News Nosh 02.12.14

by APN 02/12/14
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday February 12, 2014

Quote of the day:
"I have to admit that for me it was a very challenging task. As the day drew near I got very tense and concerned...”
--Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy on giving a lecture to his granddaughter's fourth-grade class on 'why is it necessary to spy.'**

Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
Maariv
Israel Hayom
Peace Talk Highlights:
The top story in today's Hebrew papers continued to focus on the crisis at Hadassah, where patients will now be transferred to other hospitals due to strikes by employees over not receiving salaries due to lack of money over terrible financial management.

Meanwhile, the Israeli papers quoted a Maan News Agency interview with a Jordanian MP who said that US Secretary of State John Kerry's framework deal excluded Palestinian holders of foreign passports, a "secret term" to the agreement that made people who live outside the Palestinian territories ineligible for the right of return. Moreover, an aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the framework deal is doomed because allowing the sides to express reservations makes it 'useless.' "Use of the word 'reservations' bogs down the peace process and the use of this concept in the past has got the process stuck," Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.
 
Kerry met with Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday and discussed the peace process and informed him of details of the negotiations,said the lawmaker said MP Mohammad al-Qatatsha. King Abdullah is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama on Feb. 15 and discuss the negotiations and the possibility of international forces being stationed in the Jordan valley. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Obama in Washington on March 3.

Meanwhile, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Israeli abuse of Palestinian kids is 'intolerable.’ Yigal Palmor was speaking in a Australian TV documentary broadcast about the human rights abuses contained in last October’s UNICEF report, which concluded that Palestinian children have been “threatened with death, physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault, against themselves or a family member.” The documentary interviewed both Palestinian and Israeli children. Maan reports almost daily on Israeli arrests of Palestinian children. Indeed, late last night, Israeli soldiers raided Palestinian homes in Jerusalem's Old City and detained five boys between the ages of 14 and 15. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Maan he was not familiar with the incident. Around 700 Palestinian children appear before Israel’s military courts each year, with most accused of throwing stones, according to the report. Australia's Foreign Minister said she was 'concerned' by the alleged Israeli abuse of Palestinian children, Haaretz+ reported. 

Quick Hits:
  • 4 injured, 1 arrested in clashes during funeral in Beit Ummar - Israeli forces attempted to arrest a 12-year-old boy during a funeral and clashed with residents who tried to stop them. Ahmad Mohammad Awad, 16, was struck with a bullet on his left brow and Abdul Aziz Ikhleel, 48, was shot in the head from a 10-meter range as he drove on his tractor. Both were hospitalized. (Maan)
  • Sharon ordered expulsion of 3,000 Bedouin, new biography reveals - Book: During secret 1972 military operation in Sinai, dozens of children and elderly were expelled in the bitter cold of night, and died. (Haaretz+)
  • Settlers destroy over 150 olive trees near Bethlehem - The trees were planted two years ago in the fields of al-Khader village near the illegal Israeli settlement of Neve Daniel and a nearby outpost called Sde Boaz on eight dunams of privately-owned Palestinian land, which is led by a Jewish extremist known as Hananiya. (Maan) 
  • Israeli minister visits Aqsa compound under guard - (Pro-settler Habayit Hayehudi) Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel and 27 rightist settlers entered the mosque compound and toured the area while Muslim worshipers and students shouted "Allahu Akbar" at them, and Israeli police officers collected the identity cards of Palestinians in the area. (Maan) 
  • Photographer detained during clashes in Nabi Saleh - Bilal al-Tamimi was banned from taking photos, beaten, and arrested before being taken to an unknown destination. Clashes broke out after Israeli forces raided the village and removed a flagpole with a Palestinian flag on it across from the Halamish settlement. (Maan) 
  • Israeli navy detains 3 Gaza fishermen - Israeli warships stopped two fishing boats and arrested three fishermen at gunpoint. The boats and fishermen were taken to an unknown location. (Maan) 
  • European Parliament President: We won't boycott Israel - On visit to Israel, Martin Schulz says any moves made toward boycott will be by individual countries and are driven by the business sector, not by the EU. He will deliver a speech to Knesset on Wednesday. (Haaretz+ and Ynet)
  • Netanyahu's initiative: Demand from friends in Europe to prohibit by law a boycott on Israel - Israel will turn to its friends in the West and ask they legislate against boycotting Israel. This is one of the operative steps agreed upon at the meeting Netanyahu held this week. (Maariv, p. 9/NRG Hebrew)
  • Israel returns remains of Nablus man - The remains of Habash Hanani from Beit Furik near Nablus were delivered at the Taybeh crossing. He was later buried, 12 years after his death. (Maan) 
  • Petition to the Attorney General: "MK Zoubi threatened me" - Shadi Khaloul, the spokesman for the forum to recruit Christian Arabs to the IDF, sought Tuesday to remove the immunity of MK Haneen Zoabi after she told him: "If you go through the streets of Nazareth and Kufr Kana and tell them what you want, they will give you the appropriate response." (NRG Hebrew)
  • New plan aims to bring thousands of Jewish students to Israel - Israel needs more English-language programs and an adjustment to the academic calendar so it matches up better with rest of world, official says. (Haaretz+) 
  • UN representative for Human Rights in the (Palestinian) territories: Anti-Israeli will replace an anti-Israeli - Richard Falk, the professor who called Israel a 'Nazi state' is completing his four-year term as the 'UN Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories." Usually, the contenders for the position have a history of anti-Israel rhetoric. The head of the supervising commission of the UN: "The working assumption is that Israel is guilty." (Maariv, p. 8/NRG Hebrew)
  • Yad Vashem finds Muslim clicks on Facebook - Using a targeted online ad campaign, Yad Vashem managed to reach millions of people from across the Muslim world. (Haaretz+)
  • Six Palestinian ministers head to Romania to sign agreements - Several agreements are expected to be signed including an agreement on political consultations at the level of foreign ministries and on economic cooperation and commercial exchange. (Maan)
  • **Former Mossad chief finds stimulation back in school - Ephraim Halevy says he’s not that good in math - a handicap in a course on reading financial statements. But the real profit is challenging the brain. (Haaretz+)
  • Hamas-affiliated students protest Fatah visit to Gaza - The protesters denounced "detention campaigns" by Palestinian Authority security forces against Hamas-affiliated students at Birzeit University. (Maan) 
  • Gazans issue indictment against Israeli PM in mock trial - Palestinians in the Gaza Strip issued an indictment against Israeli prime ministers Benjamin Netenyahu and Ehud Barak in a mock trial held Monday in Gaza. (Maan)
  • PMO: Israel accepted as observer state of Pacific Alliance - Netanyahu's office announces Israel will join integration initiative as member state, thus joining many countries in conferences, panels dedicated to promoting economic cooperation between members. (Ynet) 
  • Turkey PM: No reconciliation with Israel until end of Gaza siege - Erdogan says Israel answered several Turkish demands in negotiations, but won't agree to normalization of ties without lifting of Gaza blockade. (Haaretz+ and Ynet) 
  • Palestinian Authority official: Israel to allow shipment of goods into Gaza - Israel agreed to allow 52 trucks carrying food, cargo, gas, and other fuel to enter Gaza. Additionally, Israel approved a shipment of supplies to develop a new chain of eye clinics in Gaza. (Maan) 
  • IAI unveils new and stronger Israeli drone - The Super Heron is a newer model to the IAF's Shoval drone, and bodes better speed and reconnaissance capabilities. Initial cost may reach up to $80 million. (Ynet)
  • Mysterious Greek god held in Gazan detention - Local fisherman scoops ancient life-sized bronze statue from Gaza shore, unaware of his finding's value. Hamas swiftly seizes rare catch, claims investigation of matter is underway. (Agencies, Ynet) 
  • Lieberman heads to Paris for talks on Iran - In first trip to France in five years, the foreign minister will also meet with French interior minister, head of OECD and members of French Jewish groups. (Ynet)
  • Dagan: Attacking Iran should be up for public debate - Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan: My loyalty is to the state, not the prime minister. Dagan claims Jordan Valley has no security importance, says he does not understand demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. (Israel Hayom)
  • Obama vows harsh response to Iran sanctions violators - Speaking at joint conference with French counterpart, US president vows to come down like 'a ton of bricks' on firms that violate sanctions against Iran. (Agencies, Ynet)

Features:
Rothschild urged Zionists: Work hard, get along with Arab neighbors
100 years ago this month, Baron Rothschild visited the residents of Zichron Yaakov. The record of the baron’s meetings with the Arab villages near Zichron Yaakov was erased from the protocol, but the newspaper Moriah reported on them several days later. “When [Rothchild and his delegation] reached the villages of Tantura and Faradis, the Arab sheikhs and elders welcomed them, and the baron greeted them kindly,” it read. The newspaper also notes that Rothschild asked the colony members of Zichron Yaakov “to live at peace with their neighbors.” (Haaretz+)  
For the first time: Bedouin in Negev to receive garbage disposal canisters
For decades the Bedouin living in villages in the desert threw their garbage into wadis or burned it because there was no one who collected it. Yesterday the Environment Ministry put the first four canisters in the village of Um Batin. "Instead of fixing mistakes of decades through small steps, we decided to bring here the most modern methods for disposing of garbage. Once a week, garbage trucks will come and remove the garbage and the residents can finally live without the bad smell and the pollution," said Environment Minister Amir Peretz. Some Bedouin families in the Galilee and the Negev will receive a trial home system that will turn the garbage into cooking gas. (Maariv, p. 16-17/NRG Hebrew)
Taking livestock: The tale of the Palestinian shepherd and his goats
How much does the anguish of a Palestinian shepherd - whom Israeli soldiers held for no reason, threatened with a gun and confiscated his livestock - cost the state? (Haaretz+)
Friends through the earth
A project to bring people together in Jaffa: A community garden at the Weizman School in Jaffa is being jointly cared for every Friday by some 50 Arabs and Jews in the city, who grow herbs and vegetables and tend to fruit trees and flowers. The project is the initiative of Havatzelet Mor, a teacher at the school. Yesterday, the garden members hosted Chef Nir Tzuk to help them prepare a feast with their produce. (Yedioth, p. 24)
Arab Israeli musicians: "Music should not be have borders"
Reality TV brought more than a few Arab singers to the screen, but none of them managed to place themselves in the mainstream: "The sense that Arabic is the 'language of the enemy' imparts hatred and intolerance" say singers. (Maariv/NRG Hebrew)

Commentary/Analysis:
Was the settlement enterprise a strategy to buy time? (Avi Shilon, Haaretz+) While Israel’s governments acknowledged the need to compromise, they sought to put facts on the ground until we reached a point where we could keep as much as possible. 
Netanyahu fights with Obama at Israel's expense (Amnon Abramovich, Yedioth/Ynet) Netanyahu may be allowed to base his future and welfare on one private American, but not the future, security and welfare of State of Israel. 
The next stage: a visa to Europe (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) If European visa request forms included the question: “Were you involved in demolishing homes and transferring Palestinians in the last 10 years?” tens of thousands of Israelis would most likely choose to brazenly lie, and answer 'no.' 
One nationality is all we need (Anat Lev-Adler, Yedioth/Ynet) Those seeking a foreign passport must make a choice, because when it comes to one's homeland there is no two for the price of one sale. 
The full picture (Zvi Gabai, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) Gabai writes that the plight of Palestinian refugees cannot be solved in the context of a peace agreement without compensating Jews for personal and communal assets that were seized when the latter were, "brutally uprooted," from, "the Arab countries they had lived in for thousands of years...The history of the Middle East is not a competition of tragedies, whether its events were a nakba or population transfers. However it is not just to deal with the suffering of only one side. The time has come for a comprehensive solution to the refugee problem: For the Palestinians dispersed throughout the Arab states, and compensating Jews from Arab countries for the property they left behind, as a vital step toward finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
The right's empty threat of divorce (Aryeh Eldad, Haaretz+) Habayit Hayehudi is content to play word games while the government in which it sits prepares to adopt Kerry’s disastrous plan for an independent Palestinian state.
Palestinian foot-dragging (Zaman Shoval, Israel Hayom) The Palestinians are eagerly awaiting a chance to return to the U.N. and other international institutions to pursue their goals without making the necessary compromises and concessions. 
Soda went in, secret came out( Yaniv Halili, Yedioth) Halili writes that Oxfam's campaign against SodaStream, "is likely to be tainted by ulterior motives...According to reports in the international press, in recent years the organization has received considerable funding from Coca Cola...Oxfam contributes to many organizations that are calling for a boycott of Israel...The charity organization should check its pockets before it stirs up the bubbles regarding SodaStream's carbonated beverages."
Hate crimes of the Holy Land - now also available in Los Angeles (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) There's something about the Israel/Palestine conflict, which lends hate crimes an extra dimension of perversity. Even if they take place in L.A. 
Education Minister Piron needs to understand that learning Arabic is a national interest (Eli Avidar, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) We need to understand Arabic not only to know what is happening in Jordan and Egypt or to understand the Al-Jazeera broadcast, but to understand the space in which we live.
Can we contain Iran? (Elliot Abrams, Israel Hayom) While the U.S. did contain the Soviet Union, the Cold War analogy is misleading when it comes to Iran's nuclear program.
Calling out Rand Paul: Will you really defend Israel? (Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, Haaretz+) Only once, a year ago, did the undeclared presidential hopeful state that 'any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the U.S.' Does he still stand by his words?
Reading the warning signs (Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi, Israel Hayom) Ultimately, considering America's broad weakness and shirking of responsibility as a superpower, its promises toward Israel are put in a different light. 
In Cremisan, our land represents our existence (Father Ibrahim Shomali, Maan) As a parish priest, I could not remain indifferent to the threat to our Palestinian community as Israel built a wall to link the settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo, consolidating the Israeli annexation of our land.  We mobilized our community to pray every Friday and amongst the olive trees that Israel aims to take. Our prayers brought international attention.
 

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

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