APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday November 28, 2013

Quote of the day:

Sitting facing the paper, seeing you fall / Looking at the paper and cannot make a sound. / Oh my country my homeland, you're going kaput / You broke my heart into little pieces / We had a dream and now it's gone.
--Haaretz's Ari Shavit quotes from apocalyptic song by iconic musical artist Arik Einstein, who died Tuesday, and says Arik was wrong.**

Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Final chord - In wave of sorrow and longing, masses stopped their daily routines yesterday in order to part from the cultural hero Arik Einstein
• We're also mourning over ourselves // Yehonatan Gefen
• We already began missing him while he was alive // Ben Shalev
• A model of masculinity that was seared into Israeli film // Uri Klein
• The country that went bust // Ari Shavit
• At this moment, Israel is wonderful // Gideon Levy
• The illusion of the old and good Israel // Anshel Pfeffer
• Hapoel lost again // Uzi Dan
• State calls for new elections in Beit Shemesh
• Elementary schools and nurseries will open in July for subsidized education activities
• Weinstein demands judges making shorter rulings to deal with clogged courts
• Father of three Israeli children who served in reserve duty to be deported

Yedioth Ahronoth

• You left us, friend - Whole state declared on its own a national day of mourning in memory of Arik Einstein - and he never knew he was like that
• Arik belonged to all of us // Sima Kadmon
• Sounds of the people // Shimon Peres
• Big debt // Gilad Shalit
• Great and modest // Hava Alberstein
• How did you go before I did? // Uri Zohar
• My moment with Arik: (numerous singers and actors and others)

Maariv

• "I was an only child to my parents and I remained an only child. Since then, (my) genes have spread in a more wild way. I have four children, 18 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Do I remember all their names? I remember, but not in order."
• Tomorrow in Maariv: The personal column Arik Einstein wrote before his death
• The voice breaks // Chen Kottas-Bar at Rabin Square (where he laid in state and memorial was held) (Hebrew)
• Stayed at home (but the nation came to him) // Mordechai Haimovitz at Trumpeldor Cemetery (Hebrew)
• Coffee in the cognac // Orly Asis at Metzitzim Beach (Hebrew)
• Education Minister's plan to cut the summer holiday: "Educational summer camp" in July (Hebrew)
• Weinstein appealed the results of Beit Shemesh election because of fraud (Hebrew)

Israel Hayom

• Parting song - With tears, with song, with love: Israel says thank you to Arik Einstein
• King of the voice // Jacky Levi
• "I cannot perform in public" // Yoav Kutner
• The ultimate naughty boy // Yair Nitzani
• Love - and beloved // Shaikeh Levy
• US: Iran can build in Arak
• Likely that summer holiday to be shortened for 1st and 2nd grade
• Following brain stroke: Former police commissioner Asaf Hefetz returns home

News Summary:
The parting from beloved iconic singer and songwriter Arik Einstein filled the pages of the Israeli newspapers and also inspired Israelis to look inward at themselves as a people and a country and compare themselves and the state to who Arik was and what the country should have been, but wasn't. On the subject of peacemaking, the recently resigned chief Palestinian negotiator said Israel was destroying the peace process, a senior PLO official said the talks were doomed and a Palestinian poll showed that most Palestinians believe the renewal of peace talks with Israel was a mistake and over two thirds think the negotiations will fail. But the ever-optimistic Israeli President said peace was possible and urgent, while the Israeli Housing Minister (a settler), said there would be more construction in the West Bank. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry will be back next week to talk peace and Iran.
 
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told a Nazareth radio station he has been talking with Americans, not Israelis and that if it were up to him, he would not wait for the end of the nine-month period allocated for the peace talks before applying to UN institutions, Haaretz reported. He said Israel was continuing to destroy the peace process by continuing settlement construction in the West Bank and E. Jerusalem, attempting to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque, making more arrests and damaging Palestinian property. He said Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is not interested in peace.

The title of the Maariv/NRG Hebrew article was somewhat misleading. "Senior PLO member said negotiations will be taken advantage of to release all the prisoners." Actually, Nabil Shaath told the reporter Asaf Gabor that that the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians is a "dialogue between the deaf" and that the "subjects in dispute, like Jerusalem, the West Bank, settlement construction and the future of the Jordan Valley, do not leave any doubt about the failure of the talks." Despite the pessimism, the Palestinians plan to continue negotiations till the end of the nine months that were allotted. "We will wait another four months, we will hope for some sort of progress. In the meantime, the rest of the prisoners in Israeli jails will be released."
 
Speaking during a visit to Mexico City, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that Palestinian-Israeli peace was urgent and possible and that Israelis weren't born to control another people, Maan reported. "We weren't born to be enemies, we weren't born to rule other people, we weren't born to take land from anybody else; we were born with the call for peace," he said after talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

However, Housing Minister Uri Ariel said that Israel intends to build more homes in the occupied Palestinian territories. In a speech Wednesday night at the launch of the building of an educational center in the [extremist - OH] settlement of Itamar, Ariel declared that construction in Judea and Samaria and (E.) Jerusalem will continue full steam ahead, NRG Hebrew reported. "On this day that we are beginning the construction here, we say that, G-d willing, we will inaugurate many more homes in Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem and in this way we will say to ourselves and to the whole world, 'The people of Israel live.'"
 

Quick Hits:

• Terror on the road: Jerusalem plagued by stone throwing - Dozens of citizens' complaints result in arrest, indictment against Issawiya teens who hurled stones, firebombs in Mount Scopus area. (Ynet)
• Israel to compensate settlers financially harmed by EU funding ban - Israel and EU reach compromise over Horizon 2020 scientific cooperation pact, threatened by the EU's new guidelines barring funding for institutions operating in West Bank. (Haaretz)
• For the first time: Israel accepted to group of Western states in UN Human Rights Council - Israel threatened to leave the Council, and the UN feared that Syria and North Korea will follow Israel's footsteps and therefore decided to add it to list of nine western states. Turkey, also a member of the group, agreed to the move. (Maariv, p. 6/NRG Hebrew)
• Mass turnout at West Bank funerals of jihadists killed in clash with IDF - IDF says men were members of radical Salafist cell planning attacks on both Israelis and the Palestinian Authority. Clashes broke out across Hebron district and in Hebron's Old City, Israeli forces fired tear gas at a girls elementary school, causing several children to faint. (Agencies, Haaretz and Maan)
• Protests expected: Israeli Arabs to be sentenced in 2005 lynching of soldier - Lynching followed shooting spree in which Kahanist soldier Eden Natan-Zada killed four Israeli Arabs and wounded more than 20. (Haaretz)
• Israeli forces issue stop-work orders to Palestinian farmers in Jenin - Israeli forces handed several Palestinians orders to stop their construction of an agricultural building near Tubas for lack of a permit, which Israel rarely gives. (Maan)
• Israel Electricity Company renews Palestinian gas purchase talks - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked IEC to restart talks with British Gas, which owns 60% of the Marine Gaza offshore field. (Globes)
• Israeli elected as vice president of particle accelerator project in Jordan - Co-founder of Middle East science organization, Eliezer Rabinovici, elected to the position by representatives from across the region, including Iranians and Palestinians. (Haaretz)
• Abbas offers condolences for death of Haniyeh's granddaughter - Palestinian President offered condolences to Hamas Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, after Hamas leader's one-year-old granddaughter, Amal Abd al-Salam Haniyeh, died Wednesday from a digestive infection that damaged her brain. (Maan)
• 5 Broken Cameras' clinches International Emmy Award - Emad Burnat, who co-directed the Oscar-nominated film with Israel's Guy Davidi, is the first Palestinian to win an Emmy. (Haaretz)
• Carlos Slim: We want to invest more in Israel - The Mexican billionaire told President Shimon Peres and a delegation of 80 Israelis about his admiration for Israeli technology. (Globes)
• France asks Switzerland to extradite Gaydamak on old arms charge - Israeli tycoon was arrested in Zurich in connection with money he allegedly owes to Luis Fernandez, former manager of Beitar Jerusalem. (Haaretz)
• U.K., Israel coordinate on Iran: British envoy to Iran talks tells Israelis bulk of sanctions will stay in place - Simon Gass, in Jerusalem: Sanctions will be monitored, policed. (Haaretz)
• After Geneva talks: Iran allowed some construction at key nuclear site under interim deal, U.S. says - State Department backs Iran FM's claim that building at Arak is permissible as part of interim deal with world powers, but says Iran can't produce fuel or make advances on heavy water reactor. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Israeli estimates: Iran could get nuclear bomb within 36 days - Israeli officials made it clear that even after the agreement, within a month Tehran could continue enriching uranium to a level sufficient for the development of military capabilities. (Maariv, p. 8/NRG Hebrew)
• Iran hard-liners call nuclear deal 'poisoned chalice' - Iranian government officials tout Netanyahu's dismay as proof of successful deal. (Agencies, Haaretz)

Commentary/Analysis:

Catherine Ashton will save us (Tal Niv, Haaretz) The boycott of goods from the settlements can save Israel from itself since the expansion of the settlements means the creation of a single binational state. 
Pen, ink instead of blood (Orly Azoulay, Yedioth/Ynet) Obama proved that talking to enemy with hand extended in peace, respect and good intentions will lead to result.
The battle over the Temple Mount rages on (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) Hanukkah is the perfect time to respond to those who deny the one-time existence of a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount -- what Muslims call Haram al-Sharif.
**Arik Einstein, the singer of a lost Israel (Ari Shavit, Haaretz) Even after Arik's death, the mission remains the same: To redefine Israel.
Always shy, never arrogant (Chava Alberstein, Yedioth/Ynet) Alberstein bids farewell to Arik Einstein, who refused to live as a huge star.
Song of pain: We are left here with the national singer Eyal Golan [who is embroiled in a sex scandal with a minor - OH] (Shai Golden, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) Arik Einstein served as a reminder that, indeed, people once behaved differently here. Not apparently. Really, once we were really a different country.
Israel's cultural hero (Gideon Levy, Haaretz) How beautiful Israel is when it mourns for a singer and poet, how beautiful it is when it mourns for a cultural hero.
The Israeliness of Arik compared to that of Eyal Golan (Yael Paz-Melamed, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) This type of talent is once in a generation. A personality like his comes once in many generations. But in the "New Israeliness," Arik Einstein didn't even have a space in the stands.
Liberal plus pro-Israel isn't a contradiction (Elka Looks, Haaretz) Bay Area Jews have created a pro-Israel 'tent' that is particularly broad and diverse.
In Iran, Obama Achieves 50 Percent of His Goals (Jeffrey Goldberg, Maariv/NRG Hebrew and Bloomberg) While Netanyahu presents unrealistic demands for Iran's total submission, the U.S. President tries correctly to make sure what it was ready to give up, if anything.
New Iran, new U.S., same old Bibi (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz) Iran's nuclear program has already achieved its goal. 
Mind the gaps (Avner Golov, Israel Hayom) The agreement essentially gives Iran the right to enrich uranium and lets it off the hook on secret activities -- but Israel can address those shortcomings by maintaining close ties with the U.S.
Congress must keep the military option on the table (Alan M. Dershowitz, Haaretz) Iran remains as committed as ever to obtaining nuclear weapons: The U.S. promised this could not be allowed to happen.

 

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