News Nosh 11.25.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday November 25, 2015 
 
Quote of the day:
“Such incidents only widen the gaps between us, the suspicions, they divide us into camps. Believe me, we have good relations here between Jews and Arabs. I am a friend of Avi from the falafel shop and Tami from the coffee shop, and of Yaakov. It’s such a shame.”
--Ahmed Asmar, Arab owner of a shop at the gas station complex on a West Bank highway where a soldier was stabbed to death this week. 


Breaking News:
Israeli Seriously Wounded in Palestinian Stabbing Attack in South Hebron Hills
According to initial reports, assailant came out of his car armed with a knife and stabbed the victim near Al-Fawwar in the West Bank. The assailant was shot by Israeli security forces and seriously wounded. (Haaretz and Israel Hayom)

Front Page:
Haaretz
  • Turkey downed Russian fighter jet which penetrated its airspace; Putin: We will respond with severity
  • Police examining testimonies according to which (Habayit Hayehudi MK) Yinon Magal sexually harassed
  • Bullet under the belt // Yossi Verter
  • 4 injured in car-ramming attack; Netanyahu told Kerry he would strengthen the Palestinian Authority only if violence decreased
  • The one who complained turned into the accused – Soccer player from E. Jerusalem turned to police: I was mistakenly presented in news as terrorist from Beersheva. It ended in accusation of stone-throwing and one month detention (in jail)
  • PM requested to postpone for third time his response to State Comptroller in ‘Bibi Tours’ accusations
  • Israel is the only OECD country with percentage of young academics decreasing
  • History and cultivation methods: Technion to open first course on medicinal cannabis
  • Representative of the people // Ariana Melamed on controversial Likud MK Oren Hazan
  • Back to budget pension
  • Yehudit Rotem explains how to talk about the Holocaust with the fourth generation
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • Shame
  • Is this a ‘Jewish Home’? // Sima Kadmon
  • Turkey on revenge alert – Putin following the downing of a Russian plane: “Turkey supports terror, stabbed us in the back”
  • Maayan’s tragedy – She missed the bus for the annual school trip and committed suicide
  • The knife girls – What is going through the heads of Palestinian schoolgirls who go out to stab Jews, where are their parents?
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
Israel Hayom
  • A blow to Putin’s wing – Turkish air force downed Russian bomber that entered airspace from Turkey
  • Our fear was realized in Turkey // Aharon Lapidot
  • Complicating a complex situation // Boaz Bismuth
  • (MK Yinon) Magal storm: Police beginning to examine claims of sexual harassment
  • Sgt. Ziv Mizrachi was laid to rest: “Hero of Israel, you shot the terrorist with a knife in your heart”
  • 403 communities are included: The new tax benefits map was approved

 
News Summary:
The improper behavior of two members of Knesset made top news in today’s Hebrew newspapers alongside Turkey’s downing of a Russian combat jet that entered Turkish territory from Syria. Also in the news, the meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was a ‘disappointment’ for both sides, senior IDF commanders were lightly injured in an alleged car-ramming attack by a Palestinian in the West Bank. And little Ahmed Dawabsheh, whose family was burned to death by Jewish Israeli attackers, is recovering, Yedioth reported.
 
Numerous MKs from the right-wing and left-wing have called for the ousting from Knesset of far right-wing MK Yinon Magal of Habayit Hayehudi party after he was accused of sexual harassment in Facebook posts by former female co-workers. Social media networks have had ‘no mercy’ on Magal, Maariv reported. And Netanyahu rebuked the controversial Likud MK Oren Hazan, after MK Hazan mocked the one handicapped member of Knesset – for the second time.
 
The meeting between Kerry and Netanyahu came up with zero when Kerry told Netanyahu that the US would not recognize settlement blocs in return for any gestures and Netanyahu refused to make the moves for the benefit of the Palestinians that he promised Kerry when he was in the US two weeks ago, saying it could lead to a break up of his coalition. Kerry said that Israel has the right to “defend” itself against “terrorism” and "senseless violence." Maan noted Kerry's comments would be viewed as deeply disappointing by Palestinians. A meeting took place a few hours later between Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas reiterated his key demands made during recent meetings in Amman and New York. Kerry was quoted expressing understanding towards the Palestinians: "I know that the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank, in Jerusalem, in Gaza is, at this moment, very dire, that there are extraordinary concerns, obviously, about the violence.” No other information was given.
 
After a few Israeli commentators noted that US President Barack Obama had not called the family of US citizen killed by a Palestinian in the West Bank last week, Kerry called the family Monday and yesterday, Obama called. Meanwhile, two high-ranking Israeli officers and two soldiers were lightly wounded in an alleged car-ramming attack in the West Bank. The driver of the vehicle was shot and moderately wounded. Israel's defense establishment is mulling deporting families of Palestinian attackers to Gaza.
 
Ahmed Dawabsheh, 5, is recuperating, Yedioth reported. The boy has had 8 surgeries and has been hospitalized for four months after he was critically wounded when a firebomb was thrown into his house in Duma village in the West Bank, burning to death his parents and baby brother. Wearing a special burn suit, Dawabsheh now rides around the hospital in a motorized toy car that one of his hundreds of visitors bought him. "Before, the slightest touch would cause him to scream in pain and now I can pick him up," said his grandfather, Hussein. He still hasn't been told that his parents were killed. "He asks where are his Mommy and Daddy all the time and I have no answer for him." 
 
Quick Hits:
  • Palestinians Demand ICC War Crimes Probe Into 2014 Gaza War - IDF still hasn’t decided whether to investigate incidents which Palestinians claim constitute war crimes. (Haaretz+) 
  • Palestinian gunmen fires at Israeli settler car near Ramallah  - An Israeli settler driving near Ofra said she heard gunfire and Israeli security forces later said that bullet holes were found on her vehicle. (Maan and Ynet)
  • Palestinian gunmen open fire on Qalandiya checkpoint  - Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Qalandiya checkpoint on Monday night after a resident of Qalandiya refugee camp, 16-year-old Hadeel Awwad, was shot dead in central Jerusalem earlier in the day after she allegedly attempted a stabbing attack. (Maan)
  • Israeli settlers attack Palestinian olive pickers in Nablus village - More than 30 settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar attacked Muhammad Raja Zain and his family while they were picking olives in Burin, then set fire to the olive trees. Zain said that the attack breached an agreement reached with settlers that had set aside a certain time in which the Palestinians were allowed to take in their olive harvest. (Maan)
  • Israeli settler injured after rock thrown at car near Ramallah - An Israeli settler was injured on Tuesday after rocks were thrown at his car on Route 443 west of Ramallah. (Maan)
  • Israeli forces detain 8-year-old boy near Hebron  - Israeli soldiers handcuffed, blind-folded, and forced Youssef Ahmad Mahmoud al-Alami, 8, to lie on the ground, holding him there for 2 hours before taking him from Beit Ummar village for interrogation. Al-Ajami's family was prevented from approaching their son during the incident. (Maan)
  • Israeli forces detain Palestinian child, 9, near Bethlehem  - Israeli soldiers detained Yasin Ahmad al-Badan on his way home from school to his village, Tuqu, claiming he had broken an Israeli soldiers' leg while throwing rocks. Teachers from his school attempted to prevent the young boy's arrest. (Maan
  • Students raise funds for bail to release classmate from Israeli jail - High school students in Bethlehem district's Tuqu village came together to raise funds for the bail of an eighth grade classmate, 14-year-old Muhammad Jamil al-Umour, whose family could not afford the 2500 shekel ($643) bail issued by Israeli courts. (Maan)
  • Israeli forces assault 8 Palestinian prisoners in detention center - Twenty Israeli officers assaulted Yousef Erekat after he was summoned for interrogation. Erekat was then forced to take off his clothes and coerced into confessing to charges of stone-throwing, said the Palestinian Prisoner Society. Ismael Muhammad Bader, 44, was beaten around the head with guns and tied up for five hours. (Maan)
  • Israeli search and arrest raids continues across Hebron district - Israeli forces raided the city of Hebron, the village of Dura, as well as al-Arrub and al-Fawwar refugee camps, reportedly searching and ransacking numerous homes. (Maan
  • Israeli detentions divide East Jerusalem family - Hamza Shaloudi has been living without his wife, Shifaa, and two of his sons, Fadi, 14, and Samir, 17, ever since Israeli forces invaded his home and detained the three last month. Israel accused her of incitement against Israel and of helping protesters throw stones and bottles at Israeli forces during clashes in Silwan. (Maan)
  • Amid terror wave, West Bank police commander quits after 9 months on job - Shlomi Michael's resignation has come as a surprise, particularly during the current period, when Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank have been the scene of repeated terrorist attacks against Israelis. (Haaretz+)
  • Knesset approves extension of ultra-Orthodox army exemptions - Yair Lapid accuses government of having ‘no values’ after vote negates key point in his flagship legislation from the previous government. (Haaretz+)
  • Poll: 76% of Israeli Jews oppose new draft bill - The Knesset approved the new version of the military draft bill, meaning draft equality will not be possible before the year 2023. A majority of the Jewish public opposes the bill, including some right-wing voters. (Ynet)
  • Education only for the rich? Half of financing for higher education in Israel - from private sources - Central Bureau of Statistics data shows that 48% of higher education funding comes from private sources, about 18% higher than OECD countries. Cost of higher education in Israel is twice the average in OECD. (Maariv)
  • Be'er Sheva court bars talk by left-wing NGO Breaking The Silence - Police were concerned that the event lacked proper security after the venue received threats. (Haaretz+ and Maariv)
  • Israel, Egypt rebuff proposed changes to Sinai peacekeeping force, official says - The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) was installed to monitor the demilitarization of the Sinai under the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace accord. (Agencies, Haaretz
  • Elaborate attack in Egypt's Sinai kills 2 policemen, judge  - The attack, involving a suicide car bombing and claimed by Islamic State group, targeted a hotel in the restive north of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday. (Agencies, Ynet
  • ZOA Chief: Don’t Accept Syrian Refugees 'Because They Hate Israel and Jews’ - Annual gala of Zionist Organization of America, featuring Sheldon Adelson, breaks into wild applause over far-right views and the prospect of a Republican president. (Haaretz
  • WATCH: Greenwald accuses CNN of warmongering in heated on-air exchange - 'Probably the most despicable interview we've seen in the last several years were two CNN anchors who told a French Muslim political activist that he and all other Muslims bear responsibility,' says Greenwald. (Haaretz
  • Pollard Loses Job Offer Over Parole Conditions - Parole conditions mean Pollard is 'still not free,' attorney says. (JTA, Haaretz
  • Argentina's New President Says Will Nix Pact With Iran on AMIA Bombing Probe - The pact with Iran to jointly investigate the 1994 attack on Buenos Aires' Jewish center has been criticized by Israel and Argentina's Jews. (JTA, Haaretz)


Features:
They take a knife and go out to stab
The girls go in the street with a knife or scissors and look for a target. Mostly alone, but sometimes with a freiend. They are promised paradise after death. Many times they want to prove they are no less than the men. Their parents usually have no idea. Young Palestinian women, some of them school girls, are taking a significant part in the present wave of terror. Why is this happening? (Noam Barkan, Yedioth’s ‘24 Hours’ supplement)

Back on track: On Highway 443, Israelis and Palestinians only want peace
"You have no idea how much it pains me, maybe even more because the murdered man was a Jew," said Ahmed Asmar, owner of shop at the gas station complex on West Bank Hwy 443, where a soldier was stabbed this week. “Such incidents only widen the gaps between us, the suspicions, they divide us into camps. Believe me, we have good relations here between Jews and Arabs. I am a friend of Avi from the falafel shop and Tami from the coffee shop, and of Yaakov. It’s such a shame.” All the gas station attendants are Arab, as are the employees at the mini-market. And Abu Rneidi, who works at the car wash, is a Palestinian from the village of Na'alin. “Every time an attack happens it makes me nervous, because I want quiet. I have a big family, and I have to bring food home. I have not done anything bad to anyone, and there isn’t a soldier who doesn’t know me. They know Abu Rneidi’s name here more than Benjamin Netanyahu’s.” David Ben-David can testify to the special relations at the gas station better than anyone. Ben-David is a truck driver from Or Yehuda who stops there regularly and knows everyone by their first name. This week, while the attack was taking place, he was filling up gas in his truck. Since he speaks Arabic from home, he spoke Arabic with one of the gas station attendants. And that, he is convinced, is what saved his life. "The terrorist passed by me wearing an army jacket," he recalled. "When he heard me talking with the gas station attendant in Arabic, he moved on. After the stabbing, I ran to the soldier and blocked his artery. (Eyal Levy, Maariv

Commentary/Analysis:
It’s Time for an Israeli Intifada (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Israel has become a state besieged by its own occupation, but who said that only Palestinians can wage an intifada? 
Netanyahu-Bennett government has no solution for this intifada (Sima Kadmon, Yedioth/Ynet) The right-wing government which promised us security is incapable of providing it; a different government would have perhaps started looking for other ways to get out of this situation.
Without solutions: Another day on the way to a binational state (Yossi Melman, Maariv) In a reality in which a Palestinian decides in a moment to make an attack, the Shin Bet, the IDF and certainly Netanyahu don’t have any solutions. The two nations don’t have even a glimmer of hope that things will be better, or even that they won’t be worse.
High Court Seems to Think That Only Arabs Need Deterrence (Amir Fuchs, Haaretz+) The Israeli High Court's claim that home demolitions need not be applied to Jews because they support terror less than Palestinians must be rejected.
Take the fight to the enemy (Tzahi Dickstein, Israel Hayom) The battle must be moved immediately to the Palestinian villages, this is what the army is for.
Syria: The world's most contested airspace (Adam Evenhaim, Ynet) Fourteen air forces operate in the congested airspace above Syria, a factor which has given rise to regional challenges, and may possibly lead to more clashes and border violations. 
Time is of the essence (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) As time passes, Israeli restraint and proportionality could be perceived by the Palestinians as weakness and lead to a broader conflagration. 
The Kurdish question: the real problem behind the tensions between Russia and Turkey (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Erdogan sees curbing Kurdish national interests as of highest priority and for that his country is ready to take steps of brinkmanship against Putin and prevent the possibility of a political settlement in Syria.
Once We Were Strangers Too: The Jewish Responsibility to Welcome Refugees (Jonathan A. Greenblatt, Haaretz+) Just as anti-Semitism was behind America’s denial of refuge to Jews in the 1930s and 40s, Islamophobia undergirds much of the anti-refugee sentiment today. It was wrong then, just as it is wrong today. 
Why Obama Is Standing by the Syrian Refugees (Peter Beinart, Haaretz) Why is Obama picking a fight on an issue that, according to The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, is a 'political winner' for the GOP? 
If Europe is sinking, let's make sure Israel drowns first (Eldad Beck, Yedioth/Ynet) As the EU buckles under the pressure of existential crises, the only unifying issue is the obsessive need to pressure Israel into accepting compromises and agreements which could jeopardize its existence. 
Worrying string of events: Will the conflict between Turkey and Russia lead the world into war? (Alon Ben-David, Maariv) Bombings in Paris and the exploding of the Russian passenger plane begin the process that could lead the West to establish a genuine front against Daesh. Erdogan will have to decide which side he chooses. 
Israel as Sparta Dear Europe, Get Real and Learn From Israel How to Live With Terror (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) Europeans might want to hold their noses while they do it, but they should be looking to Israel – and not just for homeland security technology.  
In Europe, the penny still hasn’t dropped (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) Years of accusing Israel of treating Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews, years of total blindness towards Palestinians' rejection of any peace proposal, have led to intellectual disability among Europe's elites in general, and Germany's in particular. 
Illegal settlements aren't rogue, they're government policy (Adam Aloni, +972mag) Consecutive Israeli governments have fabricated a sophisticated system designed to lend a guise of legality to the seizure of land in the West Bank. 
The great shock (Ran Edelist, Maariv) Millions of refugees and hundreds of thousands killed have become part of the daily routine of citizens of the civilized world. They woke up only when the byproducts of the tsunami of the Middle East violated European tranquility. 
WATCH: How the far-right glorifies killing of Palestinians (Mairav Zonszein, +972mag) The leader of a popular Jewish supremacist group circulates a new video that puts CCTV footage of stabbing attack to bouncy electronic music and violent, disturbing lyrics. 
An Unexpected Winner in Israel's Defense Budget: Poorer Communities (Meirav Arlosoroff, Haaretz+) Under agreement between Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, army bases’ municipal taxes to be redistributed from a central fund.
The story behind Israel's shady military exports (Edo Konrad, +972mag) Why doesn’t the Foreign Ministry care whether Israeli weapons end up in the hands of serial human rights violators such as South Sudan? 
How to fight labeling (Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Israel Hayom) Fortunately, Israel has tools to fight the European Union's product labeling move -- it is time to use them. 
Boom and its done: There actually is any place really safe today (Hila Korach, Maariv) We need to liberate ourselves from the fantasy of "a crushing blow to end terror once and for all." The drizzle that is descending on us in Israel is reaching Europe, and it's time we get used to it. 
Palestinian groups present 'war crimes' evidence to the ICC (Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, +972mag)  The International Criminal Court prosecutor is conducting a ‘preliminary examination’ into the 2014 Gaza war. But are Israeli officials at higher risk of prosecution for illegally building settlements in the West Bank. 
Israel Should Rethink Golden Parachutes for Career Soldiers (Haaretz Editorial) Kahlon should not rush into deal for the defense budget before making substantial reforms in the IDF's pension scheme. 
 
Interviews: 
Activist for army service for all: 'I'll tear my daughter's draft notice to pieces'
Miri Baron, head of the Forum for Equality in the National Burden, will resign after Knesset vote rejecting equality of military service: 'Either everyone serves or no one does.’ (Interviewed by Nehama Duek in Yedioth/Ynet)

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