APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday November 29, 2018

 

NOTE: News Nosh will be published in a truncated version from December 2-13. Happy Hannukah!

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You Must Be Kidding: 
"To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
At the beginning of her words in every program,
Lucy says her words also in Arabic.
This is inappropriate and very jarring.."
--Words from a letter written by a viewer of the TV news show presented by Arab-Israeli journalist Lucy Aharish. Aharish and her Jewish-Israeli husband turned the words into a song and performed it on TV.**

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Top stories in today's Hebrew newspapers: After a call from a citizen, who recognized him from photos, police caught the suspect in the brutal murder of the 12-year-old Eritrean girl, Sylvana Tsegai, an asylum seeker. The boyfriend of the girl’s mother is suspected of beating and raping Sylvana before choking her to death.

At the Knesset, the opposition failed to pass a bill, despite the narrow one-seat coalition, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett said, “The business is failing,” while earlier an unnamed coalition official said that the “Government's days are numbered.” And, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met wtih former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, one of the hottest names for the next elections, but said that it was only a “security consultation.”

In regards to Gaza and Israel, both sides are preparing for a fights: diplomatic and military. The head of the Home Front Command sparked a storm among Tel-Avivis, when he said that in the next war, “There won’t be a situation where we are fighting in the north or in Gaza and in Tel-Aviv they’ll be drinking coffee.” In his defense, he said he meant that the next war will be much more difficult than any Israelis experienced before. On the ground, Israeli forces concluded a combined urban and tunnel warfare exercise simulating fighting in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli official said that the timing of the drill, two weeks after the worst exchange of violence on the Israel-Gaza Strip border since 2014, as well as the fact that it included extreme case scenarios, was meant as a message to Hamas.

At the UN, both sides prepared for battle. The US and Israel prepared for a vote tomorrow or Monday on an unprecedented resolution that excoriates Hamas for its rocket fire on Israel, incitement to violence and use of civilian resources for military purposes. However, in a letter to the UN General Assembly, Hamas politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh asked for support for the Palestinian right to bear arms against the Israeli occupation, saying that the US resolution is trying to "delegitimize" the Palestinian resistance. “We reiterate the right of our people to defend themselves and to resist the occupation, by all available means, including armed resistance, guaranteed by the international law,” Haniyeh wrote. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon said it was "Like a serial killer who asks for police assistance.” Haniyeh called on the international community "to take all possible and legitimate measures to put an end to this hated occupation and to help our people to achieve freedom and independence.” (Also Maariv)

Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Ministry is urging diplomats to cut funding to UNRWA, the UN organization helping Palestinian refugees in the Middle East and calling on the countries they live in to make them citizens. Also, Ambassador Danon said that the US could unveil its peace plan at the start of 2019

And Arab-Israeli TV presenter, Lucy Aharish, made news twice on the Hebrew news websites. First, Aharish and her Jewish-Israeli actor-singer husband, Tzachi Halevi, performed a song Halevi wrote and composed in which he turned an angry complaint into a song. Channel 2 received complaints from some viewers because Aharish uses the Arabic words for 'Good Evening,' 'masa' al-kheir,' to greet viewers at the start of her news program, in addition to Hebrew. Video of their song here. And here are the words of the song translated:
"To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
At the beginning of her words in every program
Lucy says her words also in Arabic
This is inappropriate and very jarring
The fact that she is an Arab does not give her legitimacy
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
Lucy broadcasts on an Israeli channel
And it is improper to allow her
To say in Arabic
Even if her speech is brief
Her managers should criticize her to stop
The custom she had created on her own for some time
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir
To greet in Arabic, Masa' al-Kheir."
At the end of the song, Lucy sings alone 'Masa' alkheir' and calls Tzachi to join her. He answers her in half-Arabic, half-Hebrew: "Stop, you've made me crazy with that 'masa' al-kheir,'" and then he gets off stage. Lucy looks after him and says, "Darling, but turn on the hot water (for a shower), will you?" The couple got married last month, sparking an uproar among religious and right-wing people, such as Likud MK Oren Hazan and Interior Minister Arieh Deri.

Maariv reported on the other incident, when former prime minister Ehud Barak expressed himself in a controversial manner when Lucy Aharish interviewed him on her TV program. Aharish had asked if the situation vis-à-vis Hamas were perhaps convenient for us (Israelis). Barak responded: “It may be comfortable for you because of your background, but it's very inconvenient for us," he said, adding: "I am an Israeli and you are an Israeli, we can tell the truth. I do not like what this government is doing..." Barak later clarified on Facebook: “Lucy, and I, are no less Israelis, not a drop less than Bibi or Bennett, or any other minister in the cabinet. And what is convenient for the government, and for Bibi, in Gaza - is not good for us Israelis! He's bad! The rest is said with a smile as you can see (if my beard does not hide it). For those who did not understand - and for Lucy, if, heaven forbid, she was insulted - I’m sorry."

Also, last Friday, the papers reported that Channel 10 aired an investigative documentary in which Israelis admitted that Israel mistakenly sank a Lebanese refugee boat, killing 25 people, during the 1982 war error, killing 25 people. Petitioning the High Court with the nonprofit "Consumers’ Movement for the Promotion of a Fair Society and Economy," known in Hebrew as Hatzlacha (Success), they were able to lift the IDF Censor ban and release information on the incident. In short, the captain of Israeli submarine thought a boat was carrying PLO fighters and he sunk it. A navy probe found he acted mistakenly, but ruled that no crime was committed. A former officer accused the IDF of a cover-up. And in today's Op-Eds (below), Maariv's Ran Edelist says Israel should own up and pay up.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Letters to the Editor: Don't Just Write, Act
In response to “Israeli capriciousness at the Bethlehem checkpoint.” That this article is true I have little doubt. I am surprised and angered, however, that Haaretz does not use its clout to have these particular soldiers, and especially their commanding officer at the time, arrested and court-martialed for egregious harassment. (Haaretz)
The Married, Lesbian Palestinian-Jewish Couple Using Comedy to Smash Stereotypes
Jess Salomon is a Jew from Canada, Eman El-Husseini is the daughter of a Palestinian family, together they're a comedy duo to be reckoned with. (Ben Sales, JTA, Haaretz)
Netflix's 'Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj' Is Way Funnier and Fresher Than 'Last Week Tonight'
Netflix’s 'Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj' is the best political comedy you're not watching. (Adrian Hennigan, Haaretz+)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Murder of 12-year-old Girl Shows Human Rights in Israel Are Only for Jews (Vered Lee, Haaretz+) The asylum-seeker community in Israel is in a state of crisis and its women and teenage girls are paying an increasingly heavy price.
In the shock over the murder of Silvana Sagai, there is quite a bit of hypocrisy ([anti-asylum seeker activist] May Golan, Maariv) Where were all the shocked people when the Jewish girls in the neighborhood were constantly attacked by infiltrators from Eritrea? Where were they when old women were robbed and brutally attacked?…It’s time to use an iron hand against the violence, and then as a result there will be fewer murders, of Jews and of infiltrators of all ages. It is time to restore law and order to the Wild West called the State of South Tel Aviv, and which we call ‘Eritrea, corner of Sudan.’ —The writer is a resident of Tel Aviv and the director general of the ‘Hebrew City Association.’
Indecent Proposal (Haaretz Editorial) Police are asking for the authority to order detainees to strip for a 'visual search' of their naked bodies to prevent the smuggling of objects into lockups, even in the absence of a reasonable suspicion. This bad bill should be struck from the legislative agenda.
It's Not So Simple for Israel to Just 'End the Occupation' (Peter Lerner, Haaretz+) There are no instant solutions at hand, and easy, self-righteous slogans don’t help. This is why Israel can't just walk away from the West Bank.
He came to praise and ended up harming (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Following the words of Trump ("Are we planning to keep forces in this part of the world? One reason to do that is Israel."), a new situation could form: If American soldiers die in the battlefield of the Middle East, Israel's opponents and anti-Semites from the American radical-right-wing could blame Israel for that.
Trump’s statements on Israel will boomerang (Ron Ben Yishai, Ynet) ‘Blaming’ US Mideast policies on Israel's security’ needs won’t end well; Gulf states actually need Israel more than Israel needs them; Stability of the global economy is the reason for continued US interest in the region.
The right thing to do about the Dreyfus Operation is to acknowledge responsibility and pay compensation (Ran Adelist, Maariv) The rules of the game say that the moment the event was published and not denied, there will be dance of the skeletons removed from the coffin and mainly a chain of civil lawsuits against the background of the potential of a lawsuit at The Hague Curt for war crimes…The right thing to do is to immediately acknowledge responsibility, pay the victims' relatives compensation, close the case and learn a lesson. As always, there is a fashionable delay here in the State of Israel - but the situation can be corrected, even today. The alternative is to continue digging: as if the commander of the corps knew or confirmed. In short, take the safe route and close the case.
Occupational Apathy (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) The radical left also has an obsession: the occupation. No obsession is more justified, since the occupation by nature is an obsessive phenomenon. In contrast to other obsessions, those of the Zionist left, for example, being obsessed with the occupation is not a matter of running away from the core problem – it’s a matter of dealing with it. When talking about such a fateful issue – no other one is as fateful for the State of Israel in the most profound sense – one cannot be anything but obsessive. Moreover, being obsessive is required in light of the repression of this issue by society, the media and the political system in this country. Everything is discussed here except the occupation. Thus, when talking about such a decisive matter, from which nearly everyone flees as if from fire, there is no option but to become obsessive. Like every obsession, it’s annoying. Unlike other annoyances, the ones relating to the occupation are almost the last signs of life of a society that’s in the throes of moral dissolution, living in extreme denial. Few societies are lying themselves to death as this one is. But make no mistake: Before anything else, the direct and most pitiful victims of the occupation are the Palestinians, not Israelis. Left-wing Zionists take no interest in their fate. If they reach out to address the fire, it’s always tainted with the permanent sentiments of self-victimization held by Israelis: Look at what the occupation has done to us, how it’s corrupted us; one needs to end it since we want to live in a Jewish state; in the end it will blow up in our faces.
The anti-Semitic propaganda worked on Airbnb (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) CNN's poll proves that the anti-Semitic campaign is alive and well, especially when we consider Airbnb's decision to remove Jewish settlement listings from its services; there is no doubt the decision is anti-Semitic, since other disputed territories don't receive the same treatment.
Israel’s Leaderless Left Turns to Netanyahu (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz) Dear friends, if you’re bored, start building your own leadership and gather round it instead of stealing other leaders. Bibi is not a friend. He’s already taken.
Law will protect the people's vote (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) The specter of early elections is holding up vital bills, including one that would prevent political interests from perverting the will of the voters by allowing the president to assign the responsibility for forming a coalition to any Knesset member.
AG's Expansion of Legal Team in Netanyahu Case Could Indicate Leniency to Come (Gidi Weitz, Haaretz+) Decision to increase the number of attorneys raises speculation that he's seeking indictments for only the most minor charges – fraud and breach of trust.
Palestinian aid groups perpetuate the conflict (Odelia Azoulay, Israel Hayom) The U.N. and individual donor states would be wise to invest their energy and resources in finding a tenable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than bolstering the humanitarian aid industry in the Palestinian territories.
South Africa's shameful capitulation to anti-Israel thuggery (Chaim Hames, Haaretz+) As rector of Ben-Gurion University, I call out Stellenbosch University’s shameful, cowardly act - removing Israeli academics from their program. But who are the real victims? South Africans themselves.
Chad: Africa returns to Israel (Omer Dostri, Israel Hayom) The historic renewal of Chad-Israel ties will benefit both nations and shows that PM Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy is effective.
If Netanyahu next shakes hands with Sudan’s genocidal president, the bloodstains won’t wipe clean (Mutasim Ali, Haaretz+) Israel should seek allies in Africa. But not war criminals and despots like Chad’s Idriss Deby or Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir, not least when it won’t let survivors of their genocides find shelter in Israel.
 

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