News Nosh 07.25.14

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday July 25, 2014

Quote of the day:
"Sometimes it seems like there are two wars taking place here. On one front, the IDF is hunting Hamas terrorists and on the other front, members of government are shoulder-to-shoulder with gangs of hooligans hunting down the "internal enemy": those that speak differently."
-Israeli author Etgar Keret on the increasing incitement and violence by right-wingers against left-wingers in Israel.**


Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • Looking for a way to win the war
  • The day after // Nahum Barnea
  • Victory shots // Sima Kadmon
  • War at home // Etgar Keret
  • Our dilemma // Alex Fishman
  • Allowing hate // Sever Plocker
  • Just war // Hanoch Daum
  • IDF caught dozens of Palestinians in Gaza Strip and is checking who from among them are terrorists
  • Lieberman: It's not enough to say 'the landlord went crazy.' Not a single Hamas terrorist should remain
  • This is how the tunnels blunder began
  • Moved to tears yesterday, Ruvi Rivlin was sworn in as the 10th President of the State of Israel instead of Shimon Peres
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links) Israel Hayom
  • "Impressive achievements for our forces"
  • Operation Protective Edge: Since the ground invasion, more than 200 Hamas terrorists were eliminated; Some 30 tunnels were revealed; PM: We will continue to strike them
  • The tenth President: Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin
  • Thousands escorted First Sergeant Daniel Pomerants to his grave
  • In any case - continue to deal with the tunnels // Yoav Limor
  • In what was achieved until now that's already a lot // Dan Margalit
  • The beautiful hour of Israeli society // Haim Shine
  • The terror army in Gaza must be destroyed // Avi Dichter
  • Jerusalem area getting hot: Violent clashes at Kalandiya (checkpoint)
  • Dramatic rescue: Israel sent 13 planes to Greece to bring back the Israelis who got stuck in Turkey
  • The First Gaza War - Demilitarization is optimal solution after ceasefire // Yoav Limor
  • In support of the residents of the south: Businesses that are happy to supply you with products and services to your house
  • Protected and enjoying themselves: Activities near the protected spaces

Today's Hebrew papers gave the sense that a ceasefire was close, (despite the Israeli cabinet and Likud members vehemently opposing it) with headlines about inquiries into the tunnels blunder 'the day after,' Israel's achievements and a ceasefire proposal by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal also said that Gaza was a huge prison and his movement would agree to a truce today if the siege were lifted. Interestingly, the papers have been running articles trying to defame him by saying he lives the life of luxury while Palestinians in Gaza suffer.

Also in the news was the attack on an UNRWA school in Gaza that killed 15 people, the photo of half naked handcuffed Palestinian men lined up on the ground and watched over by Israeli soldiers, whom the Shin Bet plans to interrogate, and the violent clashes at Qalandiya checkpoint in E. Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israeli forces after anti-war demonstration 

The FAA lifted its ban on flights to Israel and European airlines followed suit. (Haaretz's Amos Harel wrote that the flight ban was a coded message from the US administration to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to end the military operation) and Reuven Rivlin, a right-winger who opposes a two-state solution, but promised to meet again with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was sworn in as President of Israel. Haaretz has an excellent review of live updates from Day 17 of Operation Protective Edge, during which the Palestinian death toll in Gaza passed 770. 
 
**Another theme that has been coming up in Op-Eds, mainly in Haaretz, but also in Yedioth is the rising and spilling intolerance, incitement and even violence towards left-wingers, which, following the kidnapping of the three yeshiva teens and the murder of the Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir, only increased with beatings of left-wingers at anti-war demos, Facebook groups called "Death to left-wingers" and calls to boycott anyone who thinks differently.
 
**Haaretz ran a (Hebrew-only) piece by Ravit Hecht called, 'Why they hate left-wingers,' in which she said she hoped she will proven wrong, but that the next murder is being planned "in the perverse head of some useful hooligan" and that "the potential assassination targets in the hands of extremist right-wingers has expanded and includes, besides Palestinians in the Territories and citizens of Israel, also human rights activists and left-wingers who are identified as extremists." Yedioth's Sever Plocker wrote on today's front page that "The war in Gaza released the most wonderful tendencies among us - and also the worst. But the seeds of evil were planted early, in the mass and chilling dissemination of the language of hate as legitimate on the social media networks. It was permissible even to desirable to incite to hatred and to hate the ultra-Orthodox, the Arabs, the migrant workers. The left-wing, the bankers and the settlers..." Haaretz's education reporter Or Kashti wrote about how counterdemonstrators in support of the Gaza war are getting out of hand and it's not just a question of freedom of expression. Israeli author Etgar Keret also wrote in Yedioth today about the 'War for our home' "Sometimes it seems like there are two wars taking place here. On one front, the IDF is hunting Hamas terrorists and on the other front, members of government are shoulder-to-shoulder with gangs of hooligans hunting down the "internal enemy": those that speak differently." Haaretz's Asher Schechter sums it up in a powerful piece titled, "Punch a lefty, save the homeland: Israel rediscovers political violence."
Here are a few recent articles about violence towards left-wingers:
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.