APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday October 31, 2019

 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Top News Summary:
Israel’s Chief Justice Esther Chayut slammed Israel’s Justice Minister Amir Ohana for making an “unprecedented” attack against the judicial system, which she accused him of politicizing and which, she said, could undermine Israel’s democracy, Ohana signed an order to extradite a Russian hacker to the US, to the sorrow of an Israeli mother whose daughter’s release from prison in Russia may depend on the transfer of the hacker to Russia, and Mordechia Kedar, a lecturer of Middle Eastern studies at Bar-Ilan University, refused to retract his statement that Yigal Amir did not murder former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

The Chief Justice’s statements were a response to the attack by Justice Minister Ohana on the judicial system following the police questioning of close advisors to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the confiscation of their phones over the harassment of Shlomo Filber, a state witness in one of the Netanyahu corruption cases. A judge ruled that the police can examine the staffers’ phones, but that there had been improprieties in the police investigation of the four suspects that violated their rights. The State Prosecutor's Office said there was no indication that Netanyahu was involved in the harassment of Filber. (Maariv)

Former justice minister Yossi Beilin expressed fear that judges dealing with the Prime Minister's corruption cases would be assassinated. "It's important to pay attention to who the judges will be in Netanyahu's trial - and to guard them,” Beilin told 103FM, saying that there would be incitement against them. Regarding Minister Ohana’s statements, Beilin said: "This man was appointed in order to make this speech.” (Maariv)

Speaking of assassination: A storm followed the public declaration by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a Middle East lecturer and researcher at Bar-Ilan University, that Yigal Amir did not assassinate Yitzhak Rabin and that actually his bodyguard shot him at the behest of a senior politician as part of a political conspiracy. Netanyahu rejected the conspiracy claim, calling it ”nonsense.” Bar-Ilan University said Kedar’s views don’t reflect those of the school, and summoned him to the institution’s Disciplinary Committee. (Maariv) The university’s said president they are “nonsensical delusional remarks that hurt the country.” But the Israel Civil Rights Association stood behind Dr. Kedar’s right to freedom of speech and accused Bar-Ilan University of violating academic freedom. (Maariv) And Yigal Amir’s brother, Hagai, supported the conspiracy view and said that there are people preparing for a retrial because “there are documents that indicate others were involved in the murder.” (Maariv Online) [NOTE: Kedar is known for his right-wing views also in his research of Arab culture. - OH]

Elections 2019 Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Retelling the Tale of Two Heroines and Their Guns
A play about one female Zionist legend of the Haganah led to the discovery of a historical pistol belonging to another. Al-Halaq, 26, who has Israeli citizenship, hit an armored border police vehicle two weeks ago with his car in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah. He was shot and evacuated in serious condition to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. (Nir Hasson, Haaretz+)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
How Israeli Schools Teach Pro-settler Religious Nationalism as the Only Way to Be Jewish (Noga Brenner Samia, Haaretz+) Raising a pious, pro-settler generation: Israeli schoolkids are now targets of a state-sponsored campaign of political and religious indoctrination.
My call for the eviction of Yitzhar (settlement) brought out the Kahanists and Smotriches from their holes (Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg, Maariv) The Kahanist party in which he previously ran for Knesset did not come close to reaching the minimum threshold, and the vision of “to die on the Temple Mount" is light years away from the Israeli consensus. MK Zandberg answers Aryeh Eldad.
Are police, army trigger-happy towards minorities? (Yoav Keren, Yedioth/Ynet) When it comes to some sectors in society, the police seem to have an itchy trigger finger - especially Arabs, Bedouins and Ethiopian Jews; but where does the line cross between law enforcement and abuse of power?
Yigal Amir Won (Yossi Klein, Haaretz+) Twenty-four years on, the bottom line is that Yigal Amir won. He achieved all his goals and more. He not only stopped the peace process, killed the man who led it and brought his rival into power, he ushered in an era that shall bear his name – the era of there’s no one to talk to, nothing to talk about and anyone who does talk will have to face the consequences.
Lessons (not) learned (Dr. Limor Samimian-Darash, Israel Hayom) There is no novelty in the fact that, in its refusal to rise above petty politics, the Left forgets its commitment to individual rights and democracy. The question is why the national-religious Right opts to remain silent.
While Hezbollah rules Lebanon, it does not aspire to be the sovereign (Tal Lev Ram, Maariv) The organization is an important force in strengthening the Shiite axis in the Middle East, but it does not act as the political sovereign. This separation allows the country to enjoy relations with Western countries.
'Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick' (Uri Bar-Joseph, Haaretz+) Israel has a big military stick, but over the years its leaders have learned its limits as well as the price of wielding it with a heavy hand. The trauma of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which was also a product of outsize confidence in our strength; the heavy price exacted by the first Lebanon war, in 1982, a war of choice; the first intifada, which showed that the occupation has a price; and the dismal way that the Second Lebanon War, in 2006, ended, were all important chapters in this learning experience. The caution with which Israel operates in the Gaza Strip is largely a result of the experience gained in similar operations against Hamas. But caution in applying force is not a substitute for the advice with which Roosevelt’s adage begins: Speak softly. Israel has ignored that part for a decade, and consequently we now find ourselves contending with significant strategic difficulties that could worsen in the future.
Growing concern in Iran over Iraq, Lebanon demonstrations (Smadar Perry, Yedioth/Ynet) The Iranian leadership blamed Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Israel for instigating the continued riots and spreading 'insecurity and turmoil' which may cause the loss of their sway in both Iraq and Lebanon.
For pro-Palestinian Activists on U.S. Campuses, the Holocaust Is Cancelled (Jonathan S. Tobin, Haaretz+) Denounce Zionism, or we'll downgrade the Holocaust: That's the message of the Benedictine College activists who tried to bully a Holocaust survivor into backing their campaign.
Impersonating a diplomat: Jared Kushner's peace plan has become ridiculous and cliche (Shlomo Shamir, Maariv) Kushner's intervention and involvement in the field of peace promotion have so far been revealed not only as futile and of no significant value - but as one great disgrace to the one involved.
'Never again' is here and now (Dani Dayan, Israel Hayom) Anti-Semitism in the US is approaching an all-time high. Government on all levels – federal, state and municipal – must adopt a zero-tolerance policy. It is our right and duty to demand far more concrete action than we've seen thus far.

Elections 2019/Netanyahu Corruption Cases Commentary/Analysis:
Behind justice minister's attack on law enforcement lurks a cornered Netanyahu (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Facing probable indictment, Netanyahu is now using everything left in his arsenal.
The only thing that interests (Justice Minister) Ohana is to please his master (Ben Caspit, Maariv) The Minister of Justice yesterday delivered an incitement speech that was all slander and hatred lacking any substantiation about the system he heads. He could only have been appointed to his position in North Korea or Israel.
In the Service of His Master (Haaretz Editorial) Justice Minister Amir Ohana is carrying out the mission for which the prime minister appointed him: to head the incitement campaign against the state prosecution and the attorney general, just as they are preparing to decide about indictments in the criminal cases against him. Ohana was not appointed to safeguard the justice system; his public tirade was just the latest round in Benjamin Netanyahu’s fight against Israel’s law enforcement system, part of his attempt to avoid trial. Ohana’s defamatory remarks against the state prosecution the other day could in no way be construed as honest criticism. He did not have the good of the country and the public in mind, only the good of his master, who is entangled in legal troubles.
Change of direction: Gantz and his block are playing the alternative (Ran Adelist, Maariv) The main purpose of the election was and remains a change of direction, not only for the obvious reasons, but also as the revenge of the Peace Camp for abominable murder that served political purposes: the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. This weekend, a rally will be held to mark the 24th anniversary of the prime minister's murder. The keynote speaker will be Benny Gantz. Among the speakers will be the director of the documentary film that examines how Yigal Amir turned from a right-wing activist into the murderer of the prime minister. The rally will take place in Rabin Square. It is scheduled to correspond with the rally in which the prime minister was shot and the parts of the film that will be screened should correspond with the rabbinic preaching and the incidents of incitement that triggered Amir.
Last Days of the Monarchy (Zehava Galon, Haaretz+) The right to privacy is a complex issue requiring a gray, boring discussion, which doesn’t really interest the cult worshippers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protest that has arisen about the rights of Netanyahu’s spokesmen and public relations people to the privacy of their cell phone information is essentially a struggle by Netanyahu’s people for privilege, and they should be left to wage this struggle alone.
A glimpse into the day after: what our lives will look like without the current prime minister (Yitzhak Ben-Ner, Maariv) For the first time in a decade, we may be lucky to have lead this country someone who was not a past leader - that is, someone who is not paranoid, who nonstop creates for himself monsters, enemies and conspiracies.
A Sad 70th Birthday for Netanyahu (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) Even at the height of the tongue-lashings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the justified ones and the exaggerated ones, sometimes heart-rending moments pop up. Such a moment occurred on his 70th birthday, celebrated last week in a private home in Tel Aviv, without politicians and with the best of his declared friends…nothing attests more to Netanyahu’s disengagement from the worlds to which he could have belonged. Only two of the dozens of guests were intellectuals, writers Benny Ziffer and Eyal Megged. The next day the guest of honor sent a prime ministerial recorded message to another birthday boy, the singer Kobi Peretz. “I want to wish you everything good in the world,” Netanyahu said to Peretz, another friend from his youth, whose artistic work he delves into frequently and with whom he has heart-to-heart talks long into the night. This is now the prime minister’s intellectual and social world. It’s hard to believe that deep in his heart he doesn’t feel frustration, confusion, loneliness, and perhaps even sadness and shame over the place he finds himself in. Even the greatest of his enemies, and they are many, don’t believe that this is his intellectual level, that this is the landscape he was brought up in, the essence of his cultural world.
Netanyahu’s aim is clear (Uzi Baram, Haaretz+) Benjamin Netanyahu believes that any sin can be wiped away with a “good argument.” The argument needn’t go along with things that were said beforehand. Throughout his last campaign, he aimed to rule out a unity government with Kahol Lavan. He sought a government of 61, and when he failed, he reexamined the cards he held. Since that failure he has sounded set on forming a national unity government, and has even been claiming that this was the objective from the start.

 

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