APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday December 17, 2017
 

Quote of the Day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
The country goes on strike in solidaritywith the hundreds laid off at the collapsing Teva Pharmaceuticals Company as the government prepares to make demands of the companies management, a senior Trump Administration official said the Wailing Wall will be part of Israel in a future agreement, infuriating Palestinians even further and in Tel-Aviv Saturday night, thousands of Israelis protested against government corruption in the ‘March of Shame’ for the third consecutive week, (of course, Israel Hayom mainly noted that the turnout ‘dwindled by half,’) with protesters calling on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to ‘go to jail,’ a day after he was questioned in two alleged corruption cases for the seventh time, making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinian protesters and injured more than 400 others on Friday, in the deadliest day of protests since they began across E. Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza following Trump’s unilateral declaration that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. Maan News Agency shared photos from the Palestinian demonstrations, some of which showed men in front of burning tires. Interestingly, the main photo on the front page of today's Maariv was of dark bearded men standing in front of smoking burning tires. But the photo was not from the Palestinian Territories -  it was Israeli men, employees of the Teva Pharmaceuticals company, who were protesting the closing of the company’s factory in Jerusalem. Below it was a photo from an entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City of an Israeli Border Policemen pointing a gun at Palestinian protesters, one who cowered with fright and pushed it away from him.

Of the four dead demonstrators, one got unusual attention: Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, 29. He was even named in some of the Hebrew media, partly because as a double amputee he posed no physical threat and because he had become a symbol of the non-violent resistance, his legs were bombed in a Gaza war and he consistently demonstrated ‘walking’ (PHOTOS) on his stumps to the fence with a Palestinian flag - yet he was shot in the head in the stone-throwing protests along the border fence in which another man, Yasser Sokkar, 23, who remained nameless in the Hebrew media, was also killed, and 150 were wounded. Ynet and Haaretz noted Abu Thuraya’s killing and reported that thousands attended his funeral. Haaretz commentators looked at what it means to kill a man who obviously poses no danger. (Also Maan)

Another one of the four killed Friday got attention, because he stabbed and moderately wounded a Border Policeman near Ramallah, but the video of him being shot raised no questions, which it should have, in the Hebrew press. Mahmoud Iman, 19, (elsewhere identified as Mohammed Amin Akel, 22,) from Hebron, stabbed a soldier, moderately wounding him, at a protest near Ramallah and was shot and killed, the papers reported. What they failed to report was that the video they posted made the shooting appear to have been an extrajudicial killing. A video showed Iman running away after the stabbing and being shot from a distance, he continued to move backwards and was shot again and fell to the ground, incapacitated. On the ground, with his upper body in a sitting position, he was shot again and he fell backward. Afterward, a soldier got close to him and then ran away and he was shot again. Only JPost seemed to get an explanation for the final shots - a police statement, which said: “When the other officers saw the stabbing they opened fire that led to him being incapacitated. When the troops approached the terrorist, they identified an explosive belt, which led to additional fire to prevent him from triggering it.” Iman-Aqel was photographed being taken away by the Red Crescent wearing what looked like explosives, but which turned out to be fake. The fourth killed protester, 29-year-old Basel Ibrahim, didn’t make the news except as a number. He was shot dead in the chest by Israeli forces on Friday during clashes in his hometown of Anata, a village on the northern edge of Jerusalem. As the protests raged on, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation was crucial for both sides, not just Israel, asserting that Palestinian “President Abbas is still alive because of it.”

Surprisingly, what was barely mentioned in the Hebrew newspapers, was that the UN Security Council will vote on a draft resolution this week that seeks to reverse Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. The Egyptian draft resolution 'demands all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.’ The US is expected to veto the draft resolution, which would further isolate Trump from the international community, the news agencies reported. Moreover, Turkey is pursuing a similar move. For its part, the European Union has distanced itself from Trump with a 'firm commitment' to 2 states.

Trump's Declaration Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Features:

'They Took Over Like ISIS': Religious War in West Bank Town Shows Not All Jewish Settlers Were Created Equal
The standoff between secular and religious settlers in this isolated community would have gone unnoticed had it not escalated into a deadly altercation in the nearby Palestinian village of Qusra. (Hilo Glazer, Haaretz+)
Sonata in the key of peace
Bishara is an Arab pianist from Nazareth, Adi is a Jewish violinist from Ramat Gan. They have joined their lives together romantically and professionally. They say the only thing unusual about their relationship is that people want to interview them. (Yariv Peleg, Israel Hayom)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
*The Shooting of a Legless Man (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) As a double amputee in a wheelchair, Ibrahim Abu Thuraya stood out among the crowd of demonstrators on the Gaza border. Was it his fearlessness that unnerved a soldier on the Israeli side?
Israeli deterrence against Hamas has collapsed (Yossi Yehoshua, Thursday Yedioth/Ynet) Up until a week ago, the 2014 military operation in Gaza provided the south’s residents with a period of calm they had not experienced since the first rocket was fired in 2001; but that’s over now, and Israel is possibly misreading Hamas’ intentions again.
The fact: Israel has no deterrence in Gaza (Jackie Khougy, Maariv) Hamas made a strategic decision not to be dragged into war - and that is the main against escalation. And why and how Abbas is obstructing the reconciliation talks… the talks, which are run by Egyptian intelligence agents, are at their lowest ebb since they were launched three months ago. Hamas saw them as a golden opportunity to emerge from its crisis and isolation, and fought with all its might for them to succeed. But in Ramallah, Hamas found a stiff-necked mule in the form of Mahmoud Abbas. Abu Mazen, who will soon be celebrating his 83rd birthday, is not pressured. He looks left and finds the Shin Bet, his senior security cooperation partner. He looks to the right and finds the Netanyahu government, which quietly agrees to any act of abuse that he perpetrates against Hamas. The big problem with these talks is the blinding absence of mutual trust. If the trust between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is restored, most of the problems will be resolved. It will probably happen only after Abbas leaves. According to the agreements between them, the Authority was supposed to receive full responsibility for government ministries this week. This means giving salaries to 47,000 government officials. This is an expenditure of about 70 million shekels a month, which Abu Mazen will pay to the treasury of the Gaza Strip. In exchange, he will be declared sovereign over Gaza, but will not have any authority over the security forces of Hamas and its armed forces. If they will, they will go to war. If they want, they will sit quietly. Abu Mazen does not want to feel twice a sucker, firstly, for paying to thousands of government officials and secondly, when he promises to take on the education, electricity, and sewage problems of the Gaza Strip, while the military military wing is independent to do its own bidding…In fact, all sides have come to terms with the collapse of reconciliation, and now they want to do it as painfully as possible. Hamas representatives will return home, to a prison called Gaza, humiliated and nervous. The horizons are closing in on them. They will feel the failure…An Egyptian source well involved in the moves warned me after one of the rounds of the Cairo talks that all parties involved could pay a heavy price if the talks collapsed. Gaza, he said, is sinking into its disaster. Go visit there, he said to me, look at everyone in the street, all of Gaza is in the street. They have nothing to do. The failure will explode in your face, theirs and ours.
The case for the failure of Israeli deterrence in Gaza (Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth/Ynet) Despite 24 rockets launched at Israel from Gaza last week, Israel's security establishment is convinced deterrence has not been compromised; Hamas is uninterested in escalation—or so Israel assumes—but is readying for it nonetheless fearing an Israeli offensive.
Hamas is playing with fire (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom) Although neither Israel nor Hamas is overly enthusiastic about another round of fighting, we could be on the verge of a very hot winter in Gaza.
In the defense establishment, it is difficult to say where the trend of violence is heading: to a decline or an escalation (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Ten days after Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the winds have (still) refused to calm down - about ten thousand Palestinians clashed with the security forces and more than 20 rockets were fired at Israel…The fear in the defense establishment is of a miscalculation in which the Hamas leadership will not understand the Israeli conduct and misinterpret it. Since Hamas has limited ability to obtain intelligence about Israel, it feeds on quite a bit of what is written in the Israeli media and tries to understand and interpret it. It is reasonable to assume that (Israeli) media reports in recent days, which speak of an increase in tension, have led Hamas to increase its readiness, out of fear of Israeli military action. Statements by Israeli leaders can also lead to the same miscalculation that will lead both sides to escalation and loss of control.
Countdown to a conflict (Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, Israel Hayom) The increasing rocket fire from Gaza at Israel reflects a tragic reality in which neither Israel nor the Palestinians want a confrontation, but both sides may be helpless to stop it. Meanwhile, the Islamic world will not really support the Palestinians.
Abbas & Co. Must Make Way for Barghouti and Authentic Palestinian Leaders (Salman Masalha, Haaretz+) The Palestinian president, who comes from Safed in present-day Israel, will forever be seen as a foreigner in Ramallah and the West Bank cities.
A direct line runs between Trump's Alabama to the rabbis’ Jerusalem (Ran Adelist, Maariv) A week later, when the world's reactions accumulate to a fairly clear statement, Trump's Jerusalem declaration can be examined in a somewhat more critical manner than the revelations of the new occupiers of Jerusalem. The main question is where is Trump's "historical" declaration going, and the answer is nowhere. Whatever was, was. Wait a week, wait two weeks until the next scandal or festival, and no one will understand how exactly the "historic" declaration is supposed to affect the status of Jerusalem. The past, the present and the future is the great process that leads either to two states, or, more likely, one state…And just to be aligned with the man who created the historic right to Jerusalem - Trump supported one Roy Moore, a Republican candidate from Alabama, which was and remains the capital of American racism. Roy is a declared racist and is suspected of pedophilia. Moore's stated principles: Muslims should not serve in Congress, the Koran is like Mein Kampf, homosexuality is illegal, the Constitution is supposed to encourage Christianity, and he himself, as governor of Alabama, controlled the power of God's law. Trump saw in Moore's vote a vote of confidence in himself. Even the rabbis of Habayit Hayehudi party who greeted Trump would vote for Moore without hesitation. A direct line runs between Trump's Alabama and the rabbis' of Jerusalem, and this line leads directly to an abyss.
Trump’s announcement a rare strategic opportunity (Amos Yadlin, Yedioth/Ynet) The ‘Jewish Jerusalem’ narrative presented by the US president demonstrates to the Palestinians that an ongoing postponement of any compromise would only help Israel achieve its goals at their expense, and it provides Israel with an opportunity to shape its agreement with the Palestinians according to more convenient parameters.
Abbas plans to use conflict of interest clause against Jerusalem recognition (Itamar Eichner, Yedioth/Ynet) The Palestinian president, who has decided to go to the Security Council over full UN membership, will try to use a clause in the UN Charter that would prevent the US from vetoing a resolution against Trump’s declaration; the move indicates the Palestinians have decided to ‘stop playing by the rules’ vis-à-vis Washington.
Without meaning it: Trump divided Jerusalem with his declaration (Udi Segal, Maariv) (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) Abu Mazen was about to accept the worst political plan for him until the American president's recognition of the Israeli capital gave him a gift: a broad Muslim opposition.
Thoughts for Vice President Pence (David M. Weinberg, Israel Hayom) After officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the U.S.'s next move should be to withdraw from the Middle East Quartet.
A desperate struggle: Binyamin Netanyahu is preparing for the rearguard battle over his political life (Ben Caspit, Maariv) On different days, everything that has been discovered so far was enough to make the prime minister put the keys on the table and disappear forever from our lives. But those days are over, and terrible days took their place.
A State Is Not a Terror Organization (Haaretz Editorial) In any normal country, the constitutional right of the state to confiscate bodies for bargaining purposes would never have reached the courts.
Israeli politics: liberals who hate freedom and conservatives who do not know what they are guarding (Meir Uziel, Maariv) A party that has forgotten its true values, conservatives who do not know what they want to preserve, a conceptual ambiguity and an atmosphere of mistrust. How did we get to the point where Israeli politics looks like this?
Taking off the kid gloves (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) Military commanders should not require legal authorization to hold on to the bodies of terrorists who planned attacks and murdered innocent Israelis.
Israeli Labor Party Lawmakers Submit to Avi Gabbay (Avirama Golan, Haaretz+) The new chairman is turning the party into Likud, and MKs must choose between their principles and their political careers.
Putin’s surprise Syria visit aimed at threatening Assad (Ron Ben-Yishai, Ynet) While Russia is interested in reaching a political agreement that would lead to calm in Syria and reinforce the Russian achievements in the country, the Syrian president is refusing to compromise and demanding exclusive control of Syria without any partners.
We stopped educating about heroism and sacrifice, and we wonder why there is a drop in motivation (to go to the IDF)? (Prof. Arieh Eldad, Maariv) In the past, we turned acts of heroism into words so that they wouldn’t be lost, so that they will be passed down from generation to generation. Maybe when we re-educate our children, we will not have to look for ways to increase motivation among the recruits.
The Rise and Fall of ISIS: From Organization to State (Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz+) The 'Islamic State' helped strengthen the sense of nationalism in Middle Eastern states, and the organization's disintegration has dealt a historic blow to the idea of an Islamic State without quotation marks.
So close and yet so far (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom)
King Herod's grand Third Palace is being systematically destroyed by the Palestinians, who are stripping its stone and building homes around it. The site is in Area A, meters from Israeli-controlled territory, but the Israeli  government can do nothing.
 
 

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