APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday September 3, 2018
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Palestinian President Abbas said envoys of US President Donald Trump offered to establish a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte landed in Israel beginning his controversial visit and Syria denied that an explosion at an arms depot in Damascus was Israel’s doing - making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

In his office in Ramallah, Abbas told a delegation of Peace Now activists and two Knesset members [PHOTO] that US special Middle East envoys, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, proposed creating a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation. Abbas said he agreed to an alternative peace plan on condition that Israel be part of the confederation. Greenblatt refused to confirm or reject the offer. But Israel Hayom ran a large front page Op-Ed written by Greenblatt declaring that Trump is eager to bring peace to the region.  Jordan rejected the confederation idea, reiterating its 'firm and clear' commitment to the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Abbas also revealed that he has long held regular meetings with Shin Bet chiefs and said that the two sides agree on ‘99 percent of the issues.’ Interestingly, KAN TV News reported that during his meetings with Mahmoud Abbas in recent months, Shin Bet chief Argaman tried to convince Abbas not to sabotage the process of (a long-term) arrangement with the Gaza Strip and the efforts to reconcile among the Palestinians, according to an Israeli source. (Maariv) Moreover, former Shin Bet chief, Yaakov Pery, said such meetings were legitimate. (Maariv) “It is quite reasonable that there is a meeting once every month or two between the head of the Shin Bet and the chairman of the Palestinian Authority. This was the way it was during my period with Yasser Arafat and during the period of other Shin Bet chiefs,” Pery told KAN News. Pery said he spoke with former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat about the later turning over the Palestinian engineer “who later found his death.” And ‘Abbas’ secret negotiator,’ Hussein Agha, warned that Trump’s peace team is misguided if it thinks it can buy Palestinians off with economic incentives. Speaking in a lengthy interview with Fathom Journal, a British publication that focuses on Israel, Agha said that Israel and Hamas are now ‘natural partners’ for a peace deal.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte landed in Israel to a warm welcome, despite all the controversy surrounding his visit. Haaretz+ reported that at a closed event last night, Duterte justified remarks about rape as ‘freedom of expression' and that his aides approached him during his speech and asked him to stop cursing. Meretz party chief Tamar Zandberg asked President Reuven Rivlin to "Immediately cancel the visit of Duterte - a perpetrator of crimes against humanity…In light of the grave crimes Duterte is responsible for, I believe that there is no room for such a visit,” Maariv reported.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

(Palestinian) Medics risk their lives to treat wounded in Gaza protests
IDF troops are under orders to hold fire when medical personnel are near, even though it means risking infiltration by Hamas terrorists into Israel. But some Palestinian medics have been killed or injured. Israeli military investigating the deaths. (Associated Press, Israel Hayom)

Explained U.S. Syria sanctions cripple reconstruction effort before it has even begun
Washington does not only target U.S. sanctions violators. It can also blacklist foreign companies or people who help others to skirt sanctions. (Reuters, Haaretz)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Trump's Revived Jordan-Palestinian Confederation Plan May Be Dead on Arrival (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The Palestinians refuse to give up their aspirations for independence, Israel is waging a war on the idea of an independent Palestinian state, and Jordan fears losing its national identity.
*5 lies about the ‘good faith’ of the settlement (Hagit Ofran, Ynet Hebrew)  Last week, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the Mitzpeh Kramim outpost was built on private Palestinian land "in good faith," and as such, Palestinian landowners have no right to demand its evacuation...For 38 years, with denial, determination, step by step, but what? In good faith?..According to the Ibn Shushan Dictionary, "in good faith" means "with integrity, out of complete innocence and honesty." One can believe that the settlers of the outpost really thought that this was not private land belonging to Palestinians, but it is difficult to attribute total innocence and honesty to anyone who builds without permits in an illegal outpost. If they would have bothered to ask for approval for a construction plan, the (Israeli) Civil Administration (in the Territories) would have immediately discovered that this was private land and then they would have been saved from robbing.  (It is also reasonable to assume that the government would not have approved the establishment of the outpost, because at least until the establishment of the last Netanyahu government, the official policy was that no new settlements would be established.) However, the court did not deal with the good faith of the settlers. The discussion dealt with the good faith of those who assigned them the land, ie, the state and the settlement division (of the World Zionist Organization), and this is how the integrity and innocence of the bodies acting on behalf of the State of Israel in the territories appear:
Good Faith #1: The perception of "for military needs". On July 29, 1980, the commander of the area issued a seizure order for approximately 850 dunams of private Palestinian land. This was according to the bluff through which they established the initial dozens of settlements: since it is forbidden to expropriate private land in occupied territory for settlement purposes, they decided to "seize" the land for security purposes and use it for settlement purposes. The High Court ruled in 1979 that in Elon Moreh, the settlements are not a security necessity, and therefore it is forbidden to use seizure orders for the purpose of their construction, but since the Nahal military outposts were already established (without a seizure order), and the government had already decided to grant it approval to be used for citizens, the state allowed itself to ignore the court and seize the land for the purpose of establishing the settlement of Kochav Hashachar.
Good Faith #2: The area of the outpost is not included in the seizure order. The outpost of Mitzpeh Kramim is located beyond the border of the seizure order, so that even if it were permitted to use land occupied for settlement purposes, in this case the land was not even seized. There was indeed an order to close the area, but that means that it is a firing zone and it is forbidden to build settlements there.
Good Faith #3: Authority to the Settlement Division. Meet the Settlement Division: the executive arm of the government for dubious jobs. A non-governmental body of the World Zionist Organization that the government immediately recruited after 1967 to carry out the problematic work of establishing settlements in the occupied territory. The government allowed the Division to manage and distribute public funds and manage most of the public lands in the territories. The Division, for its part, transferred millions without supervision and without criteria to the settlements, sometimes for illegal activity, and allocated land without collecting money, without reporting to the landowner (the Custodian of Government Property), and even allocated lands that were not even transferred to its management. For example, it turned out that settlers in Amona, Ofra, Giv'at Haulpana and Mitzpeh Kramim received plots from the Settlement Division that were privately-owned by Palestinians. The scandal over the distribution of funds has managed to moderate in recent years, but the lawlessness in land management continues, and the government is currently trying to anchor the existing situation into law. The court legalized Mitzpeh Kramim on the basis of giving authorization "in good faith" to the Settlement Division.
Good Faith #4: The authority contract (between the Settlement Division and the State) does not include the land of the outpost. On February 23, 1981, a contract of authorization was signed between the Custodian of Government Property, which is equivalent to the Israel Land Administration in the Territories, and the Settlement Division. The contract allocates land for the purpose of creating and establishing the settlement of Kochav Hashachar. The map annexed to the contract does not include the area of the outpost, but they solved this in section 2C, which states: "The parties declare that they know that the boundaries of the square have not yet been measured and its precise boundaries have not yet been determined." In the (court) ruling, the judge quotes part of the testimony of architect Shlomo Moskowitz, who was the head of the Civil Administration planning bureau for decades: "It was customary until the mid-1980s, all the orders that I know…were carried out in this way so that between the order and the actual location where it took place here was no connection." And that’s what the (district court) judge calls "good faith."
Good Faith #5: The owners of the land are outside the whole affair. Fifty-one years ago, the State of Israel took responsibility for the territories but did not annex the Palestinian residents. They have no voting rights or ability to influence the laws that Israel determines in the territories. They have no representation in the bodies managing the land. The lands are allocated without tenders and the Palestinians have no ability to win them. And all the orders, contracts and authorizations made on their land, "in good faith and with utter truth," are done without asking them, without hearing them and ultimately without the court taking into account their rights. About this (Jewish rabbi) Chazal warned us that an offense leads to an offense, and "since a person has committed an offense and a year has passed - he gets permission.” (Hagit Ofran is a member of the Peace Now Settlement Monitoring Team)
Why We Went to the UN Over Israel's Nation-state Law (Aida Touma-Sliman, Haaretz+) The choice for all of us, Jews and Arabs, is clear: real democracy or a nationalist ethnocracy.
Patriotism in America, patriotism in Israel - the McCain test (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth) John McCain ordered to distance Trump from his funeral because he believed that Trump cares only about Trump - America does not interest him. I ask myself, how much does Israel interest the ministers of our government.
Can Netanyahu and Trump Downgrade the Palestinian Issue for Good? (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) In line with Netanyahu's vision, the Trump administration is steadily dismantling the orthodoxies that have underpinned the so-called Israeli-Palestinian 'peace process' for decades.
A step in the right direction (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) The so-called 'Palestinian refugee problem' would have been resolved if only standard refugees procedures had been implemented instead of UNRWA allowing their number to balloon to 5.3 million by counting descendents too; Obama Admin. buried State Dept. report of actual refugees number, perhaps 30,000.
Has Trump gone too 'pro-Israel' and anti-Palestinian even for Israel's own leaders? (Seraj Assi, Haaretz+) The U.S. president cutting funding for UNRWA is disastrous – and ironic. For decades, Israel has promoted, publicly and in secret, the one UN agency that eased its own moral and financial responsibility for the Palestinian refugee crisis.
Shame on You, America (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) The United States has spent hundreds of billions on unnecessary wars, but only the UN relief agency for the Palestinians is improperly run.
Dress rehearsal (Ron Meiberg, Maariv) Admiral William McRaven, the commander of the six-star glory force that killed Osama bin Laden, is fed up with Trump. The sharp opinion he wrote in the paper suggests that he is on his way to politics, especially in order to conquer the White House.
The education system that’s endangering Israel’s future (Dan Ben-David, Haaretz+) As a new school year begins, an expert examines the system’s root problems and their socioeconomic implications for the state.
At last, some moral clarity (Amnon Lord, Israel Hayom) The U.S. decision to end funding for UNRWA brings much-needed clarity and will force the Palestinians to undergo a dramatic internal transformation.
How Many Israeli Soldiers Does It Take to Fix a Flat Tire? (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Or better put, what’s the real reason a Palestinian in the West Bank would stop to help?
The Israeli public interprets the cancellation of Lena Del Ray's performance as a spit in its face (Adam Shai, Maariv) No doubt Ms. Del Rey is entitled to hold her own opinions, even if they are different from ours. But how can we take her opinion seriously if this opinion changes frequently?
If Israel Had to Enter Gaza Today, the Israeli Army Would Have a Big Problem (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The army vowed to address the limitations exposed in Lebanon and Gaza, but is it ready for a ground maneuver deep in enemy territory? Why Nasrallah, an avid Haaretz reader, is worried.
The Struggle for Israel's Identity (Zehava Galon, Haaretz+) The Reform movement offers Israel a choice between a state that celebrates its citizens, and a suspicious state that is scared of its citizens. Netanyahu made his choice long ago. Now we must make ours.
 

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