APN's daily news review from Israel

Friday June 26, 2015 

Numbers of the day:

---

Breaking News:
A Palestinian man was shot dead after opening fire on Israeli forces at a checkpoint in the Beqaa Valley in the West Bank, the IDF said. No soldiers were wounded. (Haaretz+, Ynet, Maariv) 

Front Page:

Haaretz

• Expose: Netanyahu received message from Sheldon Adelson to streamline gas regulations
• What’s happening to the Prime Minister, his hatred of cartels is melting // Avi Bar-Eli
• Return of the pianist – The speech at the Herzliya Conference was a sign: Ehud Barak plans to return to politics // Yoel Marcus
• The reform conspiracy – Netanyahu in private conversations: (Minister) Erdan got us into trouble with the Broadcasting Law
• Yes to a Culture War – Almost every meaningful work of art harms the public’s sensitivities – and that’s a good thing // Amos Oz
• Top police had phone conversations with Lieberman’s confidante, who was arrested in the Yisrael Beiteinu (corruption) affair
• The prosecutor who received job offer from (indicted former top prosecutor) Ruth David: “It’s possible she was partner to a conspiracy against me”
• The bionic suspect: robots come to the interrogation room
• Basketball: Hapoel Jerusalem won its first championship

• For you, Tamar – Tears at the pilots’ cadets graduation ceremony
• History in Jerusalem – Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team won the championship for the first time
• The gold fish of the state // Sever Plocker on the gas monopoly affair
• (Minister) Deri delaying approval of the gas agreement
• 70 years after the Holocaust: The Jewish people are closing the gap – Number of Jews in the world reached 16 million – the number before the Holocaust
• 10 years to the disengagement (withdrawal from the Gaza Strip): Intel’s big mistake // Alex Fishman; This is how the dramatic decision was made // Shimon Shiffer; It was a positive move, also for the settlers // Gilad Sharon

• (Minister) Deri delayed approval of the gas agreement
• (Deri’s) Hydrogen bomb // Ben Caspit
• Red night – Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team made a historic victory
• Poll: Half of Israelis think that the nuclear agreement with Iran is an existential danger
• This is how the Bank of Israel lost 2.5 billion shekels ‘on paper’ // Yehuda Sharoni
• The skies are theirs – 170 cadets graduated from IAF pilots’ course
• Why the IDF does not succeed in defeating (in Gaza)? A year to Operation Protective Edge // Dr. Uri Milstein
• Open wound: Dan Shemer, who helped murder Dr. Kastner, reveals everything
• Michael Oren explains why he opened a front against Obama
• Also (director) Edna Mazya attacks: Regev is a Culture Minister lacking culture
• Peace to you: Sharon Stone’s path to co-existence // Sharon Stone
• Authorities’ incompetence in the face of the violence of the Druze  // Kalman Libskind; Israel’s moral dilemma // Alon Ben-David; This is how Nasrallah and Assad flamed up the north // Yossi Melman; Conclusions following release of UN report // Avi Benayahu; The Zaguri unit fighters speak about the combat in Shujaiyeh (Gaza) // Tal Ariel-Amir; Gush Katif evictees who turned into ‘Hilltop Youth’ // Karni Eldad; Why artists can stop fearing (Culture Minister) Miri Regev // Adv. Yehiel Gottman

• “The compromises raise the Iranian appetite” – A moment before the talks with Iran reach the deadline, Netanyahu warns
• After it passed in the cabinet: Netanyahu will bring the gas agreement for approval of the government
• Praise for Jerusalem – Hapoel basketball team
• (Gaza) Flotilla alert
• Official: Police commander Bentzi Sau – temporary Police Commissioner
• At age 102, Inga Rappaport received her doctorate in medicine, which the Nazis kept from her
• Meet Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a Muslim who defines herself as “an accidental Zionist"

---

News Summary:
Economy Minister Aryeh Deri refused to agree to sidestep the Antitrust Authority on the natural gas deal with the cartel, angering Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the latest acts and declarations related to the Iran nuclear deal one week before the deadline and the Gaza protest flotilla sets off from Greece to Gaza with an Israeli MK on board making top stories in most of the Friday Hebrew newspapers.  Also in the news, the Palestinian Authority presented claims of Israeli crimes to the International Criminal Court at The Hague and Tel Aviv District police chief Bentzi Sau was appointed acting police commissioner, but Arab-Israeli leaders call for him to be disqualified due to his involvement in the suppression of the October 2000 riots, in which police killed 13 Arab Israeli demonstrators.
 
With one week to go for a nuclear deal with Iran and talks continuing today: 
POLL: Some 49% of Israelis believe that the agreement with Iran is an existential threat to the state, but only 9% are in favor of Israeli military action, according to a Geocartography Institute poll, published in The Jerusalem Post and in Maariv, which found that only some 22% trust Obama with their security, while 44.5% did not. Netanyahu sent an implicit threat to Iran saying, “Israel will always defend itself, and its air force will play a major role.” Former Obama aides said the US needed a tougher deal and warned that the agreement risks failure to secure safeguards and that it will leave the Islamic Republic as a 'nuclear threshold state'. Iran backtracked on its willingness to allow inspectors into army bases. And, US Jewish groups are funding a last-minute campaign to block the deal. 

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