APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday June 8, 2015
Quote of the day:
"The problem with Glick's arguments for her accusations is that they have no real grasp on
reality.”
--Maariv's top political commentator Ben Caspit writes that Jerusalem Post editor Caroline Glick was way off when she accused two former security chiefs of refusing an order to attack Iran.**
--Maariv's top political commentator Ben Caspit writes that Jerusalem Post editor Caroline Glick was way off when she accused two former security chiefs of refusing an order to attack Iran.**
Front Page:
Haaretz
- Rivlin: Society is changing its face, the collective denial is dangerous
- Israel made series of tests in desert to examine dangers of radioactive bombs
- Election defeat for Erdogan: Lost the majority in parliament and will have difficulty expanding his authority
- Booing of Obama’s Treasury Secretary illuminate the changes in American Judaism // Chemi Shalev
- Attorney General criticizes Justice Minister Shaked and says that her perception (of the concept of governance) is “simplistic and lacking basis”
- Eve of reforms in mental health: Lack of doctors and beds in the hospital system
- Let G-d be // Haaretz Editorial
- The occupation will win
- Following the Mediterranean music // Ben Shalev
- Hadassah is in danger
Yedioth Ahronoth
- Blow to Erdogan
- Hug from the CEO of Google
- Sanctions in protest of the crowded classrooms
- (Ethiopian-Israeli) went with his beloved dog to the veterinarian and ended up in jail – because a woman saw him holding a wounded dog and thought he was harming it
- Ashkelon mayor paid 500 million shekels to prevent sexual harassment complaint
- Between Hezbollah and NBA – The coach facing (American-Israeli coach David) Blatt has a fascinating Mediterranean life story
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
- The speech and the anger (Photo of US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew speaking at annual Jerusalem Post conference)
- Rivlin’s sanity // Ben Caspit
- Drama in Turkey: Defeat for Erdgoan
- (Former Ehud Olmert aide) Shula Zaken’s new job: Presenter of furniture franchise
Israel Hayom
- Erdogan won’t be sultan – Drama in Turkey: President did not receive unlimited authorities
- Yellow card: The Turks gave Erdogan a big ‘no’
- Today: Housing cabinet sets to begin
- Protest of crowded classrooms: Teachers striking in Jerusalem, Ashdod and Givatayim
- Exclusive: The senior woman in the Mossad – Head of a department
- Purple flag? – The sea is burning from jellyfish
- Orange CEO accepted Netanyahu’s demand: “Will come soon to Israel”
- President Rivlin in ‘wake up call’: In Israel, four tribes and the enmity between them is growing
News Summary:
Orange CEO submits to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan loses power, Jewish Americans boo US Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin makes a powerful ‘wake up call’ speech to a dangerously divided Israeli society making top stories in Hebrew newspapers today. And, an American-Israeli 'journalist' makes sharp accusations against former Israeli security chiefs.
The Orange CEO’s shaming for his boycott remark is not over. Netanyahu instructed the ambassador to Paris to turn down Stephane Richard’s request to meet and, instead, to tell him to come to Israel if he wants to offer ‘explanations’ for saying he would pull Orange out of Israel if he could. Israel Hayom said Netanyahu ‘demanded’ it and that Richard conceded. The other papers wrote that Richard “accepted the Israeli government's invitation.” And, French President Francois Hollande told Netanyahu on the phone that France opposed boycotts, while Netanyahu told Hollande that he opposes the French proposal for a UNSC resolution to end the conflict. Yedioth’s Itamar Eichner writes that the Jewish Agency has recruited 1600 emissaries to combat BDS and Netanyahu budgeted nearly $26 million for the counter-boycott ‘offensive.’
At the annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, himself Jewish, received “one of the surliest receptions ever accorded to such a high-ranking administration official by a Jewish audience in the United States,” wrote Haaretz’s Chemi Shalev. Jerusalem Post editor Steve Linde berated the audience and apologized to Lew. Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz told the audience that Lew was a “true friend of Israel” and that without his help, Israel would not be a member of the OECD. Lew had given a fervent defense of the Iran deal that the audience obviously did not agree with. Steinitz earlier met with Lew to urge him to delay signing the nuclear deal with Iran. (More from JPost) Also at the conference, Yair Lapid called BDS leaders 'out and out anti-Semites.’
**Also at the conference, the Post’s senior far-right-wing contributing editor, Caroline Glick, accused two former security chiefs sitting with her on a panel of refusing an order in 2010 to attack Iran, which, she said, led to the current situation in which Iran is on the verge of getting a nuclear bomb. Both former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi denied her claims, saying that Netanyahu never gave a legal order. Ben Caspit expressed shock in his Maariv column today."Dagan and Ashkenazi found themselves in a sort of public hearing. The interviewer on the panel, the talented journalist Caroline Glick hurled accusations at them that could not be worse...I watched this difficult event online (and had I been there) I would naturally have gotten a firing squad at its end. The problem with Glick's arguments for her accusations is that they have no real grasp on reality...If Glick had been closely reading all the reports on the subject for years, she would have understood that the order to prepare for a strike was illegal. It is impossible to draft the enormous amounts of reserve soldiers needed without a cabinet decision.” Caspit asked why if Netanyahu really wanted to bomb Iran and these two were preventing it then why he didn’t do so after the two left their positions in 2011. “The questions Glick asks should be asked of the decision makers: Netanyahu and (Ehud) Barak.”
The Israeli papers appeared to be rejoicing in the loss of a parliamentary majority by President Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party in Turkey’s elections yesterday, and making it impossible for Erdogan to give himself extraordinary powers. The new pro-Kurdish party, HDP, crossed the 10% threshold.
In what is being called his greatest speech yet, President Rivlin told Israelis that demographic changes have created a 'new Israeli order,’ which have divided the country into four tribes – secular, national-religious, Arabs, and ultra-Orthodox - and are tearing it apart. Speaking at the annual Herzliya Conference, Rivlin called on Israel to 'balance State of Israel's secular-liberal character and Zionist enterprise.' Note, according to Mondoweiss website, Rivlin planned to to make his most ambitious policy recommendations for Palestinian citizens of Israel in his speech, including a possible one-year moratorium on Israel’s practice of home demolitions, a path for legal construction inside of all Arab cities, and a comprehensive plan to address unrecognized Bedouin villages. However, that was not mentioned in the reports in the Hebrew press.
Orange CEO submits to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan loses power, Jewish Americans boo US Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin makes a powerful ‘wake up call’ speech to a dangerously divided Israeli society making top stories in Hebrew newspapers today. And, an American-Israeli 'journalist' makes sharp accusations against former Israeli security chiefs.
The Orange CEO’s shaming for his boycott remark is not over. Netanyahu instructed the ambassador to Paris to turn down Stephane Richard’s request to meet and, instead, to tell him to come to Israel if he wants to offer ‘explanations’ for saying he would pull Orange out of Israel if he could. Israel Hayom said Netanyahu ‘demanded’ it and that Richard conceded. The other papers wrote that Richard “accepted the Israeli government's invitation.” And, French President Francois Hollande told Netanyahu on the phone that France opposed boycotts, while Netanyahu told Hollande that he opposes the French proposal for a UNSC resolution to end the conflict. Yedioth’s Itamar Eichner writes that the Jewish Agency has recruited 1600 emissaries to combat BDS and Netanyahu budgeted nearly $26 million for the counter-boycott ‘offensive.’
At the annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, himself Jewish, received “one of the surliest receptions ever accorded to such a high-ranking administration official by a Jewish audience in the United States,” wrote Haaretz’s Chemi Shalev. Jerusalem Post editor Steve Linde berated the audience and apologized to Lew. Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz told the audience that Lew was a “true friend of Israel” and that without his help, Israel would not be a member of the OECD. Lew had given a fervent defense of the Iran deal that the audience obviously did not agree with. Steinitz earlier met with Lew to urge him to delay signing the nuclear deal with Iran. (More from JPost) Also at the conference, Yair Lapid called BDS leaders 'out and out anti-Semites.’
**Also at the conference, the Post’s senior far-right-wing contributing editor, Caroline Glick, accused two former security chiefs sitting with her on a panel of refusing an order in 2010 to attack Iran, which, she said, led to the current situation in which Iran is on the verge of getting a nuclear bomb. Both former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi denied her claims, saying that Netanyahu never gave a legal order. Ben Caspit expressed shock in his Maariv column today."Dagan and Ashkenazi found themselves in a sort of public hearing. The interviewer on the panel, the talented journalist Caroline Glick hurled accusations at them that could not be worse...I watched this difficult event online (and had I been there) I would naturally have gotten a firing squad at its end. The problem with Glick's arguments for her accusations is that they have no real grasp on reality...If Glick had been closely reading all the reports on the subject for years, she would have understood that the order to prepare for a strike was illegal. It is impossible to draft the enormous amounts of reserve soldiers needed without a cabinet decision.” Caspit asked why if Netanyahu really wanted to bomb Iran and these two were preventing it then why he didn’t do so after the two left their positions in 2011. “The questions Glick asks should be asked of the decision makers: Netanyahu and (Ehud) Barak.”
The Israeli papers appeared to be rejoicing in the loss of a parliamentary majority by President Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party in Turkey’s elections yesterday, and making it impossible for Erdogan to give himself extraordinary powers. The new pro-Kurdish party, HDP, crossed the 10% threshold.
In what is being called his greatest speech yet, President Rivlin told Israelis that demographic changes have created a 'new Israeli order,’ which have divided the country into four tribes – secular, national-religious, Arabs, and ultra-Orthodox - and are tearing it apart. Speaking at the annual Herzliya Conference, Rivlin called on Israel to 'balance State of Israel's secular-liberal character and Zionist enterprise.' Note, according to Mondoweiss website, Rivlin planned to to make his most ambitious policy recommendations for Palestinian citizens of Israel in his speech, including a possible one-year moratorium on Israel’s practice of home demolitions, a path for legal construction inside of all Arab cities, and a comprehensive plan to address unrecognized Bedouin villages. However, that was not mentioned in the reports in the Hebrew press.
Quick Hits:
- Questioning of security suspects won’t be recorded, ministers decide - Opponents of the proposal say lack of documentation denies fair process and could lead to miscarriages of justice. (Haaretz+)
- Israel tests danger of enemy ‘dirty bomb,’ finds little - Series of desert tests in conjunction with four-year project at Dimona nuclear reactor measured damage, other implications of detonation of radiological weapon by hostile forces. (Haaretz+)
- Top IDF officer: Israel won't launch operation over a few rockets - GOC Southern Command Sami Turgeman tells mayors in towns bordering Gaza that Israel will respond appropriately, as with recent rocket strikes by Islamic State supporters. (Ynet)
- Israel reportedly grants rare permits to Gaza businessmen, for first time since '07 - According to Ma'an news agency, permits issued will facilitate business workers' movement for six months, rather than the traditionally issued permits that last for days at a time. (Haaretz)
- AG slams Ayelet Shaked's ‘simplistic and baseless’ ideas on governance - While Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein did not mention Israel's new justice minister by name, he strongly criticized the ideas Shaked has floated since taking office. (Haaretz+)
- Bennett to world: Recognize Golan Heights as Israeli territory - Habayit Hayehudi Chairman says Jews in the Golan should number 100,000 in five years; 'ISIS would be swimming in the Sea of Galilee' if Israel gave up Golan. (Ynet)
- 'Druze Day of Rage' nixed after government recommits to 5-year-plan - Decision to call off general strike made after Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon affirms original plan, consisting of a 2.4-billion-shekel ($625 million) investment, will be brought before the government for approval on Monday. (Haaretz+)
- Appeal to High Court against demolition of the Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran for Jewish settlement - Adalah Center submitted petition for a further hearing to prevent the eviction of the unrecognized Negev village, home to 1,300 residents. Human rights organizations say decision to evict them to build a Jewish settlement is "unjust step, racist and discriminatory." (Maariv)
- Israel Air Force to hold wide-scale multinational exercise this year - The exercise will be a follow-up to the Blue Flag exercise two years ago, in which the U.S., Italian and Greek air forces also participated. (Haaretz+)
- Israel ranked fifth most expensive country for gasoline prices - Survey by financial website finds that only Norway, Turkey, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands have higher prices for unleaded gasoline. Israeli drivers average $233 a month on gasoline, an amount equal to 11% of the average monthly salary in the country. (Israel Hayom)
- Egypt, Russia begin naval exercise in Mediterranean - First ever naval exercise between Cold War allies includes Russian missile cruiser, Egyptian F-16 fighters. (Agencies, Ynet)
Features:
The ‘seventh day’: “Censored voices” from the 1967 war
Powerful new documentary, recounts censored parts of interviews about what happened on the day after the Six-Day War. Filmmaker Mor Loushy ambushed Avraham Shapira, a historian and editor who had been a pupil of Martin Buber and Gershom Shalom, who the day after the war the interviewed Israeli soldiers and compiled their testimonies into a book called “Siach Lochamim” (“The Seventh Day”.) “From the first meeting,” she recalls, “I felt both of us understood that we were now at a point in time where these things should come out. I told him these issues were relevant to us, to our society, and that we should look at our past with open and realistic eyes. Also, that this moral discourse must be publicized again. He understood.” (Gili Izikovich, Haaretz)
Documents from IDF archive shed new light on Six-Day War
48 years after the Six-Day War, documents released by the IDF paint a picture of the mounting tensions in the run-up to the war and the moments of triumph etched deeply in Israeli minds. (Yedioth/Ynet)
How the Israeli-Palestinian conflict divided U.S. Jews and blacks
'A Shadow Over Palestine' by Keith P. Feldman probes how the conflict affected political thinking of American liberals, black radicals and Arab activists and how they then informed the contested terrain of race in the U.S. (Alex Kane, Haaretz+)
Commentary/Analysis:
Powerful new documentary, recounts censored parts of interviews about what happened on the day after the Six-Day War. Filmmaker Mor Loushy ambushed Avraham Shapira, a historian and editor who had been a pupil of Martin Buber and Gershom Shalom, who the day after the war the interviewed Israeli soldiers and compiled their testimonies into a book called “Siach Lochamim” (“The Seventh Day”.) “From the first meeting,” she recalls, “I felt both of us understood that we were now at a point in time where these things should come out. I told him these issues were relevant to us, to our society, and that we should look at our past with open and realistic eyes. Also, that this moral discourse must be publicized again. He understood.” (Gili Izikovich, Haaretz)
Documents from IDF archive shed new light on Six-Day War
48 years after the Six-Day War, documents released by the IDF paint a picture of the mounting tensions in the run-up to the war and the moments of triumph etched deeply in Israeli minds. (Yedioth/Ynet)
How the Israeli-Palestinian conflict divided U.S. Jews and blacks
'A Shadow Over Palestine' by Keith P. Feldman probes how the conflict affected political thinking of American liberals, black radicals and Arab activists and how they then informed the contested terrain of race in the U.S. (Alex Kane, Haaretz+)
Commentary/Analysis:
Bury the boycotts by burying the occupation (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz+) Israelis are coming up with all sorts of ideas about countering the BDS
movement, without ever facing up to the real reason.
Battle against BDS must be fought by Israel's left (Sever Plocker, Yedioth/Ynet) The only chance to get through to hesitant Western academics is through the Israeli patriotic left, which opposes both the occupation and the boycott movement.
Israel's army chief as counterweight to defense minister (Amir Oren, Haaretz+) Ya'alon is the problem – or one of the big ones, anyway – while Eisenkot is the solution.
Playing with Fire: Who is stirring the cauldron in the Gaza Strip and will it lead to another war? (Yasser Okbi, Maariv) In Gaza, they believe that Israel prefers Hamas continues its control of the Gaza Strip, by improving the economic situation, since the other option is the fall of Gaza to ISIS.
Israel’s odd partnership with Hamas in the face of Salafist escalation (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Officially, Israel regards Hamas as an enemy, holds it entirely responsible for every attack from Gaza and responds harshly to every instance of fire. But practically speaking, its policy is the opposite.
Sultan Erdogan's dream turns to nightmare in Turkish election (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The failure of Turkey's ruling AKP to win a parliamentary majority has dealt a bitter blow to President Erdogan's dreams of ruling forever. A new era of potentially unstable coalition government now looms.
The Saudis and Israel (Elliot Abrams, Israel Hayom) Two new developments may suggest an opening in relations between Israel and the Gulf states.
Illegal Palestinian workers are an imminent danger to Israel (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) Working in Israel without a permit has become worthwhile; when the first terror attack involving illegal laborers takes place within the Green line, we will only have ourselves to blame.
Stop missionizing Israel's schoolkids and soldiers (Haaretz Editorial) Although the hope is faint, we cannot accept Orthodox-nationalist dominance over the primary habitats of Israeli society – the education system and the army.
Israel must rethink its policies in the Middle East (Gideon Sa'ar, Yedioth/Ynet) The pragmatic Arab regimes are in need of a regional partnership focused on curbing radical Islam just as much as Israel is.
Just outside Gaza, but light years away: limp 'peace concert' was a sorry show (Noam Ben-Zeev, Haaretz+)
False symmetry between victims of summer war causes disharmony near Gazan border. Perhaps next time a measure of anger would be more suitable.
Battle against BDS must be fought by Israel's left (Sever Plocker, Yedioth/Ynet) The only chance to get through to hesitant Western academics is through the Israeli patriotic left, which opposes both the occupation and the boycott movement.
Israel's army chief as counterweight to defense minister (Amir Oren, Haaretz+) Ya'alon is the problem – or one of the big ones, anyway – while Eisenkot is the solution.
Playing with Fire: Who is stirring the cauldron in the Gaza Strip and will it lead to another war? (Yasser Okbi, Maariv) In Gaza, they believe that Israel prefers Hamas continues its control of the Gaza Strip, by improving the economic situation, since the other option is the fall of Gaza to ISIS.
Israel’s odd partnership with Hamas in the face of Salafist escalation (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Officially, Israel regards Hamas as an enemy, holds it entirely responsible for every attack from Gaza and responds harshly to every instance of fire. But practically speaking, its policy is the opposite.
Sultan Erdogan's dream turns to nightmare in Turkish election (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The failure of Turkey's ruling AKP to win a parliamentary majority has dealt a bitter blow to President Erdogan's dreams of ruling forever. A new era of potentially unstable coalition government now looms.
The Saudis and Israel (Elliot Abrams, Israel Hayom) Two new developments may suggest an opening in relations between Israel and the Gulf states.
Illegal Palestinian workers are an imminent danger to Israel (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) Working in Israel without a permit has become worthwhile; when the first terror attack involving illegal laborers takes place within the Green line, we will only have ourselves to blame.
Stop missionizing Israel's schoolkids and soldiers (Haaretz Editorial) Although the hope is faint, we cannot accept Orthodox-nationalist dominance over the primary habitats of Israeli society – the education system and the army.
Israel must rethink its policies in the Middle East (Gideon Sa'ar, Yedioth/Ynet) The pragmatic Arab regimes are in need of a regional partnership focused on curbing radical Islam just as much as Israel is.
Just outside Gaza, but light years away: limp 'peace concert' was a sorry show (Noam Ben-Zeev, Haaretz+)
False symmetry between victims of summer war causes disharmony near Gazan border. Perhaps next time a measure of anger would be more suitable.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.