News Nosh 2.2.21

by APN 02/02/21
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APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday February 2, 2021

 

Quote of the day:

“(The outlawed anti-Arab terrorist) Kach party, in its various spiritual incarnations - Kahane Hai (Kahane Lives), Jewish National Front (Hazit Yehudit Leumit), Jewish Power (Otzmah Yehudit), and its derivatives, the Lehava organization, and others - has taken root in the public and in the political experience in Israel. Its graduates, supporters, representatives, activists and the like are once again legitimate interviewees in the mainstream media, and this is evident in the right-wing courtship of them, with the active encouragement - through his recommendation and pressure - of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.”
—Former Israeli peace negotiator, Attorney Gilad Sher, writes about how Israel’s most radical right-wing have become acceptable in Israel.*


You Must Be Kidding: 
"(The policeman) didn’t even look at us [the Jewish passengers]. It wasn’t pleasant. I didn’t dare open my mouth. None of the passengers were buckled at all. It was clear that it was deliberate, explicit, disgusting and racist. It was obvious. It’s something that isn’t done. Everyone was in shock. The driver begged, ‘Why are you doing this to them?’”
—One of the six Jewish passengers on the bus in which an Israeli policeman got on board and fined only the Palestinian laborers for not wearing seatbelts told Haaretz+. The Jewish passenger said it was clear to her that the policeman was doing it to harass the 23 Arab passengers.**


Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

  • Black January - A third of those who died from corona since the start of the epidemic in Israel - were in the last month
  • Disconnected // Nadav Eyal writes that corona, the elections and the despair have connected together into a wave of absurdity
  • Labor plan - Labor party chose its slate, Yaalon left the race
  • the glass cliff // Chen Artzi-Srur on how now the male leaders of left-wing parties will have to joint the Labor party under Merav Michaeli’s leadership (Hebrew)
  • “Why do I need to see again the man who tried to murder me?” - The courageous words of Shira Iskov at the Knesset and what we need to learn from them
  • Hug for Grandma with the doctor’s approval

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

  • Looking for the exit
  • Political order - Another retirement from politics ahead of closing the slates: Moshe Yaalon
  • Shira’s cry - Shira Iskov, who survived a murder attempt by her husband, appeared before the Knesset committee for Advancing the Status of Women

Israel Hayom

  • The challenge of returning to routine
  • Tomorrow: Dramatic debate over lockdown exit strategy
  • Two days before closing of political party slates: Instead of allying - more problems and friction
  • Exclusive: More (combat) positions open, but less women enlisting
  • Biden administration admits: Obama failed in regards to Iran
  • Special project: This is how the Jewish communities reinvented themselves during corona
  • The agreement between Israel and Kosovo: A determined message to radical Islam// Eldad Beck



Top News Summary:
The fears ahead of the exit from the corona lockdown (‘Israel Hayom’ suggested making a trip to the West Bank), the departure of MK Moshe Ya’alon from the political field and the address at a meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality of a young woman whose husband tried to murder her five months ago (the committee met to discuss the State Attorney's Office policy of reaching plea bargains without the consent of the victim in domestic violence cases) - were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

In diplomacy and security news, Haaretz+ reported that the IDF Chief of Staff AvivKochavi rejected the long-held IDF opposition to a defense pact with the US that would constrain Israel’s military operations. The paper noted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been pushing this idea for years despite the defense establishment’s opposition and it was “a component of Netanyahu’s campaign before the September 2019 election…in an effort to depict himself as a leader of global stature who was close to then-U.S. President Donald Trump.” Last week Kochavi also shocked military officials when he expressed another view, which happened to coincide with Netanyahu’s view and was a shot at US President Joe Biden: opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. He also said he had ordered preparation of operational plans to strike Iran’s nuclear program if necessary. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran could be weeks away from a nuclear bomb, a claim Iran denied. “If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it some time ago, but we decided that nuclear weapons would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our ideological views,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. Meanwhile, Iran and Israel have been making shows of their military capabilities. Israel announced that it successfully tested the upgraded version of the Iron Dome air defense system. And Iran reported testing the 'most powerful' satellite-carrying rocket to date. And Channel 12 News reported that Western intelligence sources said that Iran sent agents to an unnamed African country for the purpose of gathering information about the Israeli, American, and Emirati embassies in order to carry out an attack against one of them. And in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone that entered Lebanon, but the Israeli army insisted the drone fell during operational activity along the Lebanese border. Meanwhile, Israel and the Muslim country of Kosovo established diplomatic ties in an online ceremony. Part of the deal was that Kosovo recognizes Hezbollah as a terror organization. Kosovo is the third country and the first Muslim-majority one to open an  embassy in Jerusalem.

Elections 2021:

The Telem faction chief and former member of Kahol-Lavan, MK Moshe Ya’alon, left the race for the Knesset after polls have shown he won’t reach the minimum electoral threshold. Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni said she won’t be making a comeback. TheLabor party elected its slate and the Reform Movement leader, Gilad Kariv, made the top five. Yedioth ran a front-page Op-Ed noting that the many small male-led left-wing factions that won’t cross the threshold will probably make alliances with the Labor party, led by a woman, and that they should show some humility. And in his latest efforts to improve his image in Arab society and get their vote, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered the mayor of Nazareth, Ali Salem, to be a minister. "I told Netanyahu that I would rather stay in my position as mayor of Nazareth,” Salem said. And after 20 years, the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism announced a leadership rotation between the leaders of its two factions. And according to a 103FM poll, Likud strengthens with 32 of seats and for the first time, the right-wing gets 61 out of the 120 Knesset seats - but only with the support of Naftali Bennett’s party. In the anti-Netanyahu camp, Yesh Atid opens a big gap with Gideon Saar, the Labor party is above the minimum threshold and Kahol-Lavan goes below it. (Maariv)


Corona-related Quickees:

  • Israel transfers 2,000 coronavirus vaccines to Palestinians - Jerusalem is set to transfer another 3,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine in the near future, at recommendation ofDefense Minister Benny Gantz. Israel’s decision to share vaccine stock with Palestinians comes in wake of harsh criticism by several international bodies, who condemned Jerusalem for its initial refusal. Palestinian PM announces 50,000 vaccines will arrive in mid-February. (Haaretz and Ynet)
  • Palestinians, Tunisians to Be Among First COVAX Vaccine Recipients, WHO Says - According to official, Palestinian enclaves are expected to receive 37,000 doses of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines starting in mid-February through COVAX, while Tunisia is due to receive 93,600 doses. The WHO set up COVAX along with the GAVI vaccine alliance to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations globally. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • Lod mayor threatens sanctions on residents who refuse to get COVID shot - Mayor Yair Revivo says residents who refuse to get inoculated will be barred from using municipal services, including denying their children entry to schools, in effort to curb pandemic's spread in central city. (Ynet)
  • Bank of Israel: If the Pandemic Continues, Israel's Government May Lose Financial Bailout Ability - Between 70,000-80,000 companies shut down last year, and tens of thousands will likely close this year as well. (Haaretz+)
  • Israeli economy remains stable despite COVID, central bank reports - Bank of Israel finds that despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Israeli financial system remains stable due to regulatory moves such as loan repayment deferrals. (Agencies, Israel Hayom)
  • Lower COVID vaccination rates among Israel's hardest-hit sectors, Health Ministry warns - Data shows that while the infection rate among the general public stands at 9.2%, in the ultra-Orthodox sector it's 20%, and in the Arab sector 12.1%. But while 84.9% of the general public is vaccinated, only 66% of the Haredim and 60% of Arab Israelis have chosen to be immunized. (Israel Hayom)
  • Police say enforcing virus in Jerusalem 'different' from Tel Aviv - Chief Superintendent Assi Aharoni tells Ynet police did not intervene in mass funerals in order to prevent 'bloodshed.’ Police face backlash over fining people on park benches in Tel Aviv, but keeping rules lax in Haredi areas. (Ynet)
  • Abraham Twerski, American-born Hassidic rabbi and psychiatrist, dies at 90 of corona - Prolific author, noted Judaic scholar and recognized authority on substance abuse was buried at Beit Shemesh cemetery after succumbing to coronavirus in a limited funeral ceremony attended by close family and broadcast on Zoom. (Agencies, Ynet)
     

Quick Hits:

  • Military Judge Approves Administrative Detention for Palestinian Minor With Rare Health Condition - Reserve military judge, Attorney Shimon Ashual, ratified order signed by IDF intelligence officer Col. Naama Rosen Grimberg, leaving 17-year-old Amal Nakhleh, a high school student from Ramallah, in prison without the right of defense after he was initially released on bail due to his rare and severe autoimmune disease. (Haaretz+)
  • Military Closes Case Against Soldiers Accused of Helping Palestinians Cross Into Israel - Judge rules commander had been harassing three soldiers for their 'presumed (left-wing) political opinion.’ (Haaretz+)
  • Israeli settlers vandalize Palestinian-own vehicles, houses in northern West Bank village near Salfit - Israeli settlers broke into in Kufl Haris under army protection and threw rocks damaging 15 vehicles and breaking windows of three homes before being confronted by the residents and were forced to leave the area, said the mayor. (WAFA)
  • Palestinian injured by Israeli military gunfire near Jenin - Israeli troops opened fire near Barta’a village toward a young man from the nearby town of Silat al-Harithiya as he was attempting to enter Israel en route to his workplace, injuring him in the foot. (WAFA)
  • Settlers graze cattle on Palestinian cultivated land south of Hebron - A group of Israeli settlers allowed their cattle to graze on wheat and barely planted by Palestinian farmers in Khirbet al-Tha‘la, east of Yatta, in an attempt to seize the land for the expansion of the nearby settlements of Maon and Karmiel. (WAFA)
  • Rights group calls on Israel to immediately release a Palestinian UN worker from Jerusalem - Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor expressed grave concern over Israel's arrest of Shireen Al-Araj, a Palestinian UN employee in Jerusalem, calling for her immediate and unconditional release. After an Israeli ban that lasted for five years, Al-Araj, had returned to the Palestinian territories in order to renew her residency papers so that Israel would not deny her entry into the Palestinian territories in the future. (WAFA and EuroMedMonitor)
  • Israeli demolitions reported in northern Jordan Valley community - The Israeli occupation authorities resumed today demolition of Palestinian-owned agricultural structures in Khirbet Humsa al-Fouqa in the northern Jordan Valley, according to a local human rights defender. (WAFA)
  • **WATCH: Israeli Police Fine Only Arab Passengers for Not Wearing Seat Belts on Public Bus - Passengers say officer conducting inspection was deliberately discriminating and didn't check Jewish passengers at all, while police deny their claims. Mahmoud Majahed, the Palestinian driver of the Israeli public bus, can be heard in the video expressing his outrage and anguish as he filmed the policeman: “The Israel Police is abusing laborers on public transportation…The police are abusing the passengers. The policeman got on to check the safety belts. I have six Jewish passengers on board and he didn’t ask for their IDs or give them fines. Shame on you, Israel Police. Shame on you! People are trying to make a living. Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! A delay of one hour to hand out fines. Shame on you! Shame on you! Look how he just threw them. He doesn’t even want to hand them to them. He threw them to them like to animals. They deal with them like animals. Like animals. These are human beings! These are human beings! Shame on you!” (KAN News Hebrew, Haaretz+ and YouTube)
  • Netanyahu Allows Israeli Arms Dealers to Fly to India, Despite COVID Lockdown - No Israeli official would approve the visit to the Aero India Show because of the country's lockdown. Then Netanyahu intervened. (Haaretz+)
  • Fewer women enlist in IDF, study shows - Over the past 20 years, recruitment rates of young women went from 61.8% to 55.9%, NGO finds. The number of exemptions on religious grounds has increased as well, as most religious girls prefer to perform National Service. (Israel Hayom)
  • Israeli Officials Bypass Gantz to Seek Extension of ultra-Orthodox Military Exemption Law - State asks High Court to extend a law exempting yeshiva students from compulsory military duty through July 6, or until the next Knesset can tackle the issue. (Haaretz+ and Times of Israel)
  • High Court discusses today petition to annul the alternative government and the postponement of the budget - The High Court hears today two petitions by the Movement for Quality of Government: 1.) A hearing on a petition to annul the change to the Basic Laws (which allowed the government, without approval of the Knesset, to postpone the passing of the budget and to add 11 billion shekels without proper parliamentary oversight. 2.) A hearing on a petition against the alternative government with alternative prime ministers. (Maariv)
  • Fighting crime in the Arab sector: 33 people arrested in January for arms trafficking and shootings - As part of increased enforcement carried out last month in the northern District, dozens of rifles, pistols, grenades, explosives, Molotov cocktails, fireworks and thousands of bullets and ammunition of various types were also seized. (Maariv)
  • Israel to honor Ethiopian Jews who perished in Sudan en route to Israel - Through the normalization of Jerusalem-Khartoum ties, Israel to act to allow Ethiopian Israelis to bring their loved ones' remains to Israel and ensure the upkeep of the Jewish cemetery in the Sudanese capital. (Israel Hayom)
  • Earliest Olive Pickling Factory Found at 6,500-year-old Site Off Israeli Coast - Olive pits in stone circles found at now-submerged Chalcolithic site suggests people started pickling this fruit earlier than previously thought – but only after they learned to make oil. (Haaretz+)
  • Fatah official: National dialogue to kick off in Cairo on February 8 - The intra-Palestinian national dialogue that is supposed to discuss the upcoming legislative and presidential elections is going to kick off in Cairo on February 8, today said Jibril Rjoub, member of Fatah Central Committee. (WAFA)
  • Is this why the Palestinians don't have a robust digital economy? - In message to international community, Palestinian Authority laments lack of access to 4G/5G telecom service, while also accusing Israel of undercutting Palestinian internet providers by offering "massive" 4G/5G data plans at low cost. (Israel Hayom)
  • Activists chain gates at Israeli arms company’s UK factory - Palestine Action and Extinction Rebellion protesters block entrance to Israeli-owned Elbit Ferranti factory in Greater Manchester; groups say will 'continue to take direct action until we shut Elbit down and end all complicity in systematic injustice.’ (Agencies, Israel Hayom and Ynet)
  • Two car bombs kill at least 11 in Syria's Northern Aleppo - Turkish forces and their Syrian insurgent allies seized territory in the region in an offensive in 2019 against the Kurdish YPG militia which holds swathes of north and east Syria. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • Kushner, Avi Berkowitz Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for Abraham Accords - Professor Alan Dershowitz nominated former President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Trump advisor Avi Berkowitz, and former Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer for the prize for their work on the Abraham Accords. Dershowitz was eligible to do so in his capacity as a professor emeritus of Harvard Law School. (Haaretz and Israel Hayom)
  • Turkish Police Detain 159 People at Protests Over Erdogan-appointed University Head - Students at the Bogazici University in Istanbul began their protests nearly a month ago, saying the appointment of Melih Bulu as rector was undemocratic. (Haaretz+)


Commentary/Analysis:
How Do You Say Ku Klux Klan in Hebrew? (Michael Sfard, Haaretz+) Those subjected to Israel’s occupation have been abandoned to the occupiers' cruelty, as a result of the weakness of the country's army, law enforcement and security establishment.
*The spirit of Kahanism is on its way to being elected to the Knesset (Gilad Sher, Yedioth Hebrew) In the 1980s, I was a partner in a petition that later led to the disqualification of the Kach party of Meir Kahane. Even before that, the party and its leader were considered outcasts in the Knesset. But today the courtship of its spiritual descendants is considered legitimate on the right-wring…In 1981, while working as a law intern, I worked as an editor in the Kol Yisrael newsroom. During one of the joint shifts with the late senior editor Moshe Negbi, we learned that Meir Kahane's Kach party was about to run in the elections. At that moment, we decided to petition the High Court. We joined the jurists Avraham Lemanman and Amnon Birman, and filed a petition. This was the first petition I have ever co-filed, and probably one of the most justified I have filed since. The High Court was housed (in a different building) in Jerusalem. Israel was then a one-channel and state-owned country in terms of communications, in its early ‘30s, with no cell phones, no commercial TV channels, and of course the public lacked a racist, violent and inciting discourse that has infiltrated our lives ever since on the internet and social networks. But racism in its name we knew to recognize even then. Kahane's Kach asked to participate in the elections to the 10th Knesset. The chairman of the Central Election Commission demanded that the list be disqualified, as its goals violated the principles of Israeli democracy. Among other things, it published the following text: In order to deter those who want to seduce the daughters of Israel to assimilation, we propose a five-year actual compulsory imprisonment without the possibility of sweetening the sentence or reducing the period of imprisonment for any non-Jew who has sex with a Jewish woman.” This was enough for the committee chairman to determine that the party was invalid because its messages contradicted the values of the Declaration of Independence, but his position remained in the minority and the party was approved, despite the Attorney General's ruling that the party’s publications allegedly constituted a criminal offense. In response, we petitioned against the Central Election Commission, which approved the participation of Kach, and against the Kach movement itself. We argued that the "goals" of Kach contradict the continued existence of the democratic regime in Israel. We explained that the party preached the deportation of Israeli Arab citizens, the imposition of a criminal ban on sexual intercourse between Jews and non-Jews, the enactment of racist laws and the introduction of racial segregation and discrimination. We sought to persuade that the actions of the Kach party constitute an offense of “mutiny,” and its existence constitutes a "prohibited association." Therefore, it was the duty of the Central Election Commission to disqualify the list. Justice Aharon Barak, later Chief Justice of the High Court and one of the greatest jurists of our generation, wrote the short verdict. Bottom line, he ruled, the High Court of Justice has no authority to intervene in the decision of the Central Election Commission: "In the matter before us, the Central Election Commission has decided to approve the Kach party. The Electoral Law does not stipulate any judicial review of this decision ... There is nothing in Mr. Negbi’s response ... that would open the gates of this Court to the petitioners ... the Central Election Commission may and must consider (relevant considerations) in its activity under the Election Law, and in doing so it is immune from judicial review... it is possible - and we are not taking a position of course, that every position on this question - that the commission erred in exercising its discretion, but this does not exclude its decision from its authority.” Kach failed to enter the 10th Knesset. In the 11th Knesset elections, in 1984, the Knesset Central Election Commission decided to disqualify the list and ban it from running in the elections, but the High Court ruled that there was no legal reason for this. Kach won one seat and Kahane entered the Knesset. During Kahane’s speeches, MKs - left and right - demonstratively abandoned the plenary hall. "A respectable and empty Knesset said no to Kahane," Maariv reported. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Kahane was a "dangerous figure." Our petition, which was rejected, nevertheless resulted in the amendment of the law. And in 1985, section 7A was added to the "Basic Law of the Knesset,” which stipulated that a list of candidates would not participate in the Knesset elections if there was in its goals or actions, explicitly or implicitly, one of the following: denial of the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people; Denial of the democratic character of the state; Incitement to racism. The Election Law has also been amended, and since then the High Court's decision to approve a list can be appealed to the Supreme Court. But the reality is different. The dam was breached. Kach, in its various spiritual incarnations - Kahane Hai (Kahane Lives), Jewish  National Front (Hazit Yehudit Leumit), Jewish Power (Otzmah Yehudit), and its derivatives, the Lehava organization, and others - has taken root in the public and in the political experience in Israel. Its graduates, supporters, representatives, activists and the like are once again legitimate interviewees in the mainstream media, and this is evident in the right-wing courtship of it, with the active encouragement - under his recommendation and pressure - of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who in any case, did not stop for a moment his slandering and discrediting of the left-wing, the judicial system, law enforcement and justice, in democratic proceedings, against those demonstrating against him and against his political opponents. Racism, incitement, and verbal and physical violence have become commonplace on the streets, and soon - it seems - in the Knesset of Israel as well.  [NOTE: In the early 1970s, Kahane, who was born in and raised in the US, founded and led the Jewish Defense League in a domestic terror attack, for which he was convicted. In 1994, Kach and Kahane Hai were declared terrorist organizations by Israel and they are also on the US list of terrorist organizations . - OH]
The State Fills Israel's High Court With Lies About Palestinians in the West Bank(Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Mass, immediate expulsion, creeping banishment and displacement, bit by bit; the types of expulsion that Israel imposes on the Palestinians are not topics raised during our election campaigns. The campaigns don’t deal with the violence of the settlers, the Civil Administration and the army, which are planning to erase rural communities and force their residents into urban areas. Israeli judges, who are pressured by the army and the settlers to approve expulsions and semi-displacements, know that these earthquakes in the lives of Palestinians don’t upset the party candidates. The judges rule amid the fog of most Israelis’ indifference…As in other Palestinian communities in 60 percent of the West Bank, the Israeli ban on building in Sussia, or its refusal to allow it to connect to water, power and road systems, is a type of creeping displacement, because how many people can go on enduring so many prohibitions and unending bureaucratic harassment? It’s worth it for them to move to the city of Yatta or nearby. That’s the paternalistic position of the Civil Administration, which told the High Court why it rejected the master plan the village had prepared. The subtext is, yalla, let them go to the enclaves we’ve arranged for them. The rest belongs to us, the Jews. That was also the subtext and the text told to 12 communities in Masafer Yatta, east of Sussia. They, too, were evicted by the most Jewish state in the world. They, too, preceded Zionism and the State of Israel; their cave dwellings are one of the proofs of their rootedness, as is their way of life – a livelihood from animal husbandry and dry farming. But Israel insists on lying and telling the High Court that the residents of these villages moved into them after the area was declared a firing zone…
Let them take Mars (Karim Kattan, 972mag) That the airspace, like water, doesn't belong to Palestinians, means the oxygen we breathe every day is something we steal from the powers trying to destroy us. Every breath is a revenge, a hope for liberation.
When the Shin Bet Sneers at Israeli Army Judges (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Remember Palestinian teen Amal Nakhleh? During his 40 days out of jail he tried to catch up with his studies and had some medical tests. But then he was sent to administrative detention – just as the Shin Bet had promised.
What did the world give us?’ A letter to President Biden from Nabi Saleh (Bassem Tamimi, 972mag) I used to defend the two-state solution as the Palestinians' path to liberation. But after three decades of the Oslo Accords, 'peace' itself is yet to be born.
As Iran Acquires Material for Nuclear Bomb, Israel Faces a Daunting Task (Yossi Melman, Haaretz+) By telling the Biden administration that reentering the Iran nuclear accord would be a ‘bad thing,’ IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi is failing to learn the lessons of history and displaying the worst traits of Israeli security officials.
The Iranian nuclear program: an existential threat? Chapter from the book "Against the Wind" (Haim Ramon, Maariv) When a country decides to develop nuclear weapons, it is almost impossible to prevent it from doing so. This is certainly true when it comes to a country like Iran, which enjoys a well-developed economic and technological infrastructure. Haim Ramon writes about the history of the Israeli struggle against the Iranian nuclear program.
US all but admits nuclear deal has failed (Damian Pachter, Israel Hayom) There is no doubt that Iran will see the Biden administration's eagerness to re-enter the nuclear deal as a sign of weakness and it will try to extort the US accordingly.
Weapons for Peace? UAE Learns Israel May Not Give It the White House Access It Seeks (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) As Biden 'temporarily' suspends F-35 deal, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed realizes that he might find himself put on hold, and that relying on Israel might also turn out to be an unsteady prospect.
A determined message for radical Islam (Eldad Beck, Israel Hayom) Israel's newly-established ties with Kosovo, a Muslim-majority country, are hugely symbolic for Europe and the Muslim world as a whole.
Israeli Arab Society Must Decide: Sellout – or Struggle (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) The struggle of Israel’s Arab citizens is progressing, but there are ups and downs along the way…Based on the popular struggle, which has included a parliamentary, legal and public relations battle, the Arab community garnered significant achievements in all areas. This approach is the basis of the path of the Joint List, a path that also benefited its components, whose combined Knesset representation increased to 15 seats, in addition to the fact that each of them increased its number of seats. Everything was going well, until the chairman of Ra’am (United Arab List) faction, Mansour Abbas, decided to “exploit” Benjamin Netanyahu…which also means, for example, offering someone under criminal indictment a life preserver in the guise of the so-called French Law – while on the other hand he wants to preserve “religious and social values.” How will these two things go together?…Netanyahu’s own son Yair is the guiding spirit behind the “muezzin law,” whose purpose is to silence the voice of the muezzin during the call to prayer…and Likud minister Miri Regev called to raise the Israeli flag over the Temple Mount…So the Arab community is not only facing an election slate that aims to restore the Arabs to the days of David Ben-Gurion, the days of the satellite slates that ended up flowing into the political reservoirs of the government – but Mansour also wants to wear a mantle of “religious values.”..
How a coalition agreement could prevent PM from extending lockdown (Tova Tzimuki, Yedioth/Ynet) With Netanyahu and Gantz at odds over lockdown extension, it appears the coalition deal and its legal interpretation approved by AG, gives the Blue & White leader an option to avoid debating cabinet overwhelmingly pro-PM.
Israel's High Court Is Last Line of Defense When the Government Collapses (Haaretz Editorial) An expanded panel of the High Court of Justice, headed by Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, will convene Tuesday to hear petitions asking it to overturn an increase in the state budget of 11 billion shekels ($3.3 billion), on the grounds that it was enacted through “abuse of a Basic Law.”…The drafters of Israel’s “constitution,” i.e., the Basic Laws, rightly decided that a cabinet and Knesset that aren’t able to pass a budget must dissolve. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, abetted by his toady, Finance Minister Yisrael Katz, isn’t a man to let a Basic Law stand in his way. The Netanyahu government has taken the budget hostage and is doing as it pleases with it, with no transparency, no legislation and a crying waste of public funds that are being spent on purposes not enshrined in the Basic Law. The government has already managed to waste that 11 billion shekels, so a month ago, it arranged another pot for itself, this time totaling 52 billion shekels. And this time, too, it was enacted in a temporary Basic Law, with no approved budget, no policy and no Knesset approval of its spending priorities. This money will also be the source for Netanyahu’s proposed grants to every Israeli, i.e., his planned election bribe…
Netanyahu’s Partnership With the ultra-Orthodox Is Facing Its Greatest Challenge Yet (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) As Netanyahu fights his fourth battle for survival in two years in an election overshadowed by just one issue – COVID-19 – the ultra-Orthodox community’s brazen flouting of the lockdown is causing him deep damage.
German Muslims’ ‘Shocking’ Response to the Holocaust (Esra Özyürek, Haaretz+) Holocaust educators in Germany often report that Germans of Muslim origin respond ‘wrongly’ to discussions about Nazi atrocities: Rather than remorse, they react with anxiety, fear – and radical empathy.
 

Interviews: 
‘Netanyahu plays a dirty game,’ says challenger Gideon Sa’ar, ‘but he doesn’t scare me’
In an extensive interview with The Times of Israel, Sa’ar said Netanyahu and his supporters have attempted to harm him and his family, and to spread false, toxic rumors about them. This is part of a systematic methodology that the prime minister has honed over the years, Sa’ar said, and some would-be rivals of Netanyahu are scared by it. (Times of Israel)
ToI: That brings us to the territories, and your intended approach…
Sa’ar: “In the 90s, with the Oslo Accords, and a decade later, with the disengagement from Gaza, a de facto separation was carried out — by which the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria and in the Gaza Strip came under Palestinian rule. Ever since, it is under the governance of Hamas in Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria. I don’t know any serious person today who wants [Israel] to reassert sovereignty in Gaza, or Tulkarm or Ramallah. I think the national interest for Israel is in the direction of autonomy [for the Palestinians], with regional arrangements, and not an independent Palestinian state, which is both impossible and dangerous, and not a single, binational state either.”


Biden Praised Trump for This Achievement. Now He Needs to Decide What to Do With It
Experts tell Haaretz how they expect the Biden administration to handle Trump's Abraham Accords and how it will all impact Israel and the Palestinians. (Interviewed by Ben Samuels in Haaretz+)

 

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

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