News Nosh 8.16.17

by APN 08/16/17
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday, August 16, 2016

NOTE: Orly Halpern, editor of News Nosh, is on holiday from August 15th until August 24th, during which News Nosh will be produced as a truncated version and sent later in the day.
 
Quote of the day:
"I'm a Jew, I'm an Israeli, the [neo-Nazi] scums in Virginia hate me and my country. But they belong to the past. Their breed is dying out. However, the thugs of Antifa and BLM who hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much, are getting stronger and stronger and becoming super dominant in American universities and public life."

- Yair Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu's son, on what he thinks is the real danger facing Israel and the Jewish people today.
 
Front Page:
Israel Hayom

News Summary:
The English-language media in Israel is closely following President Trump's handling of the situation that began in Charlottesville over the weekend. Speaking at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday, Trump "doubled down" on his earlier comment blaming "many sides" sides for the violence: "What about the 'alt-left' that came charging at, as you say, the 'alt-right,' do they have any semblance of guilt?...You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now."

Israeli politicians Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni spoke out against Trump's assertion that many sides are to blame, while Yair Netanyahu (Bibi's son) claimed that neo-Nazis are a thing of the past and that the real danger is the growing left. 

 
Quick Hits:
  • The Times of Israel features analysis on the Red Sea - Dead Sea pipeline project, arguing that it will not save the shrinking Dead Sea and is little more than a public relations/political gimmick. Environmentalists are actually concerned about the effects the pipeline will have on the water in the Dead Sea. Read more here.
  • The Jerusalem Post reports that the IDF demolished the al-Abed family home in the West Bank town of Kobar, near Ramallah, as punishment for Omar al-Abed's murder of three Israeli settlers in the Halamish settlement in July. Read more here.
  • Ma'an News Agency reports that Israeli authorities demolished a car wash and two other buildings in East Jerusalem. Read more here.
  • Ma'an News Agency also reports that the IDF shot and injured a Palestinian man during a raid in the Duheisha refugee camp to seal shops that allegedly sold fireworks. Read more here.
  • Ynet News features an op-ed by Ben Dror-Yemini asserting that "while recent events make it seem like Israeli Arabs are the enemy from within, the hatemongers are only a loud minority. We must support the sane, moderate majority and take a firm hand against the violent instigators and inciters." This piece comes in response to Sheikh Raed Salah's arrest yesterday. Read more here.
  • A +972 op-ed, by Orly Noy, also comments on Sheikh Raed Salah's arrest, calling on Jewish Israelis to call out political persecution for what it is, despite disagreeing with Salah's views and actions. Read more.
  • Haaretz features an uplifting story about the West Bank's growing skateboarding scene and how it can offer Palestinian youth an important respite from live under occupation. Read more here.
  • Haaretz is also running an interesting opinion piece by Chemi Shalev on why Bibi Netanyahu is an Israeli tragedy, comparing what he has become to what he could have been. Read more here.
  • In the New York Review of Books, David Shulman of Jerusalem's Hebrew University provides a list of 5 interesting books on Israel to read in light of the 50th year of the occupation, including The Six-Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East, The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine, In Search of Modern Palestinian Nationhood, Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, and A Half Century of Occupation: Israel, Palestine, and the World’s Most Intractable Conflict. Read more here.

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