News Nosh 08.24.16

by APN 08/24/16
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday February 22, 2016
 
Quote of the day:
“I asked the instructor how can there be two histories? It doesn’t make sense. I finished 12 years of school and never in my life had anyone told me it."
--Ofir Shalgi, a 19-year-old Jewish Israeli who spent a gap year volunteering with Bedouin in the Negev.**

Breaking News:
Soldier lightly wounded in alleged stabbing attack near Nablus; Palestinian shot dead
Palestinians hurled stones from a passing car on IDF soldiers, prompting troops from the IDF's Nahal Brigade to chase after them. According to IDF, when the stone-throwers' car was blocked by a military jeep, a Palestinian passenger got out and stabbed a soldier in the neck, lightly wounding him. Soldierse shot dead the Palestinian, Sari Muhammad Abu Ghurab, 24. (Haaretz, Ynet and Maan)

Front Page:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • The holiday that’s too long – the parent’s protest; Frustration at the end of August: Parents are bringing their children to work
  • President at the frontlines (Photo of President Rivlin inside a tunnel near Gaza that the IDF uncovered)
  • The selfie that got the Egyptian athlete into trouble
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
Israel Hayom
 
News Summary:
Weapon-making machine shops uncovered in the West Bank, Turkey and Israel to upgrade relations despite tension over Gaza and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared Israel won't let Hamas rearm making top stories in today's Hebrew newspapers. 
 
Quick Hits:
  • Israel's Foreign Ministry head visited Muslim nation in Africa lacking diplomatic ties with Israel - Dore Gold and a Foreign Ministry delegation met with senior officials during secret visit - the first by Israeli diplomats to the Muslim state. Due to security considerations, delegation stayed in the country for several hours. (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)
  • U.S. 'Deeply Concerned' About Plans to Advance Construction for Jewish Settlers in Hebron - Deputy State Department spokesperson Mark Toner says the U.S. opposes any expansion of settlement activity and considers this step to erode peace efforts. (Haaretz) 
  • Israel to Bus Negev Bedouin Preschoolers to Nursery Schools, Kindergartens - Education Minister Naftali Bennett promises $13-million budget for Bedouin children aged 3 to 5, many of whom are unable to attend preschools because they have no way to get there. (Haaretz+) 
  • Violent protests in Nablus after Palestinian detainee killed in Palestinian police custody - Hundreds of Palestinians take to the streets after Palestinian who had links with the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade died in police custody; Palestinian PM says looking into 'rare incident.' (Agencies, Ynet) 
  • Nablus on brink of anarchy, Palestinian officials warn - Tensions between Palestinian security forces and Fatah's military wing near boiling point after police kill a top Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades operative • Some 60 Breslovers accosted after entering Joseph's Tomb without authorization; IDF extracts them. (Israel Hayom)
  • Jewish Hate Crimes Drop Sharply in Response to Harsh Policing Methods - Settler establishment says reduction is proof that the so-called “price tag” phenomenon is nothing but the product of a few dozen isolated youths on the fringes of society. (Haaretz+) 
  • UN warns of a heightened risk of forcible transfers of Bedouins in the West Bank - The UN statement said that last week Israeli authorities displaced 64 Palestinians, including 24 children, after demolishing 29 structures in eight locations, adding that Israeli forces have also destroyed or confiscated 85 civilian structures in 28 communities in the West Bank since the start of August, leaving 129 Palestinians homeless and impacting the livelihoods of at least 2,100 Palestinians. (Maan) 
  • Lieberman: Hamas building tunnels, Israel will not permit group to rearm - Speaking day after Israel hit Hamas targets in Gaza in response to rocket fire, defense minister takes says blockade on Strip will end only if it demilitarizes.  (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom) 
  • Rivlin at Gaza border: 'Israel ready to face any threat, above or below ground' - President tours Hamas terror tunnel recently uncovered by the IDF, saying that while 'on both sides of the border there are civilians who want to live in quiet,' Israel 'will not tolerate any disturbance of the quiet, responding swiftly and firmly.' (Yedioth/Ynet)
  • Netanyahu lashes out at 'Israel's worst prime minister' Ehud Barak - After former PM and Defense Minister Ehud Barak vaguely accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of exposing Israel to "disturbing" security threats, Netanyahu explains: I spoke with my security advisers. No one has any idea what he is talking about. (Israel Hayom) 
  • Meretz demands revisions to controversial Israeli civics textbook - In anticipation of the new school year, Meretz party members plan to protest against a text being put to use it sees as marginalizing the Arab minority and emphasizing the role of Jewish religion over other civic responsibilities. (Haaretz+) 
  • MK Nava Boker: "Release (‘Shooting Soldier’) Elor Azariya immediately” - Deputy Speaker of the Knesset from Likud called for Elor Azariya to be pardoned (for extrajudicial killing of Palestinian assailant), in light of the testimony of three former senior officers in the IDF: "The photographs clearly show that he acted out of concern of explosives." (Maariv)
  • Palestinian released, placed on house arrest after serving 14 year sentence in Israeli prisons - Israeli Magistrate Court’s judge ordered the release of Jerusalemite prisoner Sufian Fakhri Abdo from Israeli prison and imposed 14 days of house detention and a 10,000 shekel ($2,653) fine on him. (Maan) 
  • Palestinian PM office: Israel’s 'horrific treatment' of Bilal Kayid amounting to 'torture' - Kayid has been on hunger strike for 70 days after Israeli authorities sentenced him to administrative detention -- internment without trial or charges -- on the day he was scheduled to be released from Israeli prison after serving a 14-and-a-half year sentence. (Maan) 
  • Egyptian athlete takes photo with Israeli flag, sparks outrage - Beach volleyball player Doaa Elghobashy says she did not notice the Israeli flag. "This is a conspiracy against me. If I had known that flag would be in the picture, I would not have taken it," she says, suggesting the "picture was edited in Photoshop." (Israel Hayom)
  • Tunisian singer sparks internet fury after photo with Israeli officer - The musician claimed that he did not know that the officer was Israeli. (Maariv/JPost) 
  • Olympic medalist auctions Rio nametag to help kids with cancer - Israeli bronze medalist Yarden Gerbi says, "I recently learned that Liran Or, a wonderful and beloved girl whom I kept in touch with, passed away. This terrible news ... strengthened my resolve to continue raising money for the [children's oncology] ward. (Israel Hayom)
  • Israeli BDS Supporter Asks Canada for Political Asylum - Attorney Gilad Paz says that when two key ministers launched anti-BDS efforts, ‘I started to feel the ground burning under my feet.’ (Haaretz+) 
  • Israel Returns Body of Palestinian Who Attacked Jerusalem Bus - A lawyer for the family of Abdul-Malak Saleh Abu Kharoub says he hopes the Israelis will release four more bodies. (Haaretz+ and Maan) 
  • Family returns 3,500-year-old relics to Antiquities Authority - Artifacts from the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods among artifacts inherited by a family from central Israel. Extremely rare Crusader-era "grenade" among finds • Items were apparently manufactured in Syria and brought to Israel, authority says. (Israel Hayom)
  • $25,000 Rosh Hashana party for Israel's US ambassador - As Foreign Ministry beset by budget cuts, diplomats decry decision to approve a Rosh Hashana party this September in Washington on which $13,000 will be spent on catering alone; Foreign diplomat: 'This could be a modest event. Spending like this is a waste of money.' (Yedioth/Ynet) 
  • Israeli Orthodox synagogue gets a first woman rabbi - Karmit Feintuch will serve at the Ramban Synagogue of Jerusalem beginning next month. (JTA, Haaretz+)
  • Turkish Soldiers Wounded in Armed Attack Near Resort City of Antalya - Meanwhile, Turkish forces launch airstrikes against ISIS across the border in Syria in a bid to cleanse the militant group from Turkey's borders. (Agencies, Haaretz)

Features:
**When Israeli Scouts discover the Nakba
Working during their pre-army gap year in Arab schools, 23 young Israelis realized they knew little about the narrative of 'the other' living in their midst. The result: An educational (and physical) journey that ended with plans for a coexistence-related program for their movement. (Ofra Edelman, Haaretz+) 
French Jewish families make aliyah—to Samaria
Yael and Yohan wanted to stop being afraid of anti-Semitism, Sarah and Stéphane were looking for a place where their kids could play outside, while Elodie decided to leave her successful chain of pubs behind; 12 families left the comforts of Paris to settle in trailer homes in Brukhin. (Yifat Erlich, Yedioth/Ynet)
Occupation 101: An Insider's View of the Complexity of Palestinian Resistance
Journalist Ben Ehrenreich's 'The Way to the Spring' offers a riveting - and admittedly one-sided - look at Palestinian society, its internal struggles and resistance against Israel. (Samuel Thrope, Haaretz+)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Israel, Don't Tell Diaspora Jews How to Be 'More Jewish' (Eric Alterman, Haaretz+) It's hard to tell what's more offensive about Netanyahu and Bennett's new initiative to 'strengthen' Jewish identity abroad: the idea itself or its ham-handed, arrogant and ultimately counterproductive execution.
Surprise, surprisky (Efraim Halevy, Yedioth/Ynet) With Russia deploying its planes in Iran, Israel must ask itself how greater Russian influence in the Middle East could affect its own security. 
The Messiah Won’t Come to Israel From Across the Atlantic (Nitzan Horowitz, Haaretz+) The longing for international pressure is not only pointless, but enfeebling and enervating. 
To defeat terrorism, Europe needs to compromise some civil rights (Liram Kovlentz-Shtentzler, Maariv) If Europe wants to fight the wave of attacks on it, it will have to accept certain restrictions on on the liberal-democratic lifestyle, as Israel did. 
Refugee Camp Raids Revive the Spirit of '48 (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the expellers point their rifles at the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the expelled. 
The unholy trinity (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) In light of what appears to be a de facto coalition of Russia, Iran and Turkey, tough questions have come up, not just about the past but primarily about the future.
Israel Sees Seizure of Homemade West Bank Guns as Key to War on Terror (Amos Harel, Haaretz) As the Israeli army has managed to prevent stabbing attacks, lone-wolf assailants have set their sights on much more lethal and increasingly accessible homemade guns. In Gaza, tensions with Hamas are subsiding. 
The shooting [dead of a Palestinian thief] in Moshav Beit Elazri: Self-defense is not a license to kill (Ran Adelist, Maariv) The current discourse, according to which permits legitimate shooting of a thief or burglar when there is not actual threat to life, is an evil spirit that undermines our moral principles. We have not only turned into loose tongues, but also hasty on the trigger.
MKs Should Quit Obsessing Over the Flag and Produce Legislation That Means Something (Haaretz Editorial) The bills attempting to force government officials to always be seen with a flag at public events, and even just while driving, are a juvenile waste of the Knesset's resources. 
Barak's speech: precisely out of concern for security, things should be stated explicitly (Yitzhak Ben-Ner, Maariv) Barak suffered a harsh attack for his remarks pointed against Prime Minister Netanyahu. But it is because of his concern for the state that the things needed to be heard as clearly as possible. 
Israel Has Never Been So Secure or Prosperous, but Don't Thank Netanyahu (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Israel remains certain that its credit line is permanent, but in reality it is living on an unauthorized diplomatic overdraft.
 
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.

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