News Nosh 2.7.21

by APN 02/08/21
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APN's daily news review from Israel - Sunday February 7, 2021

 

Quote of the day:
"In less than a year we have moved from a state of unprecedented American normalization of the settlements (remember Psagot Winery's "Pompeo" wine?) and almost annexation, to the possibility of investigating those involved in the settlement enterprise as war criminals."
--Yedioth analyst Shimrit Meir writes that the decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate Israel on war crimes for establishing settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories returns the Palestinian issue to the international and Israeli discourse, after years of it being marginalized.*


Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

  • Diana - Another name in the never-ending list, more children left without a mother. Amir, the police officer of the relationships advisor, Diana Raz, murdered his wife in front of his four children
  • Wake up // Chen Artsi-Sror
  • The Hague’s chutzpah: Israel vs. the ‘war crimes’ investigation
  • This is just the beginning // Ben-Dror Yemini on ‘international hypocrisy’ (Hebrew)
  • Taking advantage of opportunities // Shimrit Meir on the Palestinian move (Hebrew)
  • Yellow card // Tova Tzimuki on the legal battle

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

  • Up a step at The Hague- Anger at International Criminal Court; Prime Minister: “Pure anti-Semitism”
  • Knesset Speaker: Postpone Netanyahu’s trialtill after the elections
  • Wind of Washington blowing at The Hague // Amnon Lord
  • Biden’s intentions under scrutiny// Eldad Beck
  • The answer to The Hague: International pressure // Prof. Avi Bell
  • “The children heard the shots and saw blood” - Diana Raz murdered by her police husband
  • Lockdown ended, education waiting for a decision
  • The slates closed and the race began: Look at the political parties
  • Biden administration considering: separate nuclear agreement from agreement for cessation of Iranian aggression
  • The Israeli corona variant: Fatigue and lack of trust // Prof. Ronny Gamzu



Top News Summary:
Israel released restriction of movement of Israelis who are under their third lockdown, but continued to keep children home, Israel accused the International Criminal Court at The Hague of anti-Semitism for announcing its intention to investigate Israel for war crimes and an Israeli police officer murdered his wife, a couples' advisor, in another case of femicide in the country - making the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

Also, Knesset Speaker and loyalist to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Yariv Levin (Likud), called on the High Court to postpone Netanyahu’s corruption trial (again) till after the March elections (the fourth in two years!), while in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country thousands of Israelis protested against Netanyahu over his alleged corruption - and this time pro-peace Israelis and Palestinians joined them marching from the E. Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, which faces many troubles from settlers. There was another demonstration with many more participants, but, which received little coverage. Only Haaretz put on the front page the 10,000-person-strong protest in the Arab-Israeli town of Tamra against the police and government for not dealing properly with the wave of violence in the Arab-Israeli sector. The massive demonstration comes after Ahmed Hijazi, a young nursing student, was killed last week in a shootout between police and criminals in a residential neighborhood. Locals blame the police for using assault rifles and shooting indiscriminately in a residential neighborhood. Maariv dedicated half a page to the protest, while Yedioth printed small photos of each of the demonstrations with a single caption between them on page 14. ‘Israel Hayom’ didn’t even report on the Arab-Israeli protest and gave only a few lines to the anti-Netanyahu protest, reporting that only 200 people protested.

Two other deaths made some of the news and each was reported on very differently. Ruth Dayan died at the age of 103. The papers described Dayan as a ‘legend,’ but Maariv and ‘Israel Hayom’ and Yedioth  emphasized that she founded a fashion company and a charity organization for children. But Yedioth and Haaretz, described her immense work as a peace activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians, whereas Maariv and ‘Israel Hayom’ wrote almost nothing about that.

The killing of a Palestinian man by a settler at a West Bank outpost did not make big news: only Haaretz and Maariv reported on it in print and the Maariv article was deceptive: there was no mention that it took place in the West Bank, it said it took place at an ‘agricultural farm’ in a place called ‘Sadeh Efraim.’ But ‘agricultural farm’ is the new settler euphemism for an outpost, something even Israel considers illegal. Only Haaretz called it a West Bank outpost. Maariv took the settler version as fact that Khaled Maher Nofal, a 34-year-old resident of Ras Karkar, the village next door,  tried to break into a house at the outpost and that he shouted “Allahu Akbar” and that he was a terrorist. However, the papers noted that he had no weapon. ‘Times of Israel’ noted that a military spokesperson said "the decision to label the incident an attempted terror attack and its description of the event were based almost solely on the testimonies of the settlers involved in the incident. This included details that they likely could not have known.”

After the International Criminal Court approved a probe into possible war crimes by Israel, including for establishing settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Netanyahu said it was “outrageous” to claim "that when Jews live in our homeland, this is a war crime” and called it a political and anti-Semitic move. The US State Department also said it had 'serious concerns' over the ICC exercising jurisdiction in non-member countries. Also making news were radioactive traces found at Iranian sites, which may indicate Iran was developing nuclear weapons. And Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javid Zarif urged US President Joe Biden to return to the nuclear deal soon, before June elections in Iran.

Interestingly, Biden plans to “radically reset” US relations with Israel, making it a “human rights-focused foreign policy,” Democratic congressman from California Rep. Ro Khanna said, Haaretz reported. Khanna told MSNBC that Biden is "going to make clear that Israel is an ally and always has been ally, but they have to recognize Palestinian statehood, they can't be having new settlements, they can't be burning down Palestinian villages,” clarifying that he “was referring to Israeli settlers who have burned Palestinian orchards and the military which has demolished or bulldozed villages." That said, the US embassy will be staying put in Jerusalem after the US Senate voted 97-3 to keep it here. The three opposing votes were Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tom Carper of Delaware. WAFA reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with the newly appointed UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland in Ramallah and spoke about the upcoming Palestinian elections and Abbas called again for an international peace conference aimed at a just peace and two-state solution. Meanwhile, the UAE drastically cut funding for Palestinian refugees in 2020 dropping from $51.8 million in 2018 and 2019, to just $1 million in 2020, the year it normalized ties with Israel.

Elections 2021: 
After on Thursday, Tel-Aviv mayor Ron Huldai and former MK Yair Lapid partner Ofer Shelah withdrew their newly formed parties from the race and all the parties submitted their slates for the March election, a new poll found that the anti-Netanyahu bloc lost some steam, but would still get the thinnest majority of the 120 Knesset seats. Meanwhile, in what may be another Netanyahu election gimmick, Russian troops have recently launched excavations in Syria in search of an Israeli soldier's remains, Channel 12 reported. Just before the 2019 elections, Russia recovered the remains of an IDF soldier who was killed in 1982.

Corona Quickees:

  • Israeli Health Officials Fear Worse COVID Outbreak if Schools Reopen Too Quickly- Senior Israeli official warns that an 'uncontrolled, rapid exit' from the lockdown could bring another spike in an already high rate of COVID19 illness particularly among young people. (Haaretz)
  • Pfizer COVID Vaccines Delivering Promised Rate of Protection, Israeli Data Shows- Statistical model from theoretical physics in Israel finds that 28 days after the second shot the COVID vaccine is 95 percent effective. (Haaretz+)
  • Israeli hospital claims it developed drug to cure serious COVID cases- According to its staff, 29 out of 30 patients with moderate-to-severe cases of the coronavirus were administered EXO-CD24 and experienced a marked recovery in just two days. (Israel Hayom)
  • Ben-Gurion Airport expected to stay closed 2 more weeks- Ben-Gurion International Airport is expected to stay closed for another two weeks starting Sunday due to the persistent high morbidity rates, however, the final decision is yet to be taken.(Israel Hayom)
  • Iran receives its first batch of foreign COVID vaccine - 500,000 doses of Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines as the country struggles to stem the worst outbreak of the pandemic in the Middle East. (Israel Hayom)

Quick Hits:

  • Settlers attack herders south of Hebron- Hardcore Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinian herders Saturday while they were grazing their sheep in the village of Al-Tuwana, near the town of Yatta. (WAFA)
  • Occupation forces injure five Palestinians, including a medic, in Kafr Qaddum- Israeli Soldiers raided the village, clashed with dozens of demonstrators taking part in an anti-settlement protest in the village of Kafr Qaddum, and attacked them with rubber-coated rounds and teargas. (WAFA)
  • UN met evicted Palestinians and called on Israel to end demolitions in the West Bank - UN representatives met yesterday with the Palestinian Bedouin community of Humsa al-Fouqa, in the northern Jordan Beqaa Valley of the West Bank after Israel displaced 74 people, including 35 children, from their homes and seizedor destroyed their belongings. Among items seized were tents provided to them as humanitarian assistance following an earlier demolition of 83 other structures in November 2020, the largest single demolition since 2009. (IMEMCand WAFA)
  • Relying on nation-state law in ruling on Arab pupils was wrong, Israeli appeals court says- Judge invalidates lower court's ruling that relied on the controversial law in dismissing a suit by Arab parents for the expense of sending their children to an Arabic-language school outside the city, but still denies the parents' appeal. (Haaretz+)
  • Shin Bet charges 3 Israelis with smuggling airsoft rifles to West Bank- An indictment had been filed against Yuri Shaulov, who is accused of using two Bedouin-Israelis, identified as Hassan Al-Ubra and Fares Abu Al-Qia'an, as the couriers to smuggle multiple airsoft guns to Muhammad Abu Hiya, a Hebron resident accused of buying the arms. (Israel Hayom)
  • Israel plans massive drone delivery test – with hundreds of flights a day- Different drones from different companies will fly in the same airspace – and coordinate between themselves. If the trial is a success, it could pave the way for fleets of thousands if not tens of thousands drone delivery flights. (Haaretz+)
  • Report: Russia searching for Israeli soldier's remains in Syrian cemetery- In 2019, Moscow assisted in the recovery of the remains of IDF soldier Zacharia Baumel, killed in 1982.
  • Korean group adopts breakthrough Israeli language-learning technology- Israel's MagniLearn was founded by world-renowned leaders in the fields of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and cognition and offers a customized, personalized online English-teaching platform. (Israel Hayom)
  • S. Intends to Revoke Terrorist Designation of Yemen's Houthis- Official says reversal of last-minute Trump administration decision is because of its 'humanitarian consequences,' which UN and humanitarian orgs said 'would accelerate the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.’ (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • German Firm to Remove Dangerous Material From Beirut Port- In November, Lebanon signed a deal with Germany’s Combi Lift to treat and ship abroad the containers consisting of flammable chemicals. (Agencies, Haaretz)


Features:

With an Arbitrary Order, Israel Tore This Palestinian Family Apart
Mohammed Nazal lived with his wife for only one month and has never met their son. For years, Israel prevented him from leaving the West Bank to be united with them, until a petition changed everything. (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+)
How Israeli Jews' Fear of Christianity Turned Into Hatred
The life of Jesus and the religion he spawned are taught in Israeli schools in a way that’s inconsistent with their influence on European culture and Western civilization, scholars lament in a new book. (David M. Neuhaus, Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:
*Return of the Palestinian issue (Shimrit Meir, Yedioth Hebrew) The Palestinians, who began the move against Israel in January 2015, put the pot on the fire, equipped themselves with their endless patience - they call it a legal ‘sumud’ - and waited. It was clear to them that international law corresponded intimately with the power map of international relations. Indeed, two weeks after Biden entered the White House, when the political circumstances were more appropriate, the stew was ready. There is no reason to marvel at the courage of the judges, who waited until the US announced that it was "re-examining" the Trump administration's move for personal sanctions against them - due to the interrogation of American soldiers in Afghanistan - to publish their verdict and give the green light to war crimes against Israel.  Not that anyone had any doubt, but the connection to the political schedule could not have been more demonstrative. Even if the legal path is long, the decision of the tribunal in The Hague returns the Palestinian issue to the international and Israeli discourse, after years of its marginalization. In less than a year we have moved from a state of unprecedented American normalization of the settlements (remember Psagot Winery's "Pompeo" wine?) and almost annexation, to the possibility of investigating those involved in the settlement enterprise as war criminals. In the face of the pendulum that is moving fast and drastically, Israelis need, sorry for the New Age phrase, to find their chin. Since Operation Protective Edge (2014 Gaza War - the third one) and (then-US secretary of state John) Kerry's failure to bring about serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, we are in a space of repression and ambiguity, which was the order of the day: the Palestinians themselves are divided, half are under Hamas rule, and Israeli politics is moving more and more to the right of the status quo. The policy of ambiguity has never been particularly photogenic. It included a lot of IsraBluff so it was hard to explain it through PR messages. But it was the least bad option in those circumstances. Dozens of times in recent years we have been on the brink of Operation Protective Edge 2, 3 and 4, and dozens of times this option has been halted in favor of a dubious settlement with Hamas, but far better than war. The annexation, which would undoubtedly have made our opening conditions the day after Trump much worse - halted, the economic crisis with the Palestinian Authority over the issue of payments to terrorists - was somehow resolved, even though they are still paying terrorists. These band-aids held as long as the Palestinians were weak, divided, and pushed out of the Arab and world agenda, but once that situation changed - that would not be enough to stop the bleeding. The next Israeli government, if there is ever such a thing, will have to define for itself the outlines of its future relations with the Palestinians, and stand by them. If the ‘END GAME’ includes a Palestinian state - it must be said publicly and the conditions for its existence must be specified in a way that will not become Hamastan or worse, Palestinian Syria, within a few years. If not - one has to stand behind it and say what it is: how far does Palestinian autonomy go [from Israel’s perspective - OH] and what is the nature of relations with Gaza. It would be a mistake to deal with The Hague on a legal level only. The Palestinians, after four years of a series of education with Trump, and a year of turning their backs on their Arab brethren, understand that the direction of the wind has changed and that they must recover and take advantage of the moment, as Israel has taken advantage of the past four years. Unlike in the past, the Palestinians are no longer waiting for our elections. Not just because of fatigue. With the people of Israel, they are conducting a dialogue at the micro level, only what is necessary for the management and maintenance of life. They moved the dialogue about the future of the conflict to being managed by the world.
The insane repetition of failure (Alex Nachumson, Israel Hayom) Until the Palestinians understand that the conflict is over and that they have lost, nothing is possible. History has amply demonstrated this.
What Does the ICC Ruling Mean for Israel, the IDF and the Palestinians? (Judy Maltz and Netael Bandel, Haaretz+) The prosecution would probe both Israel and Hamas for their conduct in the 2014 war, Israel's response to Palestinian protests along the Gaza border starting in 2018, and the settling of Israeli civilians in the West Bank.
ICC is a political pawn for enemies of the West (Eldad Beck, Israel Hayom) Other Western countries must realize the ICC is a theater of puppets, reinventing international law in accordance with the political needs of elements that wish to eradicate existing international law.
Politics has won in The Hague. Justice was defeated (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth Hebrew) The president of the panel in the court in The Hague insisted that the precedent-setting decision to allow an investigation against Israel for war crimes was contrary to the Oslo Accords. But he remained in the minority. And this is just the beginning.
Don’t Dismiss the ICC Ruling on Israel, but Don’t Blow It Out of Proportion Either(Alon Pinkas, Haaretz+) An investigation into Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank will pose serious legal and political challenges. But once we separate the signal from the noise, the ICC’s decision looks somewhat less daunting.
Biden's appointments, the attack on IDF Chief of Staff Kochavi and Netanyahu's cynicism: worrying signs (Prof. Arieh Eldad, Maariv) The appointments of the incoming US president have been dubbed "Obama's third term,” because John Kerry, Susan Rice and Wendy Sherman, who all served in the Obama administration n Obama's day, three were major players in Israel's nightmares. Sherman, who was the architect of two failed nuclear deals (with North Korea in the Clinton days and with Iran in the Obama days), is perhaps the most worrying of them, and could influence Biden to renew the bad deal. Her boss, Antony Blinken (both Jews, by the way), said this week that Iran may be in a situation where it will - if it decides to do so - be a few weeks away from getting enough fissile material for nuclear weapons. It is difficult to decipher whether this message means a warning to Iran and the world - or a kind of alibi, that is to say: this is what happened in Trump's shift. We can no longer stop them.
Israel Worries a Swift Iran Deal Is in the Works as Biden Gives Bibi Cold Shoulder(Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Meanwhile, as elections near, the sheen is wearing off Netanyahu's Gulf achievement.
New White House, new reality on Iranian front (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom) While Israel has achieved quite a bit in its fight against Iran's nuclear program, including in the past year, it will struggle to handle and eradicate it all alone. It must now allow the Americans to take the lead on this matter while insisting on hitting Iran on all other fronts.
Trump Still Has His Jewish Enablers, and Gadi Taub Is One of Them (David N. Myers,Haaretz+) Gadi Taub has no problem loving authoritarians who use classic antisemitic stereotypes because he wholeheartedly backs their vision of illiberal democracy – for Israel.
The Joint List Gave the Israeli Arab Public Hope. Its Breakup Brings Despair (Jack Khoury, Haaretz+) The splintering of the Arab vote could result in a right-wing government with extreme elements.
Mansour Abbas will pay for this at the ballot box (Adv. Shakib (Shakib) Ali, Yedioth Hebrew) An Arab proverb says that "God's hand is with the unity.” The Arab public is interested in changing priorities [by its political leaders], and even in cooperating with the right-wing to do so, but not at the cost of dismantling the Joint List. [MK Mansour Abbas, Chairman of the Ra'am Islamic party in Israel, connected his party to Netanyahu breaking off from the four-party mostly Arab Joint List faction - OH]
Maybe next time things will be different (Yoseph Haddad, Israel Hayom) Arab voters know campaign talk is cheap. No political party can realistically offer the Arab public an alternative without reserving a respectable spot on their Knesset slate for a member of the sector.
Under the gun: The crime epidemic overwhelming Arab-Israeli society (David B. Green, Haaretz+)  With a long-standing mutual distrust between the community and local police, Israel’s Arab towns are desperate to find a solution to a rocketing murder rate.
The Bibists are preparing themselves in case the leader at Balfour needs to be rescued (Ben Caspit, Maariv) At the same time, the attack on law enforcement is intensifying, mainly through a false defamation campaign against Deputy State Prosecutor Ben-Ari. And what would Begin say about Netanyahu's successful effort to turn Meir Kahana's successors into lawmakers in the Knesset?
Israel's Election Campaign Begins With Netanyahu in Prime Position (Yossi Verter,Haaretz+) We're used to seeing President Rivlin hand the mandate to Netanyahu to form a government, but this time we may encounter a scenario we've never experienced before.
How the coronavirus could save Israel from becoming a Third World nation (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) The ultra-Orthodox resistance to coronavirus lockdown measures could perversely be the catalyst for finally integrating them into the economy.
  

Interviews: 
'America Taught Me Patience and Serenity. That's Something I Lacked in Israel'
An Israeli expat who sees himself as '100-percent Americanized,' and a dentist who splits his time between Israel and Italy, even in the middle of a pandemic. (Interviewed by Yael Benaya in Haaretz+)

'I'm Jewish, Arab, gay, and living in a Muslim country. Marrakech is heaven'
When it comes to fashion, Paris is no longer important and neither is Vogue, declares fashion designer Artsi Ifrach, which is why he left the City of Light for Morocco. He tells Haaretz why fashion doesn't exist in Israel and why the burka is inspiring. (Interviewed by Ofir Hovav in Haaretz+)
 

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

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