APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday August 24, 2020 

Quote of the day:

"Netanyahu’s political livelihood is based on dividing society and he is now interested in setting the police against those protesting against him."
--Haaretz's Jerusalem correspondent, Nir Hasson, blames Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the police violence against demonstrators calling for his resignation.*

Number of the Day:
89.
--The number of Palestinian residential units the Jerusalem municipality has knocked down so far this year compared to 104 for all of 2019 and 72 in 2018. In the first three weeks of August alone, 24 homes were torn down.**

Breaking News:
Pipeline Explosion Causes Blackout in Syria, Minister Says Evidence Points to 'Terrorist Attack' - TV channel showes footage of a large fire following the explosion which occurred northwest of the capital of Damascus; minister says possible terror attack. (Haaretz and Ynet)

Front Page:

Haaretz

• Netanyahu declared: I will accept MK Hauser’s compromise offer to avoid elections
• Passive aggressive // Yossi Verter
• Demonstrator testifies: “Police beat me while handcuffing me in the patrol car”
• The police have lost it and only are adding oil to the flames // Nir Hasson
• The forecast: Half a million unemployed also at the end of the year
• “Stop, we’re sick of it, blame the rapist”: Thousands demonstrated against violence toward women
• At the height of the corona crisis in E. Jerusalem, the municipality is only speeding up the demolition of houses
• The man who prophesied the end of history: Corona helped the populists but can bring them down
• Our Trump // Chemi Shalev
• Always an outsider // Odeh Bisharat
• “We parked in the parking lot and he pulled out a million shekels in cash”: ‘The Sheriff of Ashdod,’ Tzachi Abaz, and the missing accounts

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Postponing the end - The crisis and the attempts for a compromise: Fateful day at the Knesset (Hebrew)
• We are small fish for him // Nahum Barnea
• The postponers of the postponing // Sima Kadmon
• “I, the raped woman from the Gan Ha’ir incident, am writing to you, the girl from Eilat” // A letter from Ma’ayan, who was raped eight years ago, wants to strengthen the 16-year-old girl who was raped in Eilat (Hebrew)
• They are all in support of her - Across the country, demonstrations in protest of the rape of the girl in Eilat
• The deal of the F-35 stealth fighters: Trump’s advisor confirms Yedioth’s expose

Maariv This Week

• The deal of the century (Photo of Netanyahu and Gantz)
• The lies are flowing // Ben Caspit
• Another trick // Yehuda Sharoni
• Police Deputy Chief Superintendent, who was filmed beating demonstrators in Jerusalem, was interrogated at the Justice Ministry Unit Investigating Police
• “You are not alone” - Public demonstration of support for the girl who is suspected of being a victim of a gang rape

Israel Hayom

• Peace instead of elections - Night discussions  in Knesset on MK Hauser’s compromise
• Even a fragile unity is preferable over elections // Amnon Lord
• The budget is an excuse: the sides are postponing the end // Mati Tuchfeld
• “On the way to agreements with more states”
• There are promises, but no medical teams: “Lack of doctors in the corona wards”
• “Flights (of ultra-Orthodox pilgrims) to Uman will make lockdown more likely”
• Trump’s stage: The Republican Convention began
• The cry of the residents in the Gaza periphery: “Why doesn’t the IDF attack in response to the balloon terror?”
• Iran accuses: “The explosion at the nuclear reactor at Natanz - the result of sabotage”

Top News Summary:
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he’ll accept a compromise to avoid another election, but provides no details and commentators write that it’s just a postponement of the end of this coalition government. (Meanwhile, the bill that would extend the deadline for passing a state budget goes for a second and then final vote today. If it doesn't pass, there will be another election.) Israeli police superintendent Niso Guetta was interrogated by the Justice Ministry’s Department of Police Investigations after he was filmed beating an anti-Netanyahu protester and then he was released on condition he stay away from police stations for the next day (Maariv) (Meanwhile, the police released 20 protesters from the mass Saturday night protest.) And Israeli women across the country staged a mass walkout from their jobs for half an hour over the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl. So far, the police have arrested 11 suspects, nine of them minors (meanwhile, the police have increased protection for the victim after online threats and the Tel Aviv Municipality removed a peeping Tom mural seen as encouraging sexual harassment. These were today’s top stories in the Hebrew press.

ISRAEL-HAMAS-GAZA STRIP:
Also making news, using tanks and aircraft, the IDF hit more Hamas targets as more incendiary balloons were launched into the Gaza periphery from the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu insinuated israel may resume targeted killings of leaders in Gaza. Palestinian factions in Gaza said they don't accept Israel using the launching of explosive-laden balloons as an excuse to attack the Gaza Strip, Haaretz+ reported. A statement from the Gaza factions' joint operations room said the balloons were "non-violent popular means."

DIPLOMACY:
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Netanyahu today, discussing U S efforts at the United Nations to resume arms sanctions against Iran, (13 members of the 15-member UN Security Council oppose the US push for Iran sanctions) and to discuss the normalization agreement with the UAE, including Israel maintaining military superiority in the region, and the relations with Gulf states and China and Israel’s military edge over the Gulf. From Israel he will head to Sudan, Bahrain and UAE. ‘Israel Hayom’ reported that the israeli goal is to sign a normalization treaty with the UAE ‘within a month. A source told Israel Hayom that Netanyahu might meet with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed prior to the signing ceremony. Meanwhile, Morocco said it will not normalize ties with the ‘Zionist entity' to avoid further 'breaching of the rights of the Palestinian people. Similarly, a Saudi royal said recently that the Saudi price for ties with Israel is Palestinian state. Israeli Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, said that there will be another accord between Israel and an Arab country 'very soon.’ Last week, Rabbi Marc Schneier, a special adviser for the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, said that the agreement with the UAE will have "a domino effect" in the region. Also last week, the Mossad chief met with a top Sudanese official.
 

Quick Hits:

• Palestinian Farmers Lose Hundreds of Olive, Fig Trees to West Bank Vandals - Farmer, Abu Mahmoud Barakat from the town of Yatta in the south Hebron Hills, estimates damage caused, including destruction of irrigation system at the site, to be about 200,000 shekels ($59,000). He said that this is the second time that trees have been uprooted in his plot in the past two years. (Haaretz+)
• **Israel on Track for Record Number of East Jerusalem Home Demolitions - Many families with houses built without permits have asked for demolitions to be delayed in light of economic hardship and the coronavirus crisis, to no avail. (Haaretz+)
• Number of COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition hits record 411 - Confirmed cases pass 100,000. Death toll stands at 839, with 40% of the deaths since July 31. Israeli Arab panel reports 1,600 new cases in a week. Aliyah and Integration Minister tests positive. Former Health Minister Yakov Litzman calls on corona coordinator Professor Ronni Gamzu to resign over ban on Hassidic Jews traveling to Uman. (Haaretz and Israel Hayom)
• Over 850,000 Israelis still unemployed - Despite partial reopening of economy, number of jobseekers continues to climb in August, Finance Ministry report warns it will take Israel between 4-5 years to return to pre-Covid employment levels. (Haaretz+ and Ynet)
• Israel Approves New Groundbreaking COVID-19 Testing Method - 'Approval for the method is a national milestone,' and the country has come to the realization that we need to make use of the most advanced science to handle the coronavirus outbreak, says leading professor. (Haaretz+)
• Israel Seeking to Close Its Doors to Converts From ‘Emerging’ Jewish Communities - Position of Interior Ministry, sure to anger advocates of Jewish pluralism worldwide, revealed in brief submitted to Israel’s top court. (Haaretz+)
• Canaanite fort from Judges epoch found in southern Israel - Stronghold on the border between Gath and Lachish could have been erected with Egyptians left to fend off the Philistines – and maybe even the early Israelites too, archaeologists suggest. (Haaretz+)
• Iran official says sabotage caused fire at Natanz nuclear site - Spokesperson tells state TV that security officials will ‘reveal in due time’ the cause of the explosion at the nuclear site; article by IRNA alleges U.S. or Israel behind incident. (Agencies, Ynet and Israel Hayom)
• US slaps visa restrictions on 14 Iranians over human rights violations - The State Department did not name the 13, but in a statement said it was also designating a 14th Iranian, Hojatollah Khodaei Souri, who it said as director of Iran's Evin Prison ran an institution "synonymous with torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." (Israel Hayom)
• After Hagia Sophia, Turkey's historic Chora church also converted to mosque - Erdogan has positioned himself as a champion of Turkey's pious Muslims and last month joined tens of thousands of worshippers in the first prayers at Hagia Sophia in 86 years. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Jordan and Saudi Arabia Agree to Connect Their Electricity Grids - The 164-kilometer line will be built through Kuwait and northern Saudi Arabia to eastern Amman. (Haaretz+)
• Report: Switzerland mulls outlawing Hezbollah - Swiss Federal Council is poised to debate a bill arguing that, as the nature Hezbollah activities in the country is unknown, the Shiite terrorist group should be banned to preserve Switzerland's neutrality. (Israel Hayom)

Features:

The Truth Is They’re Lying to Our Faces
Trump and Netanyahu are using textbook gaslighting tactics. But there are ways to resist their psychological manipulation. (Yuval Dror, Haaretz+)

Top Commentary/Analysis:
Trump Taught Netanyahu How to Provoke and Then Exploit Police Brutality (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The Saturday night police dispersal of demonstrators outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem was unusually violent but hardly a coincidence or great surprise. After the prime minister incited against the protestors and the minister in charge Amir Ohana urged them to get tough, police commanders knew what was expected of them even without explicit instructions and ordered their troops to behave accordingly. Like on other, increasingly prevalent occasions, the shocking outburst of amply recorded police violence seemed as if it was plagiarized directly from Donald Trump’s "Guide for Embattled Leaders with Authoritarian Tendencies." Trump’s behavior yesterday and today increasingly provides the most accurate instrument for forecasting Netanyahu’s actions tomorrow and the day after.
Israel must hold fresh elections at once (Shimon Schiffer, Yedioth/Ynet) Israelis need not fear the billions that an election would suck out of the state coffer, but rather focus on whether they want another failed Netanyahu attempt to run an ungovernable government.
Netanyahu Offers Olive Branch to Prevent Election. But It's Dipped in Poison (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Prime minister's coalition partners, all too familiar with his tactics, wary after he says he supports compromise to avoid election but provides no details.
A Police Onslaught on the Citizens (Haaretz Editorial)  Nothing grants legitimacy to the level of aggression evident on Saturday night. Nor can it be justified by the fact that the police must kowtow to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, who wants to foster tensions to serve his master, Netanyahu, or that Jerusalem District Commander Doron Yadid wants to be police commissioner. The police must not be involved in the prime minister’s incitement campaign. Netanyahu’s political livelihood is based on dividing society and he is now interested in setting the police against those protesting against him.
But there is still some use for Benny Gantz (Dr. Baruch Leshem, Ynet Hebrew) The Kahol-Lavan chairman is not an ideal or realistic candidate for prime minister, but his presence in the political arena is necessary in the face of those for whom non-compliance with agreements is a pathology.
*This Weekend's anti-Netanyahu Protests Brought Police to a Boiling Point. Then They Lost It (Nir Hasson, Haaretz+) During the most recent protest, the officers' tolerance for provocations and shouts was low and they used much more force than usual.
100 days to an election (Mati Tuchfeld, Israel Hayom) By not reaffirming his commitment to the rotation, scheduled for next November, PM Netanyahu effectively pulled the rug out from under Benny Gantz's feet.
President Rivlin, Get Off the Fence (Akiva Eldar, Haaretz+) In his article “Demonstrations and Democracy” (August 14, Haaretz Hebrew edition), Prof. Shlomo Avineri wrote that demonstrations, not always polite ones, led to the resignations of leaders considered unique in their generation, such as Charles de Gaulle, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin, when they correctly understood that elections aren’t the only expressions of the will of the people. The assumption, or perhaps hope, between the lines is that the demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the loud cries for his resignation, will end the rule of the man under criminal indictment who also failed in the management of the coronavirus crisis. Avineri apparently doesn’t know the man. President Reuven Rivlin told me many years ago that in Africa they discovered an elephant with the hide of Bibi…Last week, Rivlin tweeted: “It is unconscionable for us to continue to discuss this possibility [a fourth election] as though it were a rational scenario, while we’re still counting our dead. If you take us there you, the elected leadership, from whichever party, if you lead us to this terrifying nadir, you will deliver a harsh, painful and unforgivable blow to the country.” Honorable president, who are you kidding? The one who’s involved in disbanding the government and moving up the election is not “the elected leadership from whichever party.” …
Everyone is talking about peace, and not a word about al-Aqsa (Afif Abu-Moch, Yedioth/Ynet) Anyone who reads Arabic and flips through the messages coming from the Emirates understands that this is not a historical peace but only a "road map" for establishing bilateral relations in exchange for "stopping the annexation of Palestinian lands" - this is the term that appears in the declaration of Regent Muhammad bin Zaid. The Jared Kushner’s repeated statements that, according to the joint statement, "All Muslims who come in peace are allowed to visit and pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque" hardly mentioned Israel, for some reason. (In Israel,) we prefer to write about hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and ignore one of the most important points in the agreement, which will still cause quite a bit of regional tension…Netanyahu may be talking right-wing all the time, accusing everyone but himself of being left-wing, and attacking Arab citizens incessantly to unite his [racist - OH] political base around him ahead of the election - but in practice he is pursuing a left-wing policy: no annexation, no sovereignty in the territories, and settlements left outside Israel. And all this in exchange for a controversial relationship normalization agreement, which, in Israel, may not yet be understood to what extent - even regardless of various aircraft deals. Therefore, with all due respect to the attempts to enter the pages of history in line with Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, Netanyahu can still not be proud of a parallel achievement.
The Elephant at the Palestinian Anti-annexation Rally (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Last week's anti-annexation rally demonstrated mainly fatigue and weakness. And who didn’t show up? The man rumored to be the broker of the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
PA again choosing the losing side (Oded Granot, Israel Hayom) The Palestinians are again digging in their heels and opting for rejectionism rather than acknowledging the new regional reality.
Once again, Netanyahu acted in violation of the Basic Law and without authority - as if he were a single ruler (Nadav Haetzni, Maariv) On April 11, 1987, then-foreign minister Shimon Peres signed a secret agreement in London with Jordanian King Hussein. The prime minister was Yitzhak Shamir, who headed a unity government with a rotation. Peres hid the signature from the prime minister and the government itself, and tried to establish irreversible facts through the US administration. He subsequently announced the signing to Shamir, but refused to show him the wording of the agreement. The rest is well known: Shamir managed to torpedo the plan, but Peres' move became known as an example of cunning political subversion that  knows no bounds. And now, members of the Israeli government, led by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, learned from the media that a "peace" agreement had been reached with the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu himself admitted that he did not reveal the move to anyone, whispering something about the fear of leaks. Indeed, an explanation that fits Shimon Peres' legacy…The Prime Minister decides our fate alone, not for the first time, and not a single word of his can be believed. And if anyone thinks the normalization agreement with the UAE will bring about change, he should look at relations with Jordan….
Bari Weiss, the Liberal Other Liberals Love to Hate (David B. Green, Haaretz+) She’s been called a Nazi, a fascist and a bigot by her detractors, but the former New York Times op-ed staff editor is unbowed. Haaretz looks at how Weiss became a lightning rod for 'woke' America, and she talks about her recent high-profile resignation and future plans.
Time to hold Jordan accountable (Farley Weiss, Israel Hayom) If the regime in Amman continues to forbid Jews and Christians to pray freely on the Temple Mount and fails to extradite terrorist Ahlam Tamimi to the U.S., Washington should stop treating it with kid gloves.
The Man Dreaming an Israel-Iraq Peace Deal (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Iraqi politician Mithal al-Alusi hasn’t even been dissuaded by an assassination attempt that killed his sons to drop his advocacy for ties with Israel, but Iraq doesn’t look like it will be following the UAE’s lead.
Why Joe Biden Will Win the Biggest Jewish Vote Ever (Eric H. Yoffie, Haaretz+) Under Donald Trump, America is a failed state. It’s no accident that anti-Semitism is at its highest levels since World War II. Against such a contemptuous president, U.S. Jews will back Biden in record numbers.

 

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