APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday July 26, 2016 


NOTE: News Nosh will be published in a truncated version from July 31 through August 17th. 
 

Quote of the day:

"If you saw the slight shaking of the video clip it's because the cameraperson was laughing his head off."
--MK Ahmed Tibi commenting on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's video clip message to Arab citizens.*

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was busy yesterday. He returned fire towards cabinet ministers who claimed the Gaza tunnel threat was mishandled in Operation Protective Edge and told parents of the fallen that there would be no state commission of inquiry into that Gaza 2014 war, he declared that Israel plans to sign the military aid package with the US next week, without his previous demands (Maariv), he released a video clip directed towards reaching out to Arab Israelis, and commented on his infamous phone call to the father of the ‘Shooting Soldier from Hebron,’ Elor Azariya, the latter who faced a ‘tough’ cross-examination yesterday in his manslaughter trial - making top stories in today's Hebrew newspapers.

In his cross-examination yesterday, the papers noted that Sgt. Elor Azariya wouldn’t make eye contact with the prosecution, contradicted himself on his recent claim that his company commander slapped him and declared that the paramedic and other witnesses who testified against him had forgotten to include certain things which were key to the case. The judge asked him why he was squirming in his seat (Maariv). While the trial went on and afterward, Netanyahu remarked on his controversial sympathy phone call to Azariya’s father at the beginning of the trial, saying, “I stand behind every word I said to his father” (Maariv) and the Knesset passed a bill prohibiting releasing the name and details that help identify an IDF soldier who is under investigation, but not yet indicted, or who was acquitted. (Maariv)
 
*Interestingly, Netanyahu also released a video clip directed towards reaching out to Arab Israelis, in which he apologized again for "not being understood" in his (race-baiting) election eve video, in which he called on Jewish Israelis to go out and vote for him because Arabs were “streaming in droves to the polling stations." He called on Arab Israelis to take part in society and lauded himself for approving a large budget for the Arab sector. Some Arab MKs, including Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh, expressed their disdain for his video, calling it "spin" and noting how many conditions he made for the Arab sector to receive the money. Yedioth also reported that Netanyahu also sprinkled some Arabic in his English-language speech and MK Ahmed Tibi noted that he made an embarrassing mistake and instead of calling Arabs ‘dear,’ he called them ‘goat.’ Tibi: "He didn't even apologize for his racist statements, only said that his remarks were not understood properly."
 
Also worth noting: a ‘TGI’ survey found that Israel Hayom and Yedioth are the most read newspapers and Haaretz readership is dropping. In the first half of 2016, Maariv recorded an 11.1% increase in exposure on weekdays and 5.5% more exposure on the weekends. "Israel Hayom," the pro-Netanyahu freebie tabloid, (37.7% ) is neck and neck with its bitter opponent Yedioth Ahronoth  (37.6%) on weekends and on weekdays it widened the gap: 39.7% to Yedioth’s 34.9%. Haaretz readership parachuted to 3.9% on weekdays (compared to 5.7% in 2015) and 4.3% on weekends (compared to 6.6% in 2015). (Maariv) 
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

The Painful Junction
Two new works, a book and a movie, showcase the nightmare of life in 1948 Israel and afterward in Lod, a new city erected on the corpse of the murdered mother. (Tawfiq Da’adli, Haaretz+)
Ben-Gurion: 'Since Paula died, I've been alone, I'm half a man'
In 1968, Israel's first prime minister gave a candid interview to an Israeli-British film crew producing a documentary about his life. For almost half a century, this footage was tucked away on a dusty shelf but now these rare conversations are coming to light. (Alon Hadar, Yedioth/Ynet) 
This is what Israeli youth really do on their holidays abroad
Drink alcohol till their unconscious, throw up in the street, get into fistfights, vandalize hotel rooms. Or in short, unload all burdens. For the information of the parents: This is how your children’s trips to Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria look. (Iris Lifshitz-Klieger, Yedioth’s ’24 Hours’ supplement, cover)

 
Commentary/Analysis:
Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, One Phone Number at a Time (Ofra Edelman, Haaretz+) Israeli and Palestinians imagine a new Middle East at a joint congress, but find that the road is long. 
Israel does not belong to Europe, where multiculturalism will prevail in the end against xenophobia (Uri Savir, Maariv) Even fans of the extreme right-wing parties, who are rising in polls, like the French national football team, many of whose players are immigrants. Europe lives between two poles and the liberal pole will win. Israel does not belong to the new Europe. Israel's Netanyahu belongs to Europe's the British nationalist party and the French National Front. We are in the bottom league, both in soccer and from in government. A government of racism, occupation and failure to honor civil rights, with the aspiration of being a single-cultural state. There is no reason why we are outside the euro and the EU. Value-wise, we are elsewhere, far behind. 
The Dishonest Democratic Platform on Israel (Peter Beinart, Haaretz+) Saying Israelis and Palestinians can reach peace without outside intervention is like saying George Wallace and MLK could have ended discrimination without federal help. 
We all lose in the Azaria trial (Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth/Ynet) The trial of Elor Azaria – the Hebron soldier – is reaching its critical juncture with his testimony. But whatever outcome is reached will likely be bad for Israel in the end. 
It's a Mistake to Label Any Religion 'Radical,' Particularly Islam (Yigal Elam, Haaretz) The talk of clash of civilizations is baseless. Islam is not a worthy rival for the West and cannot offer a moral and practical alternative to Western modernity. 
This is heritage? Propaganda instead of culture (Yaron London, Yedioth) I support a free market of ideas in which every salesman sells his ideological wares. But an ideological monopoly should not be allowed just as an economic monopoly should not be allowed without precise limitations to hits actions. 

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