be part of the fast train track between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv
• And our broadcast ends...After Channel 10 employees received dismissal letters, Channel 2 News decided to cancel 'At Six with Oded Ben-Ami" and "Meet the Press." Dozens of journalists demonstrated yesterday in Tel-Aviv

Israel Hayom

• Likely: The (election) committee will disqualify, the High Court will approve - Coalition believes it has majority to disqualify (Arab MK) Hanin Zouebi from running
• Despite the condemnations: "The construction will continue" - US: "Israel's actions are provocative"; Fear: The Europeans will make a condemnation in the European Security Council
• The Prime Minister's dish - After a visit to the north, the PM decided to make a stop to eat in Acre - and stopped at 'The Turkish Falafel," that has been operating for more than 60 years
• You took a photo with Instagram - the photo is not yours
• Who will take care of my child? // In the wake of the opening of the battle by parents of autistic children, Hagit Ron-Rabinovich makes a personal request to decision-makers
• Lieberman: The truth will be revealed before elections
• Nurses strike: After the explosion, night negotiations at court
• Budget cuts at Channel 2 News: "Six with" and "Meet the press" to go off screen

News Summary: The US and Europe condemn Israel (again) for approving (again) more settlement expansion in E. Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's indictment is postponed and more than a third of the children in Israel live in poverty making top stories in today's main Israeli papers. Meanwhile, Maariv reports that the settlement construction is part of Likud-Beiteinu's campain and Arab MK Hanin Zouebi is expected to be disqualified by the elections committee and then qualified by the High Court.
 
'It has become a ritual,' wrote Yedioth's Orly Azulay. 'Israel's government announces approval for  construction across the Green Line, the world hastens to respond with criticism. But this time, it appears the responses from Israel's friends hit a new record of anger and disappointment.' The Israeli papers called the US criticism of Israel's latest approval of settlement construction - 1500 housing units in Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in E. Jerusalem - "unprecedented" and "particularly harsh." They pointed to the use by State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Noland of the word 'provocation' in relation to Israel's move. Maariv noted that Noland 'even expressed doubt in the honesty of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's declarations regarding a two-state solution,' when she said, "Israel's leaders continually say that they support a path towards a two-state solution, yet these actions only put that goal further at risk." Nevertheless, Israel will put 3000 new housing units beyond the Green Line on the market next week. The US was not alone. The four European members of the UN Security Council members are preparing a joint condemnation statement. Israel Hayom writes they won't bring it to the UNSC because the US would veto it. In Israel, Meretz, the Labor party, Yesh Atid, and Tzipi Livni slammed the construction plan. And in the US more than 400 Jewish clergy called on Netanyahu to stop the plans to built in E-1 in a letter organized by J Street, Americans for Peace Now and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America.

The latest move has turned the election campaign around. Yesterday, the papers wrote that Likud officials bemoaned the 'sleepy' campaign devised by Jewish-American strategist Arthur Finkelstein: no PR, no billboards, no interviews with the media, no messages. (Haaretz) Today, however, the commentators write that this is the strategy. That with the building in E. Jerusalem Netanyahu is setting the agenda. Maariv reported that as a fact: Likud officials confirmed that the construction over the Green Line IS the campaign. (NRG Hebrew) "Before elections there is a need to sharpen positions," one Likud minister explained. "Finally we understood that our Likud voters are in favor of building in Jerusalem and in settlements, and therefore they welcome these types of decisions and don't see them negatively." The same minister added that even if the approvals were made from unrelated considerations, i.e. elections, it still achieves the goal of expanding settlements."
List of plans to construct housing units over the Green Line: (Maariv)
Ramat Shlomo (E. Jerusalem):    1500 units
Gilo (E. Jerusalem):                      hundreds to thousands
Ariel                                             750
Givat Zeev                                    250
Efrat                                             600
Karnei Shomron                           500
E-1                                             3,246
 
Israel Hayom's political affairs reporter Mati Tuchfeld, writes that "Netanyahu and Lieberman have been managing their campaign by going about business and running the country, while everyone else gets pulled along behind them." Maariv political affairs commentator Mazal Muallem writes that now "Yachimovich, who was supposed to make a big issue of the societal issues, is having difficult staying relevant."

Arab MK Hanin Zouebi (Balad party) is likely to be disqualified today from running for the Knesset by the Knesset elections committee, Maariv and Israel Hayom report. However, she is expected to petition the High Court and win. The Attorney General has already expressed his opposition to disqualifying her. MK Ofer Akunis' made the request to disqualify Zouebi "for denial of the existence of Israel and support for an armed struggle through her participation in the Turkish flotilla to Gaza."In addition, requests have been made to disqualify the following parties: Balad, Raam-Taal (Arab), Utzma L'yisrael (far right-wing), Shas, Yehadut Hatorah.
 

Quick Hits:

• **Number of children living in poverty rising - New National Council for the Child report indicates widening gap between children living in center versus periphery and between Jews and Arabs. (Ynet and Israel Hayom)
• Poll: Right-wing Habayit Hayehudi swells to third-biggest Israeli party - The poll, conducted by Dr. Mina Zemach, showed the party under its new leader, Naftali Bennett, winning 12 seats - four times as many as it had in the last Knesset. (Haaretz)
• Justice Ministry delays indictment against Lieberman over new evidence - Justice Ministry refuses to comment on whether delay has to do with a Ch. 10 report that police did not gather evidence from members of the Finance Ministry's nominating committee that appointed Ze'ev Ben Aryeh as Israel's ambassador to Belarus. (Haaretz and Israel Hayom)
• IDF, PA collaboration in West Bank faltering - Long-term cooperation between Israeli, Palestinian security forces in West Bank at critical junction. (Ynet)
• Police arrest 3 'price-tag' suspects - Lengthy investigation in case involving desecration of West Bank mosque leads to suspects' arrest. (Ynet)
• Bill would let police block websites, without court order - Critics say legislation wouldn't survive court challenge, 'seeks to bring us down to the level of Iran and China.' (Haaretz)
• Israel is waiting for Uruguay's next move - A diplomatic crisis between Israel and Uruguay has erupted after Israeli envoy in Montevideo exchanged verbal blows with the ruling MPP party. (Haaretz)
• Lieberman opposes Russian law restricting foreign donors, despite pushing Israeli version - Israel worries that the Russian law could affect the activities of overseas Jewish organizations in Russia, including the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee. (Haaretz)
• Security prisoner's family instigates court fight - Riot breaks out in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court during parole hearing for hunger-striking prisoner released in Shalit deal. (Ynet)
• Autism diagnoses in Israel jump almost fivefold since 2004 - Social Affairs Ministry's report for 2011 found sharp and continual increase in incidence of the disorder; over half those with autism are children under 14, particularly between ages 5-9. (Haaretz)
• Bedouin tribe leaves southern Israel home after 20-year battle - Families move to new village after losing struggle with regional council head Pini Badash. (Haaretz)
• Bus driver slaps elderly woman, calls her 'barbaric Moroccan' - Woman, 72, files a criminal complaint against the driver. Connex transportation company, which employs the driver, says company will take appropriate action against driver if he is found guilty. (Israel Hayom)
• Israeli teen evades assault charges after court suspects officer fabricated story - Israel Police had pushed indictment against settler youth, despite testimony by other policeman on the scene who said that no attack actually occurred. (Haaretz)
• Israeli Arab activists encourage voting, but enthusiasm running low - Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's population but historically, voter turnout is low due to their disillusionment with politics and dissatisfaction with their own representatives. (Haaretz)
• Google, Israel Antiquities Authority launch Dead Sea Scrolls digital library - Using Google and NASA technology, the new website allows visitors to look at and read the fragments, text search in Hebrew and in English translation, as well as place the specific scroll at the site where it was first found. (Haaretz)
• Prospect of Hagel nomination sets off alarm bells for some U.S. Jews - ADL says Republican former senator wouldn't be 'first, second or third choice for friends of Israel', but J Street defends him for stance on Iraq. (JTA, Haaretz)
• Journalist deaths rise by 42% in 2012, nearly half of them in Syria - Of the 67 deaths this year, 28 foreign journalists were killed covering the conflict in Syria or directly targeted for murders by government or opposition forces in that country. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Syrian rebels fight Palestinian pro-Assad group - Clashes between rebels and PFLP-GC terror organization loyal to Syrian president rage in Yarmouk. (Agencies, Ynet)
• NBC news team freed in Syria after five days in captivity - Chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, who disappeared shortly after crossing into Syria from Turkey on Thursday, says he believes captors belong to militia loyal to Assad. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Report: Russia sends warships to Mediterranean for possible Syria evacuation - Interfax news agency quotes Russian naval source as saying that Russian ships are heading to the area and could stay there for an indefinite period of time. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Iran nuclear chief: Tehran won't suspend higher grade uranium enrichment - Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization says Iran won't stop 20 percent enrichment 'because of the demands of others'; comments renew Iranian defiance ahead of possible nuclear talks with world powers. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Iran facing fresh threat from newly unleashed malware - International Business Times reports that the "targeted data-wiping malware" can wipe data from infected computers. Identified as "GrooveMonitor.exe," it avoids anti-virus programs by disguising itself as a Microsoft Office 2007 program. (Israel Hayom)
• Iran's supreme leader 'likes' Facebook - Social network banned in Islamic Republic has unlikely new member: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Experts say use of website appears aimed at countering Western media. (Agencies, Ynet)

Features:

Is nothing sacred? Egypt's Jon Stewart takes aim at Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood
Dr. Bassem Youssef, a practicing heart surgeon, is taking full advantage of the post-revolution freedom of expression in his country (hosting Egypt's popular satirical show, "Al Bernameg" ("The Program" , which is modeled on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.") (Haaretz)
Gaza diary: From one war to another
M.'s family fled the fighting in Syria, only to end up in the Gaza Strip one month before Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense. 'Man can never escape his destiny,' says M.'s wife. (Abeer Ayyoub, Haaretz)
Where are they now? / Survivor of Palestinian terror attack starts over
British-born Kay Wilson is rebuilding her life two years after a walk in the woods brought her straight into the path of a terrorist. (Haaretz)
The life and death of a toy terrorist
What exactly happened before a Hebron teen was shot dead by a border policewoman? (Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Haaretz)
Haunting Iranian music stars in new Israeli film - but don't expect to buy the soundtrack
Haunting Iranian music stars in 'Ballad of a Weeping Spring.' So why isn't a soundtrack being sold? Israeli cinema has prospered in recent years, but it appears that the release of the music from Israeli cinema has been left behind. (Haaretz)

Commentary/Analysis:

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