Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
At the AIPAC conference, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was met with applause from the crowd and warned Iran, while back at home the corruption investigations continued and he warned the coalition he would go to elections if the they did not solve the crisis over the draft law - making the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Also, Haaretz reported that the health of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is deteriorating and Israel fears instability in the battle to be his successor.

The papers noted the warmth and enthusiasm with which Netanyahu was received at the AIPAC conference, ‘a hero’s welcome’ (Haaretz), ‘as far as possible from the investigations’ (Yedioth headline). He vowed to “stop Iran,” touted Israeli ingenuity and blamed the lack of peace on payments the Palestinian Authority gives to Palestinians who have attacked Israeli security forces and civilians.

But the papers also reported that the information that Netanyahu’s former media advisor, Nir Hefetz, is giving to the police as a state witness is the ‘missing link’ that ties Netanyahu, his wife, Sara, and his son, Yair, to Case 4000, in which Netanyahu and family allegedly got favorable coverage on Walla news website in return for giving Bezeq telecom regulatory benefits. Police chief Roni Alsheikh told the public that state witnesses were “one of the most important tools of deterrence against criminal organizations and public corruption.”

Meanwhile, questions swirled over whether the coalition crisis was invented by Netanyahu or not. (See Lilach Segen’s Maariv Op-Ed in Commentary/Analysis below.) Yesterday Netanyahu gave an ultimatum: resolve the crisis over the draft law, giving ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students an exemption, or he would take the country to elections.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:
Why Did You Move to Israel? 'I Went to a Zionist School. I Bought Into the Dream'
This week at the Tel Aviv airport: An American-Israeli marketing exec describes selling the Israeli dream to investors ■ A scientist travels from France to Israel to be alone in the desert. (Liat Elkayam, Haaretz+)
Explained: The Possible Implications of Cutting Off Payments to Families of Palestinian Terrorists
Opposing the funding by the Palestinian Authority may seem simple enough, but it could sting the PA's prestige, boost Hamas and harm security cooperation with Israel. (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+)
On the Border Between Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian Cuisine
Attending a Hubeiza Festival and dining in Sufra, an Amman restaurant, and sampling the food at Rutenberg in northern Israel, proves the artificiality of political borders. (Ronit Vered, Haaretz+)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Netanyahu Bids AIPAC Farewell With His 'Terminator' Speech (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) The prime minister was so unwilling to accept that this could be his last, legacy-defining speech to a U.S. audience, he refused to say anything new.
A lot of rotten eggs in one basket (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) The willingness to sign more and more state’s witness deals, to forgive more and more criminals, indicates the AG is convinced that at least one case against the PM will end in a bribery trial. But what did these people give the investigators in exchange for their new status, and why should we believe them?
The Israeli Army Committed at Least 4 War Crimes in Recent Weeks. But Who Cares? (Daniel Blatman, Haaretz+) The real problem isn't the fact that the army evades dealing with crimes against the Palestinians, but rather that such acts have become the norm.
Trump and Netanyahu are cooperating to trample any chance of advancing peace (Shlomo Shamir, Maariv) Israeli prime ministers have not always liked the American mediation efforts, but they have always maintained a serious attitude and responded with restraint to the failures. Until Binyamin Netanyahu arrived…It is true that relations between the US and Israel have never been so good and so close. The problem is that the two friends, Trump and Netanyahu, are exploiting their cooperation to trample, stifle, and suppress any chance of advancing peace. And they do it with pleasure, full of pleasure and pride. In his speech at AIPAC, Netanyahu did not mention, even indirectly, the advancement of a diplomatic solution, and it was proven again, to those who needed more proof, that the prime minister was not interested in the subject. As expected, the prime minister was received at the AIPAC conference with enthusiastic enthusiasm and applause, but there is no need to be blinded, and it should be remembered that this is a right-wing organization whose leaders and a large majority of its members and activists have conservative right-wing views. This is an organization which by nature is close to the Likud Central Committee, so it's no wonder that Netanyahu feels at home in both these arenas.
Master Brainwasher Netanyahu Builds World of Lies in Which He Is the Innocent Victim (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The prime minister and his useful idiots despise the truth because they can’t control it.
The citizen has to choose who he believes in - Netanyahu has the sphinx or the blackmailing ultra-Orthodox parties (Lilach Sigan, Maariv) Those around Netanyahu say he doesn’t want elections, but will go to elections if the ultra-Orthodox parties continue extortion. The ultra-Orthodox parties say they don’t want elections, and that Netanyahu could have solved the crisis already, but for some reason he did not. Now the ordinary citizen has to choose who he believes less - Netanyahu, the spin doctor who is sinking in interrogations, or the extortionist ultra-Orthodox parties. As a secular Jew, the Haredi extortion and the attempt to exploit the situation to pass an exemption from conscription law certainly outrages me. The time has come to put a limit to the parties that have settled comfortably in the coalition glue box - you only have to pay them, each time a little more, and they will vote with you happily and say yes. On the one hand, there is a desire to praise Netanyahu, not only for his ability to function within his personal crisis and to address the Americans about Iran and about terrorism, but also about setting limits to the ultra-Orthodox parties. On the other hand, who really knows what really is going on behind the news headlines and declarations. It is no longer clear what leads to what - Netanyahu's personal crisis and his weakness at home that leads to pressure from the coalition and the coalition crisis, or whether the coalition crisis is merely a spin that is meant to distract from an early start to elections that will in fact constitute an escape from the personal crisis. Any conspiracy theory will be acceptable, and this is perhaps the greatest tragedy of Israel 2018 - a reality in which as a citizen you have no idea what the truth is. Everyone accuses everyone of extortion, of advancing personal interests over the national interests, of spins that have become a daily norm and long ago replaced strategy and policy. Who is right? Apparently everyone. One thing is certain - the tighter the ring closes around him, the more the elections become Netanyahu's option to try to prove public support, despite the growing investigations and despite the state's witnesses, who soon will be more in number than the members of the Likud faction. Last time, Netanyahu brought down a government after less than two years because of a "putsch attempt," which turned out to be more an attempt to prevent the passing of the "Israel Hayom” law. This time, at least, he could argue that it was because of the draft law, in order to try to remove some of the sting of Yair Lapid's election promise, even though in this term he has already sacrificed on the ultra-Orthodox altar the Western Wall rules and the Supermarket Law. It's all one big spin, you never know where it ends and where it starts.
Netanyahu Is Bragging About His Diplomatic Failures Again (Haaretz Editorial) True friends don't let friends prolong 50 years of occupation.
Time for Oslo to exit the stage (Brigadier-General (res.) Amir Avivi, Yedioth/Ynet) What is currently being offered to the Palestinians falls far short of a state and will not diminish claims that they continue to live under occupation, but Israel cannot relinquish security control over Judea and Samaria. New solutions are needed.
State's Witness: Despite Domestic Woes Bibi Turns on the Charm at AIPAC (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz) Israel's prime minister showed off 'Netanyahu unplugged' at the AIPAC confab on Tuesday, avoiding any real news and playing up his showmanship skills.
The news from Israel overshadowed the prime minister's speech at AIPAC(Shmuel Rosner, Maariv) The annual conference was the quietest ever and presented a show of unity. The question is whether this will enable the organization to be more effective in pushing a policy that will improve Israel's situation.
History in Washington, hysteria at home (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) While PM Netanyahu is witnessing a historic shift in U.S. policy toward Israel, the local media are busy muckraking about a new state's witness in yet another scandal designed to bring him down.
'Moscow Rules': Why Russian Defectors Are Fair Game in Britain - and Not in Israel (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) Britain’s excellent intelligence services are rarely backed up by their politicians, so Russians on the run continue to die mysteriously.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Most Evil of Them All? (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The way Israel is treating asylum seekers - without compassion, empathy, humanity - is the definition of evil.
If the Meretz party wants to reach 10 seats, Avi Buskila seems like the right person (Ran Adelist, Maariv) I hear that he is a kind of populist and that he’s superficial and that his messages are vague, except that all of that, with the package of his image, are exactly the virtues of a politician in the midst of an internal-political mud war.
What It's Like Being a Cancer Patient in Gaza (Manal Massalha, Haaretz+) Treatment is unavailable locally, and the disease makes those diagnosed feel 'sentenced to a slow death.’
Nothing less than a revolution (Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi, Israel Hayom) U.S. President Donald Trump has anchored his policy vis-à-vis Jerusalem not on threats but on an array of incentives meant to encourage Netanyahu's government to take risks in future negotiations.
Jordan's Calm Could Be Broken by Discontent Brewing Under the Surface (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The country is considered stable but tax woes and a system overloaded by refugees is creating a dangerously explosive stockpile that could erupt.
Global pressure must target Iran (Prof. Eyal Zisser, Israel Hayom) Otherwise, Tehran might emerge from the war in Syria as the big winner, not just militarily but economically.