APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday September 13, 2017
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
The High Court sparks political political shock waves after ruling that all ultra-Orthodox men must serve in the military, (pushing aside an equally shocking ruling ending the ultra-Orthodox monopoly on kashrut,) a top Israeli general said the Kurdish militant organization, the PKK, isn't terrorist, and the Israeli film academy did not invite controversial Culture Minister Miri Regev to the Israeli Oscars making top stories in the Hebrew newspapers today. Also in the news, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave his blessing to a right-wing plan to annex the West Bank and encourage Palestinians to emigrate.

The High Court struck down the 2015 law giving ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions from military service, and  ultra-Orthodox called it ‘a war on Judaism.’ The justices said the present law perpetuated inequality and they gave the government one year to pass a new law or draft all of them. Despite the scathing criticism, the assessment is that the ultra-Orthodox parties won’t try to bring down the government coalition that they are a part of.

Meanwhile, another High Court ruling may put an end to the Chief Rabbinate’s kashrut monopoly. Now restaurants call themselves kosher without an official certificate from the Rabbinate.

Speaking at a conference at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he is currently a military research fellow, Israeli General Yair Golan made waves when he said that he doesn’t consider the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a Kurdish resistance organization known as the PKK, to be a terrorist organization. "From my personal point of view the PKK is not a terrorist organization, that's how I see it," Golan said. "When you look at Iran in the east, when you look at the instability in the region, a stable and unified Kurdish entity in the middle of this swamp, is not a bad idea." His words were quickly rejected by Netanyahu, who although visiting Argentina at the moment and focusing on Iran, felt it necessary to release a statement. (In Argentina, Netanyahu said that the nuclear deal with Iran was "bad" and that the U.S. should "either fix it or cancel it.”) The US, Europe and, of course, Turkey, thousands of whose soldiers and citizens have been killed by the PKK, label the organization as terrorist. The timing of Golan’s statement was sensitive: This month the Kurdish government in Iraqi Kurdistan is holding a referendum on independence, which the US and all the neighboring states oppose, fearing that independence will destabilize the region. This isn’t the first time Golan made waves. At a Holocaust memorial ceremony in 2016, he said that he was worried that “…the revolting processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then – 70, 80 and 90 years ago – and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016.”

But what the papers did not mention was that, logically speaking, by ‘rejecting the terrorist’ label for the PKK, which seeks an independent state through military means, Golan is also rejecting the terrorist label for Palestinian militant resistance organizations. Indeed, Netanyahu hinted at that when he said: "Israel objects to the PKK and considers it a terrorist organization, unlike Turkey, which support a different terrorist organization: Hamas.”

At a conference Tuesday of the far-right-wing National Union faction, which has MKs in the Habayit Hayehudi party, hundreds of members approved a plan to annex the West Bank and facilitating the emigration of Palestinian residents or allowing them to remain but without voting rights. The plan was proposed by controversial MK Bezalel Smotrich. And Netanyahu sent a videotaped message of support to the conference, Haaretz+ reported.
 

Quick Hits:

---

Features:
Pepe the Jewish Frog: The Israelis Weaponizing 'Alt-right' Symbols
And how Prime Minister Netanyahu's own son helped them do it. (Judy Maltz, Haaretz+)

Book Review Nicole Krauss's New Novel: If Kafka Met Dante in an Israeli Desert
Two New York Jews adrift in Israel seek answers through Kafka, kabbalah and the Tel Aviv Hilton in Krauss's eagerly awaited new novel, 'Forest Dark.' In narratives paralleling and playing on each other, the two protagonists inhabit the Israeli-Palestinian landscape in a way none of her novels have to date, and they experience a kind of Kafkasque metamorphosis. (Ilene Prusher, Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:
*If America's Civil War Were Today, Netanyahu's Israel Would Side With the South (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) There was a time when Israelis joked, half in hope and half in reservation, that this country was becoming the 51st Of the United States. No longer. Now it feels more like the 12th state - of the Confederacy.
Russia Seeks Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation in Order to Save Assad, Weaken Iran (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The only player capable of working a diplomatic miracle, Moscow's regional involvement is noteworthy and proves Palestinian reconciliation is high on its agenda.
Could Forcing ultra-Orthodox Jews to Enlist in the Israeli Army Lead to Netanyahu's Collapse? (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Ruling is a fantasy for the left to curry favor with the public and for the right to finally enact a law to bypass the justices.
There are no elections in sight: the ultra-Orthodox will not bring down the government over the High Court draft ruling (Ben Caspit, Maariv) Within ultra-Orthodox society there is a quiet revolution in which obsessive-compulsive attitudes can harm it. In any event, until the golden path is found, everyone will continue to enjoy a seat in the current government, perhaps apart from Netanyahu.
Milchan and Netanyahu: Close friends in high places (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) Arnon Milchan isn’t the kind of billionaire who showers his acquaintances with expensive gifts. It’s not in his nature; it’s not the way he behaves. The gifts had to be requested.
The Israeli Army Needs to Draft the ultra-Orthodox, for Its Own Sake and Society’s (Amos Harel, Haaretz+)
With general enlistment rates falling and combat duty almost volunteer, inequality in ‘sharing the burden’ poses a real danger.
The art of public diplomacy (Ariel Bolstein, Israel Hayom) The major success of a recent festival in London proves that Israel can counter the BDS movement when it comes to the battle for the hearts and minds of the silent majority.
Like the Trumps, Netanyahu Jr lies down with the dogs of America's anti-Semitic alt-right (Nancy Goldstein, Haaretz) The Netanyahu camp has been weaponizing bigotry and fomenting ethno-nationalism since Donald Trump was just a wee speck of a pussy-grabber, a mere dot on the political map. Now, they're ‘total bros’
Israel is carrying out dangerous stunts in Syria, but in the meantime it is succeeding (Nadav Haetzni, Maariv) We think of the Israeli acrobatics being displayed in Syria lightly, but this is an achievement not to be taken for granted, which is succeeding greatly. What's more, the alternatives are much more dangerous.
Policy Required: It is doubtful whether the Knesset will find an alternative solution to the draft law (Attorney Yechiel Gutman, Maariv) When David Ben-Gurion gave a draft exemption to several hundred ultra-Orthodox Jews, he had to have understood then that these would become much more. Now is the time to ignore political whims and work for equality.
State Religious Schools Have Gone Mad (Idit Shafran Gittleman, Haaretz) Pupils received books with material explaining things like when a Jewish soldier can sleep with a non-Jewish female captive, and how to demand something from non-Jews that belongs to us.
Right failed test in its response to Yair Netanyahu’s meme (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) The Zionist left and the sane right should present a clear and united stance when it comes to manifestations of anti-Semitism: Neither forgiveness nor understanding, and definitely not justification. But instead of condemning the prime minister’s son over his Facebook post, the Right is pointing an accusing finger at the Left.
Whether in Israel or the West, the Left Doesn't Want to Win (Tzvia Greenfield, Haaretz+) If the Israeli left were really interested in changing the government and ending the conflict with the Palestinians, it wouldn’t strive so hard to dismiss other options.
Cooking the books? Not quite (Akiva Bigman, Israel Hayom) The sums reported for food expenses at the Prime Minister's Residence are reasonable. And regardless, his wife Sara Netanyahu was not involved in accounting matters.
Money Should Not Talk in Israeli State Preschools (Haaretz Editorial) The Education Ministry allowing public preschools to charge parents another $848 annually will further entrench the gap between education for families of means and for the rest.
Molad institute continues producing biased 'research' (Yoaz Hendel, Yedioth/Ynet) Priding itself on being a serious research institute, Molad continues to produce studies based on so-called facts and drawing predetermined conclusions. Its recent study about settlements being a security burden on Israeli ignores all high-ranking security officials saying exact opposite.
 

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