APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday January 15, 2016
Quote of the day:
"Be gentle with Israel."
--Singer Dana International told foreign journalists last night in a comical
hasbara speech, in which she flattered the journalists as the "most intelligent people in the
world."
Front Page:
Haaretz
- Netanyahu supports Shaked: NGO law is justified, it’s simply common sense
- Despite the zigzags he made, Netanyahu is likely to find himself in primaries before elections // Yossi Verter
- Two Palestinians that did not know each other were killed by 14 bullets at a checkpoint
- Iran enters a new age, and awaits the day after the removal of economic sanctions // Zvi Bar’el
- Facing the (Gaza) Strip // Amos Harel
- Employment agencies take advantage of workers, close down when complaints accumulate – and re-open
- Not funny: the medical clowns want to be taken seriously
- Using a law from the days of the Mandate, Interior Ministry prevented the publishing of dozens of newspapers
- The crisis at Mega supermarket chain
- At age 90, Shalom Masuri doesn’t understand how he and his friends in the Etzel dared to rob the ‘money train’
Yedioth Ahronoth
- “I just want to get up in the morning and go to work,” Marina Flar, cashier at Mega supermarket
- The great democtator // Nahum Barnea
- Salt on the wounds // Sima Kadmon
- Our hearts are with him – Shimon Peres got a whole country worried yesterday morning after he had a heart attack
- The poppies are already here
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links only)
- Ships in the crosshairs – Security establishment fears: Hezbollah could launch advanced cruise missile from Syrian land at Israeli vessels, due to its failure to transfer weapons to Lebanon
- Shimon Peres had a minor heart attack
- Under the noise threshold // Eliezar Cheney Merom
- Message from the depths: The Rahav submarine provides necessary strategic depth and deterrence // Avi Benayahu
- Outgoing Mossad chief Tamir Pardo: “There is no existential threat to Israel”
- This is how I turned in the terrorist from Dizengoff – Adv. Nahmani Feinblatt retells the most dramatic week in his life
- In the land of the dwarfs // Ben Caspit writes that the Likud primaries farce shows “to what extent Israeli democracy is no longer able to oppose”
- Traders of principles // Kalman Libskind writes that the left-wing lost its principles in its support of Ezra Nawi following the the expose on the Uvda investigative program
- Mega crisis
- Former security guard in Defense Ministry suspected of sexually attacking minors
- Gaza first: The only time we really did succeed in defeating the terror // Dr. Uri Milstein
- It’s all talk: Why government decision are not implemented. Investigation
Israel Hayom
- Prime Minister: “Swedish Foreign Minister’s words – stupid”
- Nobel Prize in hypocrisy to Sweden // Haim Shine
- Closing order against (cancer-treatment) clinic of Prof. Selwyn
- Short time-out to save Mega
- Shimon Peres has minor heart attack
- A line must drawn against ‘celebrity discount’ which Olmert could receive // Dan Margalit
- The investigation transcripts revealed: This is how the Israeli organ-trading network worked
- Obama complimented himself in the “State of the Union” address, but reality, as usual, went against him // Boaz Bismuth
News Summary:
Maariv writes that Israel believes Hezbollah may attack Israeli naval vessels from Syria, Haaretz writes that the IDF is interviewing Palestinian attackers in jail to find out their motives, but that the escalation from Palestinians will come from the Gaza Strip and all the papers reported on Shimon Peres’ minor heart attack, how workers at the Mega supermarket chain hope it won’t go bankrupt, how convicted former prime minister Ehud Olmert continues to negotiate over his sentence making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.
Also in the news, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared his support for the ‘NGO Transparency bill’, which targets Israeli left-wing and human rights NGOs, and said that Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s call for probes into possible Israeli extrajudicial killings of Palestinians in the latest round of violence was “immoral, outrageous and stupid.” (Netanyahu’s statements were made in answer to questions from reporters at a New Year’s toast for the foreign press last night, which this journalist attended – and whose highlight was a performance by Dana International, who told the audience that they were the “smartest people in the world…and should be gentle on Israel.”) Netanyahu also said he saw no reason for Brazil not to accept the appointment of Dani Dayan, a settler leader, as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil. Brazil refuses Dayan because he of his settler status, about which Netanyahu said, “I don’t like labels.” However, as reported, he supports the NGO bill, according to which, representatives of organizations which receive more than 50% of their funds from foreign governments must wear tags identifying them as such in the Knesset.
Maariv writes that Israel believes Hezbollah may attack Israeli naval vessels from Syria, Haaretz writes that the IDF is interviewing Palestinian attackers in jail to find out their motives, but that the escalation from Palestinians will come from the Gaza Strip and all the papers reported on Shimon Peres’ minor heart attack, how workers at the Mega supermarket chain hope it won’t go bankrupt, how convicted former prime minister Ehud Olmert continues to negotiate over his sentence making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.
Also in the news, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared his support for the ‘NGO Transparency bill’, which targets Israeli left-wing and human rights NGOs, and said that Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s call for probes into possible Israeli extrajudicial killings of Palestinians in the latest round of violence was “immoral, outrageous and stupid.” (Netanyahu’s statements were made in answer to questions from reporters at a New Year’s toast for the foreign press last night, which this journalist attended – and whose highlight was a performance by Dana International, who told the audience that they were the “smartest people in the world…and should be gentle on Israel.”) Netanyahu also said he saw no reason for Brazil not to accept the appointment of Dani Dayan, a settler leader, as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil. Brazil refuses Dayan because he of his settler status, about which Netanyahu said, “I don’t like labels.” However, as reported, he supports the NGO bill, according to which, representatives of organizations which receive more than 50% of their funds from foreign governments must wear tags identifying them as such in the Knesset.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.