APN's daily news review from Israel

Friday May 15, 2015 

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

• In the shadow of the power struggle in Likud: the 34th government was sworn-in
• A right-wing government starting off on the wrong foot // Yossi Verter
• Four wounded in vehicular attack in Gush Etzion – within six months 12 attacks in Jerusalem area
• ‘Manipulations and limitless greed’ – Indictment against Adv. Ronal Fisher, Police Superintendent Eran Malka and former district prosecutor Ruth David in one of most severe bribery affairs in recent years
• Ultra-Orthodox and right-wing institutions teaching 80% of IDFs ‘educational Sabbaths’
• From Congo to Israel, sexual harassment welcoming the face of tourism
• Architect David Kroyanker completed the project of his life – dismantling Jerusalem into parts (in eight volumes: ‘God is in the details’)
• Vegan party to put animals in center and won’t hesitate to link up with right-wing

• Netanyahu: The people chose me; Herzog: Circus government
• And this people will win // Nahum Barnea
• To die of shame // Sima Kadmon

• The swearing-in and the storm – Netanyahu government set off – without Erdan
• In the country of dwarves // Ben Caspit
• We chose well // Caroline Glick
• Netanyahu: “The door is open to expanding the government; Herzog: “Don’t save us portfolios, we aren’t joining”
• Three teens and a youth were light-moderately injured in a vehicular attack at Alon Shvut; the driver was arrested
• They came home – Nepal surrogate babies
• Indictments served in Fisher affair
• And in their middle – a wall: Do the E. Jerusalem neighborhoods suffer from intentional neglect [photo of garbage surrounding enormous garbage container filled with smoking garbage]
• Minus a billion shekels: The failed plan to advance the removal of the airport at Sde Dov
• Seeds of evil: the whole story about Adv. Ronal Fisher
• We will overcome everything: Yuval Rabin’s new girlfriend talks about everything

• After it all: a government
• Netanyahu: “We won in the elections, but they distorted the desire of the people”; Herzog: “Don’t save me the Foreign Ministry”
• Preparation for a strike in Dimona: “(Israel) better wake up”
• Terror hitchhiking stop – four injured, driver arrested
• Fisher affair: the indictment – and the method
• The medicine closet – This is how the health establishment discriminates against gay doctors and patients
• Storm following the new matriculation testing guidelines: pupils demonstrated, parents threatened
• We said cheese: Ahead of Shavuot holiday, the big test for cheesecakes
• The fall of the district prosecutor – and the nightmare of her colleagues, who are responsible for the rule of law
• Our suggestions for activities that will make your ‘Jerusalem Day’ special

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News Summary:
Today’s top story was the division of the government portfolios and the swearing-in of the Israel’s 34th government. Also in the news was the suspected vehicular attack that took place yesterday in the West Bank, injuring three and what wasn’t in the news was that today is Nakba Day.

**Israel's 34th government was sworn in after a stormy debate and after a two-hour delay due to a a last-minute crisis between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the two senior members of Likud that did not receive the posts they hoped for. Opposition chief Isaac Herzog attacked the new government during the ceremony. "This is not the government the people wanted and not even the government that half of the people wanted," he said. "You bought control with lies. After such negotiations, you still dare give the world advice about negotiations with Iran?" A couple of Netanyahu’s appointments raised many eyebrows and were sources of great mirth on the social media networks. MK Miri Regev, who is known for speaking in a rude, loud and coarse manner was appointed Minister of Culture and Sport, much to the chagrin of many artists. Danny Danon, a hawk even among Likudniks, was appointed Minister of Science and Space (the latter part of the title being new). Maariv compiled a list of tweets by shocked Israelis. Here are a few of the Tweets translated:

Three Israelis between the ages of 17 and 25 were wounded, one of them seriously, at a bus stop outside Alon Shvut settlement on a main West Bank road. Israel Hayom reported that the suspected attacker was Mohammed Al-Raffieh, 22, from the Abu Sneineih neighborhood of Hebron [Abu Sneineh is located in the immediate vicinity of the part of Hebron where fanatic religious nationalist Israeli settlers live, under massive military protection. – OH]. A year ago he was released from Israeli jail for throwing stones and carrying a knife. Shin Bet said that in his initial interrogation he admitted wanting to harm Jews. The vehicular attack yesterday comes a day after the Shin Bet named a suspect in the April 25th vehicular attack in the A-Tur (Mt. of Olives) neighborhood, in which a car drove into three Border Police officers. An attempt to arrest the suspected driver, Majdi Mahmed Salah, 31, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp, at his home that same night was unsuccessful, but the following day he turned himself in to the police, after which he was transferred to the Shin Bet for further questioning, Israel Hayom reported. Oddly, the Shin Bet has now named Salah, who holds Israeli citizenship, as the suspect in the incident, saying he admitted to intending to cause harm. [Questions: If he turned himself in then why was there any question that he was responsible, and if he were indeed guilty, why would he have turned himself in and admitted it, and if he admitted it why did indicting him take three weeks? – OH] The suspected attack came hours after a Border Policeman shot dead Ali Abu Ghannam, 17, from A-Tur, who the policeman claimed tried to stab him [the police have yet to show video proof – OH] at the Al-Zaim military checkpoint in E. Jerusalem. Abu Ghannam was returning home with a female relative from a party. A settler leader demanded that settlers in the region (Gush Etzion) be given a sense of security by “limiting limit the entrance of Palestinians to crowded places." [The ethics of limiting Palestinian movement within the Palestinian territories aside, It remains unclear how Moshe Savil, the deputy head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, thinks that can be done on West Bank highways. – OH]
 
Today is Nakba Day, the day Palestinians mark the destruction of hundreds of their villages, the confiscation of their lands, the deaths of their relatives, the fact that so many of them became refugees and the creation of a Jewish state on top of them in Israel’s Independence War. However, Maariv did not mention it and in Yedioth and Israel Hayom it was reported in short items only in the context of it being a security issue: the Northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel is holding a rally in a forest for which it received police approval, reported Yedioth. A report in Israel Hayom said that Israeli forces in the West Bank are on high alert today due to fears that riots will break out on Nakba Day, particularly at Kalandia crossing (E. Jerusalem), Beitunia, Naalin and Bilin (the latter two where marches take place every Friday against land confiscation from Israel’s security wall). Haaretz+, however, ran a ‘What is Nakba Day? A brief history’ feature, as well as a feature about the plight of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, whom ISIS is chasing from one refugee camp to the next.
  

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