APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday March 26, 2019

 

Quotes of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Elections 2019 News:
What Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hoped would be today’s big story, US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, was pushed to the side as rockets and missiles crossed between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and Netanyahu cut short his trip and returned to Israel just after his meeting with Trump - missing giving his speech at AIPAC. (His opponent, Benny Gantz, however, gave his and made good impressions.) The papers were filled with Israeli commentators and analysts arguing whether Israel should open an expansive operation against Gaza, how this affects and is affected by the elections and what could have Israel from reaching this situation.

The Israeli papers generally reported that it all started with a Gazan rocket shot into the Tel-Aviv region early Sunday morning and hitting a house. However, some analysts said that if Netanyahu had made the long-term ceasefire arrangement with Hamas that has been on the table since the summer, then the Gazans would not be suffering from the Israeli siege that they are protesting against with incendiary balloons and rockets. (See Commentary/Analysis below.) Hamas said it didn’t shoot the rocket, but the IDF said it holds Hamas responsible for everything coming out of Gaza and began calling up reservists for deployment at the Gaza border. Israel began bombing Hamas buildings at about 5PM, 12 hours after the rocket hit the house north of Tel-Aviv. The wave of attacks by Israeli warplanes were just the first stage of what would be a broad operation, the IDF spokesman told Ynet. The Egyptians got involved and a ceasefire was supposed to begin at 22:00. But some 30 Gazan rockets were reportedly fired after that towards Sderot and the IDF continued striking Hamas targets in Gaza. (VIDEO of Israeli strikes) Bomb shelters opened across Israel and Hamas leaders headed underground in fear of Israeli reprisals. Politicians on right and left attacked Netanyahu for failing to keep citizens safe as election approaches, saying that “‘Israel's deterrence has collapsed.” However, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) said, “The timing of an operation must not depend on elections or anything else…The fight against terrorism does not end overnight, we will need a response here that is a step up. Levin said Israelis should look at things “soberly and not as fervent and shameful as we experienced this morning by people who pretend to be leaders of the state.” (Maariv) Israel closed roads and halted farming near the border, closed border crossings into Gaza and canceled Palestinian family-prisoner visits for Hamas prisoners, sending a bus of 23 relatives back.

Meanwhile, regarding the US recognition of the Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights - not everyone accepted it. The UN said that it’s “clear that Golan status has not changed,” Damascus called it an attack on Syrian sovereignty and Gulf states rejected it, including US allies, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and also Qatar and Kuwait. Here’s the full text of Trump’s proclamation.



 

Quick Hits:

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Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Israel launches Gaza campaign that may last several days (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Netanyahu has been ignoring Gaza. Now it's election time and it's come back to haunt him.
Damage to the soft stomach: The Likud loses the two sources that put it in power (Dr. Revital Amiran, Maariv) The preoccupation with the submarines affair and the ostensible statements against the Mizrachi immigrants undermine the two elements in which the ruling party and Netanyahu excelled in: security and being a people’s party.
If You're Still Voting Netanyahu After This Rocket, You're Thinking Like Hamas (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) By voting Bibi you're turning the government into a version of Hamas - anti-democratic, brutal, theocratic, callous, maximalist, mendacious, militarist, racist, manipulatively scapegoating in deflecting blame, fascistic.
*This doesn't need to happen: Another pre-election war on Gaza (Haggai Matar and Oren Ziv, +972mag) We need leaders who can talk about ending the siege, about ending the occupation, about equality, freedom, and security as the only solution for both Israelis and Palestinians.
AIPAC Performance, Gantz Shows U.S. There Is an Alternative to Bibi (Amir Tibon, Haaretz+) While the prime minister always has the D.C. crowd in the palm of his hand thanks to his oratorial polish, his rival was the archetypal native Israeli – and all the more appealing to Americans for that.
To explode from nerves: This election campaign is the most nauseating that I remember (Natan Zehavi, Maariv) In the coming elections, I may do a demonstrative act: I will reach the polling station, I will stick my finger down my throat, and I will try not to miss when I vomit into the slot to which the ballots are cast…Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is sunk deeply in the investigations and charges against him, subject to a hearing that was brought before him by Attorney General Avihcai Mandelblit, who was appointed by the prime minister himself. He pours fire and brimstone on the top of the police and the courts, where people he appointed sit. He gets involved, to put it mildly, in half-truths about the submarine affair, his business partnership with his cousin, the financing and management of future trials against him, and the activities of his many expensive lawyers. The renowned leader who promised to topple Hamas is negotiating with the heads of the organization with the help of mediators (mainly Egyptian intelligence). Hamas is not collapsing. He promised to respond with mortal blows to any harm to Israel, but the fields surrounding the Gaza Strip are burning, with incendiary balloons and explosive kites sowing fear and terror in the south, and there is no savior. He builds himself a luxury airplane at an astronomical price, because he likes to fly with his wife and show the public in Israel what an  admired persona he is around the world. The fact that some of the leaders he meets are despicable creatures, hated by their own people, does not bother him. From time to time he takes his son with him (at the expense of the family, according to his statements), but it turns out that someone has forgotten to pay the inflated bills of the sweet son, who acts with arrogance and condescension, as if any moment he were assuming the role of prime minister as inheritance from his father. Netanyahu's judgment is frightening. Most of the public does not know, but he has appointed Miri Regev as acting prime minister for some of his trips in the last two years (to Lithuania, India and the United States). Yes, that's no joke. It's a fact. The vulgar, quarrelsome, and inciting woman serves as the acting prime minister even when Bibi is admitted to a periodic medical examination under anaesthesia in a hospital. When he is under atomic pressure in his personal life, Netanyahu serves as prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister and health minister. A series of appointments he made of people to key positions in the administration in recent years have proved to him at least as failures. Some have resigned, some have been fired, some have become state witnesses against him, and others have moved to other parties and are currently working against him. One of his most notable failures is in his home. His son, Yair. A loathsome, boastful, arrogant creature who keeps getting into trouble. It is hard to forget the piercing statement of the parasitic prince Yair about journalist Amnon Abramovich, a handicapped IDF veteran and hero of Israel, who for him is "a garbage can, a fool, a Soviet propagandist." Just last week he Tweeted against the former head of the Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, who was considered to be a brave, wise man. He wrote the following sentence: "You idiot! It's scary to think you were in a security job!" I have known Shavit for many years. The fact that a little twat such as Yair Netanyahu would call him an "idiot" and doubts his ability to serve in a security position is record-making. It's a good thing that the little flea did not even Tweet about the fact that Shavit was not fit to serve in Sayeret Matkal commando because he was an idiot. Maybe Dad didn’t tell him that Shavit was in the unit. There is no need to be a great educator to understand that Bibi the Great failed miserably in the education of his 27-year-old son, who until recently lived with Father and Mother, and whose nightlife stories adorned the tabloid pages and what was published was only a small part of his righteous deeds. In the last week Bibi's Yair did what is done by the BDS, the greatest enemies of the State of Israel. Netanyahu Junior and his band of supporters called for the boycott of an Israeli artist, the singer Miri Masika, who "dared" to support Rotem Sela. Yair called on the people of the "right-wing flock" not to go to her performances. In the past week, Bibi realized that he was becoming increasingly entangled. Miri Regev will no longer serve as acting prime minister. The damage she caused after the attack in Ariel is irreversible. The minister, who thinks she is the messenger of God in the Holy Land, has begun to be excluded. Some of her party partners said in private conversations that the minister had become a troublemaker. A trouble for the party.
Hamas Rocket Rains on Netanyahu’s Victory Parade With Trump (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The electoral asset of the prime minister’s sterling ties to a president reborn after the Mueller report are outweighed by perceptions that he is soft on the Gaza group.
Netanyahu's dilemma: Should a large-scale military operation be launched two weeks before the elections? (Tal Lev-Ram, Maariv) The prime minister is arriving at the last two weeks before the elections with the issues he has least wanted to deal with now - the submarines, Hamas, the Palestinian arena…The prime minister is familiar with the complexity of Gaza and it can be assumed that he is not interested in a large-scale ground operation of the kind that you know where it will begin, but you don’t know how it will end. Even a limited round of escalation, as it was a few months ago ending with dissatisfaction of the Israeli public about the extent of the IDF's success in it, can affect the situation in one way or another when the election campaign is about to start…Any military action that Israel chooses to carry out in response to the fire should be such that it leaves no question marks about its operational effectiveness. The IDF knows and holds plans for effective strike against targets, and the question is Israel's willingness, at this time, in anticipation of elections, to exercise the required powers. If there are other considerations, according to which Israel is not interested in escalation, it is sometimes preferable to postpone a significant response, so that there will be not be a response that will be perceived as Israel's erosion [of deterrence - OH] in the south.
A War Now Will Strengthen Hamas (Amira Hass, Haaretz) We cannot let the awful nightmare that Gazans have experienced three times in 10 years repeat itself.
'Mr. Security' Netanyahu Is Looking Very Insecure Days Before the Election (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Despite receiving the priceless gift of Golan Heights recognition by U.S. President Donald Trump, the prime minister is hounded by escalation with the Palestinians.
Ruling gives racism a boost (Doron Nehemia, Israel Hayom) Anti-Zionism and racism against Arabs are two sides of the same coin, which is why the Supreme Court contradicted itself when when it allowed extremist left-wing candidates run but disqualified former MK Michael Ben-Ari.
Unprecedented: Trump Gave Israel the Golan as a Gift and Asked for Nothing in Return (Aluf Benn, Haaretz+) In the past, American support always entailed Israel providing something in exchange. Not this time.
Trump handed Netanyahu the Golan with a bow on top. It's a first step toward annexation (Noa Landau, Haaretz+) From the standpoint of international law, the Golan Heights is no different from the West Bank.

Commentary/Analysis:
 

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