APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday May 07, 2014

Quote of the day:

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Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Israel to US: The Palestinians deceived Kerry, put the responsibility for the failure on them
• [Main photo: Child wearing military fatigues crawls army style as families with children and military officer look on. Photo taken at weapons exhibition for Independence Day near Ofra settlement.]
• Dozens injured in explosion in storage facility in Iran
• Minister Aharonovitz: Development in investigation of murder in Migdal Haemek - Nazi symbol sprayed on Jewish grave in north
• (State Prosecutor) Nitzan closed the investigation into the illegal construction in (outpost) Givat Ulpana for "lack of public interest" 
• Prison Service received exemption and can now establish enormous jail without consideration for the crowding of the cells
• Jailed draft refuser hospitalized in life-threatening situation
• (Attorney General) Weinstein: JNF (KKL) to reveal its reports to public
• The last survivor of the passengers on the 'Struma' immigrants' ship died
• 1/4 page ad: John Kerry was right! Without a just two-state solution - Israel will become an apartheid state. Signed by 77 Israeli Jews. 'Shiviyon' (equality) - the organization for preventing apartheid and racism in Israel

• "Is it permissible to kill a soldier" - Expose: Worrying debate in Yitzhar settlement; Heads of settlements complained to police against statements by radical internal forum
• The affront to the recipient of the medal of courage
• Days of Innocence - Peres celebrated his last Independence Day as President with guests from all over the world and the singer, Rita. [Main photo: Peres and Rita]
• Development in investigation of murder of Shelly Dadon
• Expose: Legal battle and exchange of accusations between Lev Leviev and his brother, Moshe
• Singer of dreams - The most scandalous star in the Arab world made a new scandal

• not published today

• The escape plan of the Jews of Odessa: Leave to Moldova if the battles worsen
• Lieberman: "Hamas is on its way to taking over the Palestinian Authority also in Judea and Samaria
• Seeing 6 6. State of Israel Independence Day celebrated yesterday by masses across the country
• First visit - US National Security Advisor Susan Rice arrives in Israel today
• Parting interview - Gen. Orna Barvibai summarizes ahead of leaving her position in IDF
• Self-centered shopping - New study finds that shopping culture creates self-centered and cold-hearted people

• 'Yedioth' and the MKs: This is how the method works: Recently, MK Eitan Cabel, a initiator of the bill against 'Israel Hayom,' got extensive and positive coverage in Yedioth
• The shameful silence of the (journalists) // Itsik Saban
• "Dramatic advances" in investigation of murder of Shelly Dadon
• This is how Israel celebrated 66
• Tragedy: Tree fell - 51-year-old died
• Iran: Mysterious explosion at oil products site
• Israel furious: We are not spying on the US; A lie with an anti-Semitic odor

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News and Peace Talk Summary:
The day after Israeli Independence Day, Haaretz reveals how Israel is trying to convince the US and EU that the Palestinians 'deceived Kerry, the papers discuss interviews Israeli President Shimon Peres gave saying that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu thwarted a peace deal, Yedioth reveals an internal debate of extremist Yitzhar settlers over whether its permissible to kill an Israeli soldier, and the papers discuss the Newsweek report that Israel spies massively on the US. Also in the news was a 'counter-price-tag' attack at a Jewish grave.
 
Haaretz+ obtained a letter written by Israel's national security adviser Joseph Cohen urging the US to blame the Palestinians for the failure of peace talks. Attached to the letter was a 65-page document in which chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat submitted to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on March 9, three weeks before Israel was to release the final batch of Palestinian prisoners, proposing a strategy for the final month of negotiations and after April 29, when the talks were originally scheduled to end. Cohen writes that the document that Israel got a hold of shows that while the Palestinians were talking with Washington about extending the peace talks, they were actually planning to blow them up. 
 
Meanwhile, in interviews in Yedioth Tuesday and on Channel 2 in honor of Independence Day, Peres said Netanyahu thwarted a peace deal secretly negotiated with Abbas in Amman in 2011. "We had gone through all of the points and the agreement was ready," said Peres.
 
Peres also spoke to Israelis of the need to work hard for peace in his Independence Day speech, his last address in his position as President. Yedioth's diplomatic affairs reporter Itamar Eichner wrote that it appears that Peres' revelation about a 2011 peace deal that Netanyahu thwarted "is just a taste of what we can expect the day after Peres leaves office as President of the state." But sources at the Prime Minister's Office told Yedioth that "Abu Mazen didn't agree to anything. Also then all he wanted was to take from Israel and not to give anything." Netanyahu's office responded saying that Abbas never agreed to anything and, in his Independence Day speech, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman continues to call Abbas a 'peace refusenik' and said that Palestinian unity spells a Hamas takeover of the West Bank.
 
And US Secretary of State John Kerry is mulling whether to receive his own document revealing what was reached in the recent peace talks. The US also denied dismantling the peace negotiators team and said some senior US officials would return to Israel 'soon.' 
 
Interestingly, Israel did transfer the Palestinian Authority (PA) tax funds to the PA despite its threat that it would dock the payment both because Abbas signed a series of international human rights conventions and because the PA owes Israel's electricity company.
 
Yedioth's Akiva Novick revealed an internal email discussion among Yitzhar settlers in April about whether it's permissible to harm IDF soldiers who evacuate settlement outposts. One 22-year-old female resident was arrested after other Yitzhar residents notified Israel Police of her email supporting attacking and even killing IDF soldiers in 'certain circumstances'. "I support throwing rocks (at Jews, and of course on Arabs without question). In certain circumstances - even if the rocks lead to the death of a soldier!!!" she wrote. (Ynet has a shortened version of the Hebrew article and Haaretz+ also writes about it.)
 
The Yedioth report was published on the day that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is holding a special meeting to discuss what to do about price-tag attacks, after the wave of anti-Arab hate crimes in the north of Israel in recent weeks. That is in addition to the numerous attacks in the West Bank and E. Jerusalem. Maan reported that on Sunday, Israel police arrested four Jewish minors suspected of spraying racist graffiti at a building site by a Palestinian village west of Jerusalem, and three other minors were arrested near Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday for spitting at a priest. In their bags, police found Israeli flags with Hebrew slogans on them, including the words "revenge" and "price tag." In what Yedioth called 'a counter price-tag' attack, a swastika was sprayed Monday night on an ancient tomb of a rabbi in northern Israel. The graffiti on the tomb read: 'the tag will pay a price.'

Quick Hits:

Features:
A soldiers' oasis
Businessman Rafi Rubin has one goal in life: to do good for others, and to do it as much as possible. That is why he established a home away from home for soldiers, dubbed Golani House. "He personifies endless concern for everyone," says soldier. (Israel Hayom)

Revealed: The deceptions by Begin, Sharon and Eitan behind the first Lebanon war
A recently uncovered 20-year-old study by two IDF officers reveals how Israel’s political and military leaders deceived cabinet members, soldiers and, ultimately, an entire nation when they invaded Lebanon in 1982. (Amir Oren, Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:

How Zionism became a dirty word (Uzi Baram, Haaretz+) The draconian combination of imperialistic religiosity and extremist nationalism is in danger of making Israel a racist state, no cause for celebration on Independence Day. Defining national identity through hatred (Yaron London, Yedioth/Ynet) Both Jews and Arabs are addicted to conflict, because without their fellowman's hostility their identity would weaken.
Could Donald Sterling be the next president of Israel? (Rogel Alpher, Haaretz+) The racist comments were part of a private, desperate conversation with his mistress. Yet in Israel, racist comments spew openly from the mouths of our elected politicians.
Israel, the state of paradoxes, has a lot to be proud of (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) While Israel tops global surveys on negative contribution to the world, it is in fact a leader in contribution to humanity.
Apartheid? That's putting it mildly (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The word 'apartheid' is readily used, but hides the darker aspects of the occupation.
We must decide: Palestinian statehood or annexation (Dr. Cielo Rozenberg, NRG Hebrew) The most appropriate solution, and the least worst solution over any other, is the establishment of a Palestinian state. They and we will live in a Jewish state and they in their own state. 
The end of Israel's fairy tale era (William Kolbrener, Haaretz+) For generations Jews have spun stories of redemption and salvation to insulate ourselves from history: Now, the challenge in Israel is to deal with the end of enchantment. 
The Jewish state guarantees confusion, instability and danger (Avram Burg, NRG Hebrew) The secular energy at the beginning of the state  has lost its impetus. Instead, it has become a state of God, which has holy territory belonging to one people. That way it has no clear borders and other things necessary for normalcy. The solution: To determine it is the democratic state of part of the Jewish people. 
Price tag terror: Is Israel facing a war between religions? (Hussein Abu Hussein, Haaretz+) The Arab public wonders why law enforcement’s resourcefulness and speed disappear when it comes to Jewish terror.
Being a proud Arab and a proud Israeli (Jalal Safadi, Ynet) If we maintain our Arab identity and integrate into the State of Israel as proud citizens, we will create a better future for ourselves. 
**Tanks 'R' Us: How should Israeli tots mark Independence Day? (Ilene Prusher, Haaretz+) Israeli politicians say the Palestinian side doesn't educate the next generation for peace. Does Israel? 
Israel's PM is getting a house and a jet befitting a monarch (Haaretz Editorial) Netanyahu resents the media for criticizing him, but goes on living a life of exorbitant luxury. 
Jewish, democratic and independent (Prof. Asher Cohen, Israel Hayom) The battle for Israel's moral and constitutional foundation as a Jewish and democratic state has intensified over the past few years.
There is such a thing as 'Israeli' (Haaretz Monday Editorial) It may not be monolithic. It's yet to fully crystallize. But Israeli identity is real and should be a source of pride. 
Opposition to a Jewish state: That is also anti-Semitism (Ben-Dror Yemini, NRG Hebrew) I'm sick of having to justify itself: the Jewish people have a common destiny and a right to a country where they won't be oppressed. Many other countries have a defined national religion, but somehow Israel is the only one in the world' whose right to exist is denied.
Who is allowed to offer condolences? (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz+) When the Arabs say things against Israel the right eagerly and happily repeat it. But if the Palestinians say something that might lead to reconciliation, the Israeli right casts doubt on the speaker’s intentions.
Israel, a source of hope (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) The Zionist movement has achieved its primary goal -- the establishment of a safe haven for the Jewish people.
A female-free ceremony on Israel’s Memorial Day (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+) The solemn tribute to fallen soldiers at the Western Wall was moving - but where were the women? 
On Israel’s 66th Independence Day, an urgent question for liberal Jews (Rebecca Steinfeld, Haaretz+) Whether to go toward a Jewish or a democratic one-state is a serious challenge for liberals in and out of Israel. 

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