APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday July 25, 2017
 

Quote of the Day #1:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Israel agreed to remove the metal detectors from the Temple Mount in exchange for Jordan’s permission for an Israeli security guard, who shot dead two Jordanians, to leave the country, ending a severe crisis with Jordan over the killings and with the Palestinians and the Arab world over the metal detectors and making the top story in today’s Hebrew newspapers - pushing to the middle of the newspapers a stabbing attack by a young Palestinian ‘for Al-Aqsa’ against an Israeli, who turned out to be Arab, at a food stand inside Israel. The Israeli was injured, the Palestinian was caught.

Yedioth reporters who traveled to Amman yesterday and reached the Israeli embassy reported that it looked like a war zone, surrounded by Jordanian tanks and hundreds of police and special forces - to keep the Israelis from getting out and angry Jordanians from entering, they said. That was after an Israeli guard of the embassy staff shot the son of a furniture shop owner who attacked him at an apartment with a screwdriver.

The official news agency of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan said that another worker and the guard of the building confirmed the Israeli security man's version of the attack. The argument took place over a delay in delivering the bedroom furniture. The Israeli guard also shot the owner of the apartment building, a Jordanian doctor. The two were rushed to the hospital, but both succumbed to their injuries. (Maariv)

Jordan would not let the guard leave the country before being interrogated and Israel eventually agreed to allow Jordanian police to arrive at the embassy compound to hear the guard's description of the incident in the presence of Israeli diplomats. Nearly an hour later, the entire embassy staff boarded a convoy and headed back to Israel.

Earlier, the father of the killed Jordanian teen demanded that Jordan take action against the security guard, saying the killing was “cold-blooded murder” and that his son took two bullets to the chest and had no political affiliation or ideology no political affiliation.

The security guard's release and the embassy staff's evacuation was made possible after a phone call between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah. During their conversation, the king urged Netanyahu to remove the metal detectors to solve the crisis at the Temple Mount. Also, Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman went to Amman to help solve the crisis.

The papers implied that Jordan released the security guard because Israel would remove the metal detectors from the Temple Mount, which for 10 days had been sparking violence and a major crisis. Numerous former Israeli security chiefs had been interviewed by the press over that period saying Israel should remove them. Yesterday, former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen urged their removal and former Mossad chief Danny Yatom did the same: “Now it seems that we will have to pay a price to end the affair with the Jordanians, and the incident may have given us an opportunity to solve the metal detector problem. We'll get our people and they'll get the metal detectors (removed),” he said. (Maariv)

Later that night, the Israeli security cabinet held an emergency meeting and the ministers made the decision they avoided making last Friday: to remove the metal detectors. And despite voting in favor of their removal, Avigdor Lieberman still accused Arab lawmakers for being responsible for the attack by a Palestinian in Halamish, saying they incited.

Israel Hayom surprisingly ran a piece on its front page sharing the views of Jordanians about the Temple Mount crisis, in which its Arab affairs correspondent, Daniel Siryoti, wrote: “In the eyes of the average Jordanian, Israel used the July 14 terrorist attack at the Temple Mount compound, in which three Israeli Arabs killed two Israeli policemen, as a pretext to change the status quo and usurp more control over the area.” Siryoti interviewed numerous Jordanians and Israel Hayom printed their quotes, such as: “You kill Palestinian women, children and elderly every day…The settlers have usurped private Palestinian land, and they expect to live peacefully? They should leave the Palestinian land. The settlements are like cancer. If the disease is not cured, it will metastasize."
Haaretz prepared a video info clip explaining the Temple Mount crisis.

Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa metal detector crisis Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Commentary/Analysis:
Netanyahu's Tough Lesson This Week: When It Rains in the Middle East, It Pours (Barak Ravid, Haaretz+) As long as Israel controls the Temple Mount, the prime minister must think twice, thrice, a hundred times, before making a move in the face of that powder keg.
Amman embassy shooting was just what Netanyahu needed (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) While the incident at the Israeli embassy compound cost two Jordanian citizens their lives, it provided the prime minister with a way out of the metal detector fiasco. Instead of strengthening Israeli sovereignty at the Temple Mount, the government demonstrated to the entire world that Israel is not the landlord there.
The Former Gatekeeper’s Curious New Caucus (Uri Misgav, Haaretz+) MK Jacob Perry was once head of Israel's internal security service and spoke of how it was impossible to rule over the Palestinians. So why is he now heading a group in the Knesset promoting 'military victory over Israel's enemies'?
**The metal detectors farce: the defeat of arrogance, smugness and the drunkenness of power (Ben Caspit, Maariv) Now we're back at the starting point, just in worse shape, with the rotten egg on our faces. On the next dress of Culture Minister Regev they’ll also embroider a metal detector [She wore a dress with the Old City of Jerusalem imprinted on it to the Cannes Festival - OH]. That's how things are when words turn into actions…The most amazing thing is that last night the Prime Minister's Office organized a "victory photo” for the metal detectors. "The Prime Minister is talking to the Israeli ambassador in Jordan, Einat Shlain," was the caption of the smug leader holding the telephone receiver. Indeed, that’s leadership. The man is on the phone! The update, according to which the famous metal detectors, symbols of eternal Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount or any other mountain, will be carefully folded and thrown into the garbage bin of arrogance, was not published in the same notice on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office. They preferred that the shame be published after the newspapers close (as if there were no Internet). Also the fact that even the "smart" cameras will disappear and be taken down from their high places, they did not mention. That's how it is when the cameras are smarter than those who have decided to install them.
Which is the real Israel: Startup Nation or Jewish Nation? (David Rosenberg, Haaretz) The startling disconnect between fanaticism, bloodshed and stunning technology exits can't persist forever.
Everything is sacred, everything is a threat (Yoaz Hendel, Yedioth/Ynet) Whoever put Waqf in charge of Temple Mount instead of Antiquities Authority created a religious monster. Removing metal detectors from site is a security mistake and governmental weakness. Nowhere in the world would metal detectors be given up for hurting people’s feelings.
With Jerusalem Burning, President Trump Needs to Engage (Daniel B. Shapiro, Haaretz) To de-escalate the crisis, junior officials can't hope to replace visible, vocal interest at the highest levels of the White House. But the president is silent and his secretary of state, mysteriously absent.
Muslim self-racism: The ‘low expectations syndrome’ (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) Why do Muslims insist on being inferior? Why are they refusing to see themselves as equals? They’re allowed to call for the destruction of others, publish anti-Semitic cartoons and attach electronic bracelets to every Mecca pilgrim, but when others do so, it’s ‘an offense to Muslim honor.’
Israel's Inciter-in-chief (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) The leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, whose battle cry is 'Al-Aqsa is in danger,' is the one most responsible for the current spate of violence.
The crisis with Jordan: King Abdullah has no interest in breaking the rules (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Against the background of the events of Al-Aqsa there is great pressure from the public in the Hashemite Kingdom to sever ties with Israel. In Jerusalem, they understand the distress the king is facing and it is reasonable to assume that they did everything to end the crisis quickly.
If You Can't Say Israeli Settlers Are Civilians Too, You're Propping Up Apologists for Terror (Sara Yael Hirschhorn, Haaretz+) To those activists on the left and for Palestinian human rights who deny West Bank settlers can be terror victims: 'Thou shalt not kill' isn't conditional.
Death penalty will not help (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) Executing terrorists would be misguided. Not only is capital punishment incongruent with Jewish values, it will not be effective in deterring future attackers.
Israel Can Solve Jordan and Temple Mount Crises With One Simple Act (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Arab nations have never been more amenable to talking with Israel, but they need a responsive partner in Jerusalem.
Death sentence for terrorists (Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvika Fogel, Israel Hayom) Capital punishment for terrorists is not only a penalty for an individual's actions, but also a component of our national deterrence.
Partners on the Temple Mount (Haaretz Editorial) The lesson from the crisis: Israel needs Arab and Muslim allies, who are just as fearful of a conflagration that could set the streets in Arab nations on fire.
We elected the Knesset and the government to make decisions, not the head of the Shin Bet and the IDF Chief of Staff (Kalman Libeskind, Maariv) It is legitimate to want to seat at the head of the table a uniformed officer who will decide for us what to do, but whoever wants to take us there must know that that kind of regime has a name. Hint: They do not call it a democracy.
Between Appetite and Starvation: The Search for a Jewish and Palestinian Compromise (Shmuel Harlap, Haaretz+) Jabotinsky's metaphor for the Jewish and Palestinian nations is still relevant; to achieve peace today, each side must settle for satisfying its appetite, not its hunger

 

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