APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday May 24, 2018
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
The ‘leaking’ to Israeli media of a photo of an Israeli F-35 over Beirut skies, the uncovering of an alleged secret Iranian missile factory and the revelation that the Prime Minister’s Office has requested an armored car for Sara Netanyahu at the cost of 2 million shekels were today’s top stories. Also in the news, the latest regarding the Gaza-Israel conflict - including a diplomatic rejection a report that Egypt and Qatar proposed a hudna truce between Israel and Hamas,

Iran is secretly developing missiles at a desert facility, according to satellite photos published by the New York Times, the Israeli papers wrote. That report comes after Iran's chief of staff rejected US demands that Tehran curb its regional influence and limit its missile program. Iranian Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri said Iran doesn't need permission to develop defense capabilities. Syria also rejected the US demand for an Iranian withdrawal from Syria. But, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel ‘will act again’ against Iranian entrenchment. At the International Air Force conference where Israel’s Air Force chief revealed Tuesday that Israel was using its F-35s in military operations, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that many in the Middle East appreciated Trump's leadership on Iran, not just Israel.

Gaza Strip:
UN envoy Nikolay Mladenov urged Israel to avoid the use of lethal force against Gazans 'except as a last resort’ and told the UN Security Council that "Gaza is on the verge of collapse" and that urgent action was also needed to relieve the suffering of its "increasingly desperate" people. In closed talks, the UNSC discussed a Kuwait-sponsored resolution ‘condemning in the strongest possible terms’ Israel's handling of Gaza riots, without mentioning Hamas. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe cancelled his trip to Israel and the Israeli papers quoted Israeli officials saying that the real reason were the IDF killings of Gazan protesters on the border. (Interestingly, Yedioth reported that a high-ranking Polish government delegation is arriving in Israel, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, the first since the fallout over the Polish Holocaust Law.)

Meanwhile, Channel 10 News reporter Alon Ben-David reported that both Egypt and Qatar are proposing long-term truces between Hamas and Israel. According to the report, Israel demanded a complete halt to rocket fire, a complete cessation of tunnel digging, maintaining the security perimeter, and a solution to the issue of Israeli prisoners and missing persons. In return, Israel will significantly ease the crossings into Gaza, including the entry of things for projects and commercial goods, provided they are not used for strengthening Hamas militarily, while the Egyptians will ease the Rafah crossing. Worthy of note, Israel also relinquished its demand to demilitarize the Gaza Strip and to return Gaza to the control of the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The report in Maariv also said that the issue of Gaza is of great concern to the US administration, which wants to achieve calm in Gaza and to respond to the humanitarian situation. The Americans want to find a path of progress in Gaza even before the presentation of President Trump's peace plan and the US administration is pressuring the Arab states to say publicly that the responsibility for the situation in Gaza falls on Hamas.

Yesterday, the Israeli military bombed an alleged Hamas tunnel and two boats (more in Haaretz+ and Maan) and Israeli firefighters battled to control a number of fires near the border with the Gaza Strip that were set ablaze by flammable kites from Gaza. The IDF told the media that it allowed the transfer to Jordan of 22 wounded Gazans for medical treatment - something it had refused to allow in the past. But the request was made by Jordan's King Abdullah, making it hard to reject. The Gaza authorities announced Sunday that since the massive “Great March of Return” demonstrations began, Israeli forces killed 112 Palestinians and injured 13,190 others.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Mossad Spy or Man Who Turned Olmert Into a Lefty? Philip Roth's Complicated Relationship With Israel
Which one of the two the U.S. Jewish novelist really was depends on whether you believe the man himself. (Judy Maltz, Haaretz+)
*Letters to the Editor: Killing Humans Like Big Game Hunters and Israeli police brutality (Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:
The Right-wing Has Appropriated 'The People' (Ziva Sternhell, Haaretz+) In contemporary Israel, it’s not hard to discern the influence of small groups driven by belief in the myth of the chosen people, whose members are willing to die for 'holy' stones.
US sanctions seek regime change (Dr. Raz Zimmt, Israel Hayom) Iran's Islamic regime will never bow to the conditions placed on it by the U.S., which are completely contrary to the regime's DNA. The real goal is to topple the regime.
Hamas in Gaza, Iranians in Syria: Israel's F-35 strikes carried message to both enemies and allies (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) With Iran and Russia's growing capabilities, Israel needed stealth – and fast.
The lesson from the events in Gaza is clear: the Palestinian enemy must be dealt with aggressively (Attorney Yoram Sheftel, Maariv) The humiliation of the Hamas leader in the office of the head of Egyptian intelligence is a necessary result of the IDF's determination to fire live ammunition at anyone who tried to cross the fence. And also: Our benefit from the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador in Ankara.
More Palestinians Will Die Unless Gaza Becomes Livable (Rep. Keith Ellison and Carol Hutner Winograd, Haaretz+) Open Gaza to weaken Hamas. Lift the blockade, properly fund UNRWA, rehabilitate Gaza's infrastructure - these are the only ways we can prevent the desperation of protestors willing to lose their lives.
Where were the Arab MKs when the police violence was directed at others? (Meir Uziel, Maariv) The Israeli [he forgot to write ‘Jewish Israeli’ - OH] public feels that the goal of the Arab public is to emphasize and inflate the fact that the police are attacking them. But tomorrow they will defend with the gatekeepers in force - it all depends on who is being attacked.
The Arabs Chose to Be Refugees (Dan Margalit, Haaretz+) These facts can be concealed and denied by fake news, but they are the real truth. The two great abandonments happened at the Arabs’ initiative.
The Israel-Turkey crisis and the need for containment (Dr. Nimrod Goren, Yedioth/Ynet) Israel's frustration with Erdogan’s behavior is great, but it is worthy to remember the strategic, economic and diplomatic importance of the relations between the two countries. It is not self-evident for Israel to have full, even if problematic, diplomatic relations with a key regional state that has a large Muslim population, and these relations should not be casually waived.
Israel – Always in the Right (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) Recent days show how far Israel has deteriorated in her efforts to impose the absolute truth, which is not to be questioned. The day isn’t far when we set up a Truth Ministry, just like in '1984.'
The JNF’s March of Waste and Corruption Continues (Raviv Drucker, Haaretz+) JNF's giant delegation to the March of the Living event in Auschwitz somehow evaded the public radar. The waste, the corruption and the hedonism continue to be part of the organization’s DNA.
Why Israelis should welcome foreign funding of their NGOs (Ronald R. Krebs and James Ron, Yedioth/Ynet) The policies that democracies pursue typically accord with the preferences of the wealthy and powerful and concentrated special interests. Foreign-funded NGOs can give a voice to the voiceless, to the unrepresented and powerless. In other words, foreign-funded NGOs can make democracy more meaningfully democratic.
Erdan’s Test (Haaretz Editorial) Will Erdan manage to develop a backbone, withstand political pressures — both overt and covert — and resist the temptation to hope for a political promotion as a reward for protecting the prime minister’s interests?
A message to the radical axis (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom) With the F-35 now in its arsenal, the air force has a different dimension at its disposal whose impact is sure to reverberate throughout the region and beyond, even to Moscow.
This Is the Photo of an Israeli F-35 Over Beirut (Yaniv Kubovich, Haaretz+) The Israel Air Force's revelation that Israel carried out the world's first F-35 strike marks a change in the military's approach.
 

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