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Breaking News:
Pence Tells Israeli Lawmakers: U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem Will Open Before End of 2019

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Israel today was a cause for much news in today’s Hebrew newspapers alongside the hit job in Thailand against an Israeli mobster. Also making news was the strike by Egged bus drivers planned for today, but the newspapers left out the reason: a violent attack on an Arab bus driver by a religious man in civilian clothes who carried a police ID.

Maariv reported that there were fears of a bruhaha at Pence’s Knesset speech today, which members of the opposition mostly-Arab Joint List faction planned to boycott in solidarity with the Palestinian Authority, which also refused to meet with Pence. But for the Israeli government, he was a very welcome persona. Upon arriving in Israel Sunday evening, Pence received a full head-of-state welcome, said Israel's Foreign Ministry. Thousands of police officers were deployed in Jerusalem ahead of his visit. Interestingly, the US embassy invited Israeli settler leaders to attend Pence’s Knesset speech. The personal invitations are being called 'unprecedented.’ But then again, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman is a staunch supporter of the settler movement. Which might explain why Pence declined a meeting with Israeli Opposition leader, Isaac Herzog.

Prior to his visit, Jordan's King Abdullah told Pence in a meeting in Amman that East Jerusalem must be the capital of the Palestinian state. He said it was “key to enabling Muslims to effectively fight some of our root causes of radicalization," he continued.  Pence said that he and King Abdullah 'agreed to disagree' on Trump's Jerusalem decision. Indeed, near the US Embassy in Amman, protesters rallied against the Trump Jerusalem declaration.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged European and Arab States to donate to UNRWA, the humanitarian organization supporting Palestinian refugees, after the US slashed the budget by $65 million - more than half.  “The issue of the refugees is considered one of the most sensitive and could impact stability not only in the areas of the PA, but in other countries as well, like Lebanon and Jordan, and so this is not a domestic Palestinian issue but a prime international issue,” a senior Palestinian official told Haaretz. Britain said it will transfer $70 Million.

Abbas has already said he will not allow the US to mediate anymore in the conflict with the Israelis and while Abbas turned to Europe for help, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made an announcement to Abbas: “There is no alternative to the US in the peace process.’ But according to a report of Channel 11 that was quoted by Maariv, Abbas is becoming more flexible and is prepared to have US mediation - as long as its together with Egypt and Jordan.

The Hebrew newspapers reported that the National Histadrut Labor Union was declaring a strike by Egged bus drivers for two hours on Monday. But what was starkly missing from the reports was the reason: The beating and arrest of an (Arab) Egged driver from Jerusalem by a man in civilian clothes who attacked the driver after the bus scratched the car that he was riding in. (VIDEO here.)
A Channel 2 report said that “The stunned passengers filmed everything and tried to protect the bus driver. ‘He behaved well.’ But to no avail, he was sent for a night in custody." A Ynet report did mention the violence against bus drivers. And Channel 13 made a report on the issue, using the video by the passengers. That said, Maariv Online posted a feature about the violence against bus drivers and related the details of the Fahmy Jaber, 45, the driver who was attacked by a policeman last week. Here it is:
“Curses, violence and stones caused bus drivers to break the rules of the game (and go on strike)”
Egged drivers told Maariv about the physical attacks that often end up being life-threatening. One painfully made his children swear: "You will not be bus drivers.”
Fahmi Jaber, 45, a father of four children (from E. Jerusalem - OH) and an Egged bus driver for 14 years, has yet to digest what happened to him last Tuesday. This took place during the exchange of routine details after the bus and a private car rubbed against each other. Very quickly, things developed into a violent event, when the passenger of the car began to attack him, while presenting himself as a policeman. The same passenger threw Jaber's cell phone on the floor and shouted, "Who are you anyway? You're under arrest." The passengers on the bus who saw the incident stopped a (Border Police) patrol car passing by in the street and asked for help from the policemen. A police officer came up to the bus to separate the two, and then the civilian pulled out a police officer's card. [The Border Police sided with the attacking policeman and detained the bus driver. - OH] After a night spent in the detention center, Fahmi was taken to Hadassah Hospital for treatment and released to home for a three-week rest period. "Mentally, I do not feel well," Jaber says a few days after the difficult incident. "I do not sleep at night. It really is very hard for me. A policeman, instead of protecting me, would do such things to me? There are no Arabs or Jews in the Egged family. For 14 years I have been serving the passengers with dignity. This is very hard for me. I was the last person to think that someone would hurt me, and so far I cannot get my head wrapped around it. They arrested me as if I were the one who committed the crime. I didn’t do anything. They detained me and put me in a patrol car, and I said: I was the one that called for this car for my benefit. Why are they arresting me? Because I'm a driver or because I’m an Arab? All the passengers saw what happened.” Jaber is not alone: more and more stories about bus drivers who were attacked have been recently hitting the headlines. Egged drivers in Jerusalem say that throwing eggs and stones at the bus is routine, as are curses. Against this backdrop, the new Histadrut announced (Sunday) that Egged lines would be shut down all over the country today for two hours, from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon, in protest of the violence against the drivers in general and the beating of their friend Fahmi Jaber, in particular. Sunday, Egged filed a petition with the Labor Court against the intention of the drivers to stop the lines. Raja Tahan, 39, a (Arab) resident of the Mount of Olives, married with two children and one on the way, was attacked two months ago. For three years he has been working in Egged and providing services to passengers. "The truth? I never thought that such a thing would happen to me, "says Tahan. "There is a lot of violence. Being a bus driver is not easy. My eldest daughter, 7, says to me: 'Daddy, leave. Don’t continue as a driver.' Before that I worked driving a taxi. My profession is an upholsterer. I thought the salary (as a bus driver) would be better. I left at around 23:30 on line 65 in the direction of Pisgat Ze'ev. There was a demonstration in the vicinity of the central bus station and they sent messages not to pass through the area. I drove through Yirmiyahu Street and reached the Yirmiyahu-Shamgar intersection. There they began to open the driver's door with the button on the outside several times. I close it, and the demonstrators open it. I said to one of them: 'Let me go. There are cameras on the bus. ' He got on the bus and attacked me with tear gas. I could not breathe. They were seven to eight young men, aged 18 to 20, who protested against the enlistment of yeshiva students. I just wanted to have air. I fell off the bus. I remember waking up at Shaare Zedek Hospital. I got punches to my jaw, and so far I can not open my mouth or eat solid food. I can only drink with a straw, can not eat anything. At the hospital, a mouth and jaw specialist told me it would take a long time for me to get better. I have not returned to work yet. Of course I filed a complaint with the police after three days. Meanwhile they told me: ‘We'll call you.’ Until now no one has spoken to me." (Photos and Video)
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

‘And then we felt the bulldozers hitting our house’
Amira Hass interviews Palestinians to find out their version of what happened in and after the IDF’s raid last week in Jenin. The family of Ahmad Jarrar, the man Israel killed [who was not the wanted man with the same name] found it hard to believe the Israeli report that he had a gun and shot at Israeli forces. “My brother never gave us even a hint that he had a gun and knew how to fire it and was interested in doing so. We didn’t even find a photograph of him with a rifle for the memorial poster!” said his brother, Mohammad. Afterward, the Israeli army destroyed four homes belonging to relatives of the wanted man, leaving three families homeless, unable to even retrieve important documents and valuables. (Amira Hass, Haaretz+)
‘A Nazi travels to Palestine’: A swastika and Star of David on one coin
The unique, juxtaposing coin, sold in a recent Israeli auction, contains the remarkable story about an unlikely friendship between two Germans—a Jew and a Nazi—and about the forgotten moment in history when it might have still been possible to save the Jews of Europe from extermination. (Itay Ilnai, Yedioth/Ynet)
I Was Given a Bottle of Wine Made in the Settlements as a Gift – Should I Drink It?
‘I would never buy a gift from the settlement of Har Bracha: not for my employees, not for my friends and certainly not for myself.’ (Moral Minority, Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:
Ex-Mossad Chief Trump’s Dangerous Mistake in the Middle East (Shabtai Shavit, Haaretz+) When it comes to his policy regarding the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump is an incoherent collection of unrelated decisions and whims.
Israel-Jordan reconciliation: Better late than never (Prof. Elie Podeh, Yedioth/Ynet) If Israel really attaches so much strategic importance to its relations with Jordan, why did it wait six months before solving the crisis over the killing of two citizens by an Israeli security guard?
Israel's Security Situation Has Never Been Worse (Uri Bar-Joseph, Haaretz+) The problem is that today’s Israel is focusing on solving a challenge that has no military solution.
48 Hours in Israel: The Real Israel Pence Won't See Because It Would Drive Him Crazy (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz) Women in the military, free abortion clinics, LGBT centers: As Mike Pence arrives for his two-day visit, Haaretz suggests an alternative route that might challenge his conservative views - or just piss him off.
Boycott Mike Pence and his fellow Israeli apartheid enthusiasts (Ahmad Tibi, Haaretz+) It's now obvious that the sole concern of Trump's three right-wing Mideast musketeers, and his Christian Zionist vice president, is to accommodate Israel and its anti-peace, pro-occupation policies.
Mike Pence’s ‘Seinfeld visit’: A visit about nothing (Alon Pinkas, Yedioth/Ynet) For months, we have been hearing about ‘the deal of the century,’ which seems more like the Loch Ness Monster: Tens of thousands are talking about it, dozens claim to have seen it, some swear they have proof of its existence, but it doesn’t really exist; there is no American peace plan beyond a partial ‘copy-paste’ of the Clinton Parameters. So why is this nice man, the US vice president, paying us a visit?
Why You Should Be Skeptical of Israeli Government's anti-Semitism Reports(Ofer Aderet, Haaretz+) It's important to monitor hate crimes, but the two reports (one by the World Zionist Organization and the other, “Report on anti-Semitic Trends and Incidents for 2017,” presented by Naftali Bennet, speaking in his capacity as Minister for Diaspora Affairs)  illustrate the difficulty of measuring incidents on social media and the findings seem to reflect interests, not reality. An even cursory review of the “data” on which these two reports are based and their comparison to other reports in order to raise some questions or the suspicion that the two documents, both of which were presented ahead of Saturday’s commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, are less scientific reports, and appear to be more public relations tools meant to justify agencies whose existence is arguably questionable – the ministry for Diaspora Affairs and the World Zionist Organization.
Trump’s First Year in the Middle East: Actually, Not That Bad (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) This U.S. administration has no real regional policy, but so far it’s no worse than his Obama and Bush's actual policies. And at least Trump has brought clarity.
Abbas' Fiery Speech Has Cleared Up 24 Years of Hypocrisy (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) Where do we go from here? Direct negotiations, of course. But it will take time — a lot of time.
It was precisely on the anniversary of his tenure that it became clear that Trump isn’t the landlord (Shlomo Shamir, Maariv) In the Senate, a budget bill was halted and the federal government services were shutdown. After a year of recklessness, selfishness and a defiant presence in the White House, this is an unimaginable reality.
How the Battle Over Shabbat Overshadows Israel's Perennial Left-right Divide(Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) Public outrage over efforts to shut down grocery stores on Shabbat and to limit the integration of women in the army could upend Israeli politics.
Palestinians in race against time (Prof. Eyal Zisser, Israel Hayom) PA President Mahmoud Abbas can wait forlornly for an impartial mediator and a just peace based on his and Europe's worldview, but he will not find a better broker than U.S. President Donald Trump.
Israel's India Missile Deal Will Be Partially Implemented After Netanyahu's Attempts at Persuasion (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Israeli pressure throughout Netanyahu's visit in India were useful, but as of now, it's still unclear to what extent.
"An offer that cannot be refused": An imaginary conversation between Netanyahu and Mandelblit (Ran Adelist, Maariv) The attorney general will talk about the beautiful life in California, with a great job with his friends, rounds of lectures and champagne that will flow like water, and if that doesn't work, he can remind him of the alternative.
The Big Trap of Palestinian Bureaucracy Under Israel’s Watchful Eye (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) This is how a self-governing administration works to preserve itself while wearing the disguise of a national liberation organization.
Hysteria in Military Court (Friday Haaretz Editorial) This unacceptable proceeding doesn’t restore the honor of the IDF or the soldiers involved in the incident.
Couldn’t care less about the public: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu should be sent home immediately (Attorney Yechiel Gutman, Maariv) Chief Rabbi of Safed made a mistake when he attacked Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and should be immediately fired.
Israel's plan to deport asylum seekers evokes Spain's expulsion of Jews (Ofri Ilany, Haaretz+) Why Ferdinand and Isabella decided to expel the Jews in 1492, and how it's linked to Israel's planned deportation of African asylum seekers.
Jewish compassion for real refugees (Ariel Bolstein, Israel Hayom) Vast resources are being squandered because of the U.N.'s focus on Palestinian refugees. British-Jewish sculptor Anish Kapoor has decided to donate his prize money to NGOs dealing with real refugees.
Shabbat Protests Make Ashdod a Test Case for Religious Coercion in Israel(Haaretz Editorial) If Israel’s sixth-largest city falls to ultra-Orthodox Jews, the country’s other nonreligious cities will follow like dominoes.
Next Turkey-Kurds War Will Be Waged in Washington, D.C. (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Turkey's dislike of Kurdish troops at its border could spark a new war – and this time, it may be with America.