News Nosh 4.28.17

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday April 28, 2017
 
Quote of the day:
"The dark days of the Nazi regime taught us that the rule of a majority that deprives individuals of their rights, a majority that oppresses the minority living within it, is not a democratic government...Human rights are the soul of democracy, as without them there is no democracy. This is the most important lesson that we must learn from the darkest chapter in our people's history, from the most terrible crime the world has ever known, the Holocaust."
--High Court Chief Justice Miriam Naor stresses in a speech at the swearing-in ceremony of new Israeli judges what they must keep in mind in their work.
 
Yedioth asked for the sentence they would add to Israel's Declaration of Independence:

“We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish and democratic state in the Land of Israel.” – Prof. Aharon Barak, retired High Court Justice.

“The State of Israel will separate between religion and state.” – Nahum Barnea, columnist.

“The State of Israel will allow freedom of open and liberal, and even critical, art and speech, because a people without freedom of culture is a people without a beating heart.” – Shlomo Artzi, singer and musician.

“We extend a hand to the Arab peoples who decided to establish political independence and share a joint border with Israel and we call upon them to reach an agreement over the principles of mutual recognition.” – Ephraim Halevy, former Mossad chief.

“The State of Israel will preserve equal rights for all its citizens regardless of religion, race, gender and physical health.” – Haim Topol, actor.


Front Page:
Haaretz Yedioth Ahronoth
  • 23,544 is the number of fallen since the founding of the State
  • 8,680,000 is the number of citizens living in 69-year-old Israel; In 1948, the state had 806,000
  • The attack and the response – Air battle with Syria
  • Nerves of steel // Alex Fishman
  • Barak: Why we didn’t attack Iran in the end
  • 60 people add a sentence to the Declaration of Independence
Maariv This Week
  • Drone that entered from Syria – escalation on northern front
  • Senior commander in Military Intel: Almost everything that happens between Iran and Lebanon comes via Syria
  • Number of fallen in Israel’s battles since 1860 stands at 23,544;
  • 3,117 civilians murdered in terror
  • The preparation: The US embassy will remain in Tel-Aviv (photo of Trump)
  • Back to Auschwitz: The answers to the questions that we didn’t ask mom // Kalman Libeskind
  • Our song: The story behind ‘More than this we don’t need”
  • This is how the Israel Air Force won the Six Day War – investigation
Israel Hayom
  • Tension in the north: Patriot thwarted Syrian drone
  • In the memory of the 23,544 fallen
  • 8.68 million Israelis
  • Bennett chosen as Chairman of Habayit Hayehudi
  • Likely: Trump visit to Israel on 22 May
  • Good news for handicapped: Stipends to rise by 1,700 shekels
  • Abu Mazen against Hamas: “We will stop funding electricity in Gaza”
  • The kashrut revolution: Cameras instead of supervisors, single standardized procedures for the whole country
  • Two female soldiers go in the path of their fallen brothers – join Meglan unit
  • Respect for the (Arab) sector – Prof. Ahmed Eid, pioneer of liver transplants in Israel, is moved ahead of lighting of a torch (on Independence Day)
  • Pain that has no end: The story of the fallen is the story of the state

 
News Summary:
Israel intercepted a drone launched from Syria that was sent after Israel attacked an arms shipment in Damascus, raising tensions between the two countries and US officials confirmed that US President Donald Trump will visit Israel on May 22nd for one night and Israel believed that Trump won’t move the US embassy to Jerusalem - making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

Moreover, a US State Department spokesman said that the Israeli human rights groups under fire from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and for which Netanyahu refused to meet with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, are a vital part of "any functioning civil society." And the Speaker of the Knesset MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) would not approve holding a conference to mark 50 years of occupation, Yedioth reported.
 
On the Palestinian front, the Palestinian Authority notified Israel that it will stop paying for the electricity Israel provides to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, effective immediately, and European parliament members staged a sit-in Thursday in solidarity with Palestinian hunger strikers who are on the 11th day of the mass “Freedom and Dignity” hunger strike taking place across Israeli prisons, with an estimated 1,500 Palestinian prisoners participating in the strike. Another 500 Islamic Jihad members and leaders declared a 24-hour solidarity hunger strike.

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