APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday December 02, 2013

Quote of the day:

"Everyone understood that this is something historic: The president of the Jewish State is sitting in his office in Jerusalem with an Israeli flag, and they're sitting in the Persian Gulf talking about security, war on terror and peace."
--Said by someone involved in the summit of Muslim countries, where Israeli President Shimon Peres was the opening speaker by video.**

Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Prime Minister's Office: 80% of the Bedouin agree to evacuate
• Suspicious offer, but worthwhile // Merav Arlosoroff
• 150,000 people demonstrate in Ukraine, which is torn between Russia and the EU
• Ministerial legislative committee approved: Equality for homosexuals in tax breaks for parents
• Netanyahu's expenses: 1.2 million shekels for house cleaning services, 80,000 shekels for water
• Hearing in trial of Tzvi Bar sheds light on connection between fraud squad and Rabbi Pinto
• Israeli scientists discover substance that may fend off Alzheimer's, aging

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Secret discussion: Peres and 29 Arab leaders - Expose: Rare appearance for the President at convening of summit in the Persian Gulf
• How much do Netanyahu's flowers, candles and water bills cost
• Starting from the beginning - Avivit Shaer married again last night two years after her world fell apart when her husband and five children died in a fire

Maariv

• Extremism in the ultra-Orthodox leadership: Rabbis prohibit appearing for military draft orders (Hebrew)
• Prime Minister's residence went over budget by 1.1 million shekels
• Bad smell coming from the Prime Minister's Residence // Arieh Aplatoni (Hebrew)
• The explanation by Deputy Finance Minister why VAT was not decreased: "In the monthly (list of subsidized foods), in Bamba, in vegetables, in bread and sugar it's five, six, seven agorot. (The savings) would not have reached the citizen's pocket" (Hebrew)
• Prawer plan: The clerk determines the policy, the decision-makers have no idea what they voted for, and the Bedouin don't know what will be their fate // Kalman Libskind (Hebrew)
• Geneva, Olmert and Netanyahu - Former PM Olmert attacked Netanyahu's conduct with Washington (Hebrew)
• Peres, leaving or not leaving - The race for the Presidency: Netanyahu supports David Levy, but is like to act to extend Peres' term to distance him from the political playing field // Shalom Yerushalmi (Hebrew)
• The cracks in the Piron plan - Unanswered questions about the initiative to shorten the summer school holiday (Hebrew)
• And pity the photographers - Photographers who got on rooftops to capture the burial of Arik Einstein were told to pay thousands of shekels to the residents (Hebrew)

Israel Hayom

• Tension in Israeli Navy ahead of Gaza flotilla - Dozens of activists preparing to leave today for a 'reverse flotilla' (from Gaza) towards IDF vessels
• Minister Erdan: We are sick of the personal attacks on Netanyahu
• Avivit Shaer, who lost her husband and 5 children in fire, married again
• Olmert: "Netanyahu declared war on US"; PM: "I won't be silent when our security is in danger"
• El-Al CEO Eliezar Shkedi stepped down

News Summary:
**The top stories were Israeli Prime Minister Binayin Netanyahu's exorbitant residence expenses and more discussion of the Prawer plan to relocate Bedouin in the Negev. Yedioth had a scoop revealing that Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke with 29 Arab ministers about peace and security by video at a summit in Abu Dhabi - and he got an applause.

And on the peace front, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that if Israel does not cancel the tenders for 24,000 settlement housing units, which were announced a couple weeks ago - much to the embarrassment of Netanyahu, they will "sabotage the peace talks" and "endanger the whole peace process." Yesterday, after the US embassy demanded answers about the tenders, which Netanyahu already had said would be removed, they were taken off the Housing Ministry website. Abbas spoke in a meeting in Ramallah with Israeli opposition leader and Labor chief Isaac Herzog. Afterward, Herzog said Abbas was "prepared to take courageous steps." (NRG Hebrew)
 

Quick Hits:

• Dummy bombs planted in East Jerusalem neighborhood - Police probe whether faux explosives were planted in retaliation against rock attack that wounded Jewish toddler last week. (Haaretz)
• Navy on high alert for 'reverse flotilla' from Gaza - Dozens of Palestinian and European activists on Monday expected to board boats headed from Gaza toward Israeli Navy ships enforcing the blockade on Hamas. IDF begins preparations and has reviewed standing orders to deal with the planned flotilla. (Israel Hayom)
• Palestinians attacked in J'lem after being misidentified as Jews - Three Arab youths violently attack car of Palestinian family they misidentify as Jews. 'They tried opening the doors and my wife begged them to leave us alone. She spoke to them in Arabic and only then did they understand that we ourselves are Arabs.' (Ynet)
• Israeli government claims 80% of Bedouin agree to resettlement; Bedouin leader: State is lying - Head of team for resettling Bedouin in Negev says most of the residents support a plan for resettlement but are wary of speaking out; Bedouin leader denies claim, says vast majority opposes plan. (Haaretz)
• Police threatened us, say protesters against Bedouin relocation - 'If something goes down tomorrow, you'll be with us at the station,' an activist quotes the police as saying. (Haaretz)
• Study: Arab MKs do not neglect their sector - Arab MKs are regularly accused of abandoning the Arab sector in favor of dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A unique study was prepared by the Abraham Fund Initiatives, an Arab-Jewish NGO, which completely refuted the claim. Out of 1,107 bills proposed in a specific period, 158 of them were by Arab MKs, and only 3 of those dealt specifically with the occupaton. (NRG Hebrew)
• Palestinians to protest JNF event in Canada: Trees are soldiers in occupation  - JNF-KKL event honoring Canadian prime minister expected to attract 1,000 strong Palestinian protest against Bedouin resettlement bill. 'JNF's trees are soldiers in Zionist army of occupation.' (Ynet)
• Canada: Canadian PM plays rock n' roll for Israel, Palestinians protest - Toronto's richest Jews gather for annual JNF dinner with Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper as guest of honor, while hundreds of Palestinians protest Israel's 'apartheid policies.' (Ynet)
• Arab council heads slam Israeli plan to build new Jewish towns in Galilee - Proposal seeks to bring 100,000 new Jewish residents to Galilee to create a 'demographic balance' with the area's Arab population. (Haaretz)
• Watch: Jews and Muslims clashed on the Temple Mount - Two Jewish groups visited Sunday morning. The police said the scrimmage began between Muslims and Jews of the second group when the Jews sang Hannukah songs on the Temple Mount. But Yitzhak Bam, one of the members of the Jewish group, said the quarrel began after members of the Jewish group took photos of an Arab woman, who had taken a photo of the Jewish group. The police formed a wall between the two groups and the fighting took place not between the Jews and the Muslims but between the Muslims and the police, he said. Two Jews and two Muslims were arrested. As a result, the police closed the Temple Mount to visitors. (NRG HebrewVIDEO)
• Israeli forces raid al-Aqsa, detain 7 Palestinians following clashes - Israeli police and undercover forces escorted 26 Jewish Israelis to perform religious rituals near the Golden Gate in order to mark the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Israeli forces assaulted a number of Palestinian worshipers and pushed them in the clashes that followed, and they detained 5 Palestinian men and 2 women. (Maan)
• Army to integrate more women in combat roles - Ground Forces commander instructs corps chiefs to hand proposals for further integration of women in combat units. 'Why can't female soldiers fire shells?' says senior IDF source. (Ynet)
• Kibbutzniks no longer core of officer corps - Relatively high enlistment rates for combat duty masking decline in officer corps participation by Kibbutzniks. New project hopes to overturn trend, return sabras to forefront of IDF command. (Ynet)
• Netanyahu's cost to taxpayers: $1m for three homes in 2012 - Defending self, PM quotes Arik Einstein: 'They're sucking my blood.' Meanwhile water bill at just one home topped $23,000. (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Olmert slams PM: We have declared war on US - In special conference on Geneva agreement, former PM slams Netanyahu over his public reaction to the nuclear deal with Iran, asking rhetorically: 'Who will be our savior, Obama or Putin?' Former MI chief says deal bad, but stress fact it is preliminary. (Ynet)
• At loggerheads: History of disagreement between Netanyahu, Olmert - Since taking office, PM Netanyahu has been haunted by harsh comments from his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, which have slammed him at every corner - from Iran to peace talks. (Ynet)
• Iran seeks stronger cooperation with Saudi Arabia, says foreign minister - Improving relations with Sunni powers in Gulf has become priority of Iranian foreign policy following nuclear deal with world powers. (Agencies, Haaretz)

Commentary/Analysis:

The sanctions work: A predictable scenario (Peace Now Sec.-Gen. Yariv Oppenheimer, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) Oppenheimer writes about Israel's compromise in order to participate in the EU's prestigious Horizon 2020 project. "After the belligerent declarations - 'We won't accept external dictates about our borders' - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and (pro-settler) Economy Minister Naftali Bennett were forced to accept the dictates of the European Union. What works in the Israeli system, does not work in the international arena.
'Judaization' of the Galilee means racism (Haaretz Editorial) The government must develop the Negev and the Galilee for all its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike.
Iran is happy. Next up: The Palestinians (Richard Baehr, Israel Hayom) U.S. President Barack Obama may think now is the time to slam down the hammer on the so-called "peace process," or rather, slam it down once again on Israel.
Between Saigon and Samaria: The (settlement) construction reverberates (Amos Gilboa, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) A visit to Vietnam clarifies how the declarations of Israeli construction in the West Bank harm Israel and why U.S. policy towards Iran is a march of folly.
Odor of injustice fills the Negev (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz) Israel's government is a sort of hive of extremists; for this government, screwing the Arabs is a mitzvah.
Enemies in their own state (Sami Michael, Yedioth/Ynet) Silencing of protests supporting Bedouin rights is black stain on conscience of our society.
They'll always be back for more (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) Then, after (the Bedouin) get what they want, they'll go back to whining that whatever remains, the Jews stole that as well.
Thundering Silence: Why are the Bedouin being ignored? (Anat Saragusti, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) For months they demonstrate and no one listens and gives them any attention, and then came the "Day of Rage," which put the Bedouin in the (stereotypic) square that the media assigned them.
The Bougieman: Much hope rests on small shoulders of Isaac Herzog (Asher Shechter, Haaretz) Nobody thought for a second that Isaac 'Bougie' Herzog could win an election.
Israel and Greece: A common destiny (Evripidis Stylianidis, Haaretz) The two states, sibling civilizations with resourceful diasporas, should strengthen a strategic relationship that is based on deep cultural roots, countering Turkish aggression.
Obama has accepted a nuclear Iran (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) His America is capitulating. The alliance with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan does not speak to him. It's not just the world that will pay the price. His own country will too, on his successors' watch.
Science in the service of politicians (Moshe Arens, Haaretz) Isolating themselves from Israeli research can hardly be worth the 'political points' the Brussels bureaucrats thought they might score by censuring Israel.
 

Interviews: 

A Qadi and a professor - President of the Sharia Court charges at the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University
After he brought about reforms in religious rulings as president of the Sharia Court of Appeals and gave women unprecedented rights, Dr. Ahmad Natour Qalansawa has become the first Muslim to serve as a professor of law in an Israeli university. He is convinced that the Islamic law grants justice and rights, it's just a matter of implementation: "You have to fight improper practices, vendettas, honor killings and attacks on women's rights. Islamic law is fantastic, the problem is that their are difficult leaders and there is no religious authority (so) people take the law into their own hands." (Interviewed by Yael Fridson in Maariv Magazine/NRG Hebrew, Dec. 1, 2013)

 

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