News Nosh 6.02.17

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday June 2, 2017
 
Quote #1 of the day:
“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel even without the US embassy, just as Israel is a Jewish state even without the written confirmation by Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas]. The White House spokesperson said last night that the embassy will move, the question is only when. In that way, he equated the US embassy to the Messiah: He, too, will come one day, the question is only when.”
--Senior political commentator at Yedioth, Nahum Barnea, examines US President Donald Trump’s decision not to fulfill his campaign promise to transfer the US embassy to Jerusalem.
 
Quote #2 of the day:
“There isn’t, and there will never be, a Palestinian leader who can give an order to stop paying the allowances to the Palestinian prisoners. If he did, he would not last long. Not in power, not at all. This new (Israeli) demand has only one purpose: to torpedo the negotiations before they begin, to bring more goats into the political salon, and three black goats are currently living in the living room: the "Jewish State" goat, the "incitement" goat and the "salaries" goat. It is fortunate that we did not demand that the Egyptians and the Jordanians recognize Israel as a "Jewish state" before signing peace with them. One way or the another, our goats walk around the living room as they please, dropping their feces on the carpet and armchairs, gnawing at the furniture. We look at them proudly. We're right, of course. The question is whether we are also smart.”
--Maariv’s top political commentator Ben Caspit writes about the alleged fake video Israel made against the Palestinians to Trump and Israel's impossible demands of them meant to thwart peace negotiations.**


Front Page:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • Trump: The embassy won’t be moved to Jerusalem – Promised and didn’t fulfill
  • If I forget thee // Nahum Barnea
  • Climate agreement - The President against the world – Promised and fulfilled
  • Deri case – new revelations: From the minister to the wife, special price for the brother, cash from the moneychanger
  • Flying for a holiday in Europe? These are the 7 countries that require measles
  • Stormy at the (Israel) festival – After announcing she won’t fund performances with nudity, Culture Minister Miri Regev was received with boos at opening night
  • 6 days, 50 years:
  • The lost time // Sima Kadmon with David Grossman
  • The Golani soldier and the UN peacekeeper // Meir Shalev
  • Telling lies // Ben-Dror Yemini
  • Six days in June // Shlomo Artzi
  • The biggest excuse in history // Yoaz Hendel
  • A moment before sundown // Igal Sarna
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links only)
  • Expose - New order in the Negev – Justice Minister completed the registration of 180,000 dunams of land that the state expropriated from Bedouin after the ’48 war thereby putting the western Negev out of any future land agreements with the Bedouin
  • US embassy remains in Tel-Aviv
  • The path of peace // Ben Caspit
  • Who are they waiting for? // Caroline Glick
  • The Saudi deal // Yair Lapid
  • Good luck to everyone // Jacky Khougy
  • With no way out – The dramatic story of A., a Mossad fighter, who served the state in an enemy state and was found shot in the head in one of the states in America
  • Deri was summoned for another questioning: Suspected of also theft by an authorized person
  • Booing of Regev at the Israel Festival
  • 50 years since the Six Days:
  • A bite out of ’67: Memories of a boy from that war // Avi Benayahu
  • Expensive nostalgia // Alon Ben-David
  • The victory and the challenge // Itsik Mordechai
  • The lies of the occupation // Nadav Haetzni
  • Soldier #1: The story of the legendary combat soldier Nechamia Cohen (RIP)
Israel Hayom
  • Majority of public: Sovereignty over Jerusalem preferable to (peace) agreement
  • Codename: “Red flame” procedure – IDF, Police and Firefighters formulating plan against nationalistically-motivated arsons
  • Special supplement: 50 years since Six Days: The partition plan; In the crosshairs of the camera; “You raised your head, you got hit”; Myths in the test of time
  • The documents in the cell affair: Police considering investigation against Olmert
  • Rise in percentage of smokers in Israel
  • Official: US pulls out of Climate agreement

 
News Summary:
US President Donald Trump’s decisions to pull the US from the Paris climate agreement and not to transfer the US embassy to Jerusalem, along with the latest on the corruption case against Interior Minister Arieh Deri and the boos Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev received at the opening of the Israel Festival for blocking funding for performances with nudity were today’s top stories in the Hebrew newspapers along with numerous stories marking 50 years since the Six Day War.
 
Also in the news, Haaretz+ revealed that the Trump administration was examining the Obama administration plan for security arrangements in the West Bank and Maariv’s Shlomo Shamir reported from New York that unnamed Jewish American leaders complained that Jared Kushner is pro-Saudi and pro-Palestinian and that he would not have Israel’s interests if he were to be involved in the peace process.
 
**Interestingly, only Maariv had the story on the recording of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu showed to Trump during his visit here, and after which Trump yelled at Abbas during their meeting in Bethlehem that Abbas ‘tricked’ him and that Abbas was inciting. Maariv’s Arab affairs correspondent Yasser Ukbi reported on Thursday (online version only) that the Palestinians investigated what Trump was talking about and found it was statements that Abbas had made that were cut and taken out of context. In the Israeli video, Abbas said, “We incite and the Israelis incite.” Ukbi wrote that during the meeting, Abbas told Trump: “You have the CIA. Ask them to examine the video cuts, how were they edited and fakes with the goal of inciting against the Palestinians.” Today, Maariv’s top political commentator Ben Caspit, took things further and wrote that Israel made the fake edit in order to thwart peace negotiations. He also writes that the Israeli request to stop Palestinian Authority payments security prisoners in Israeli jails is another attempt at preventing negotiations and that the Palestinians will never stop those payments. “There isn’t, and there will never be, a Palestinian leader who can give an order to stop paying the allowances to the Palestinian prisoners. If he did, he would not last long. Not in power, not at all. This new (Israeli) demand has only one purpose: to torpedo the negotiations before they begin, to bring more goats into the political salon, and three black goats are currently living in the living room: the "Jewish State" goat, the "incitement" goat and the "salaries" goat. It is fortunate that we did not demand that the Egyptians and the Jordanians recognize Israel as a "Jewish state" before signing peace with them. One way or the another, our goats walk around the living room as they please, dropping their feces on the carpet and armchairs, gnawing at the furniture. We look at them proudly. We're right, of course. The question is whether we are also smart.”
 
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.