APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday August 05, 2014

Quote of the day:

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Israel agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire with the Palestinians that began today at 8AM, and which could turn into a long-term arrangement, and one Israeli was killed and a soldier was severely wounded in two separate attacks in the capital making the top stories in Hebrew papers today. Meanwhile, Israel violated a seven-hour humanitarian ceasefire on Monday, killing a child and Islamic Jihad commanders. Haaretz and Maariv military reporters quoted the IDF for a story about the humanitarian toll on Palestinians and how Israel was trying to help, while Maariv's Yasser Ukabi wrote from the Palestinian side and shared some interesting details.

Israeli analysts and commentators argued whether Israel had achieved its goal of deterrence for attacks on the south. (See Commentary/Analysis below.) Many IDF troops leaving Gaza were disappointed, wanting to continue fighting Hamas out of fear that they will be back in a year or so. The Palestinians said that Egypt pledged to make every effort to meet their truce demands.

Interestingly, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal accused Israel of destroying Friday's 72-hour ceasefire by remaining inside Gaza after it began, Maariv reported online. Mashaal told CNN Sunday that Hamas had told US Secretary of State John Kerry that it would not accept the Israeli condition of the ceasefire, according to which Israeli forces could continue to operate inside Gaza. "A ceasefire is a ceasefire, but their presence in Gaza and the demolishing of the tunnels is aggression from our point of view. The Israelis are inside Gaza, so we told Kerry we have the right to defend ourselves." He also said that the contact with the kidnappers of Lt. Hadar Goldin broke off and therefore he has no idea what were the results of the incident.
 
Israel withdrew the majority of its forces Monday, finished destroying tunnels and began a humanitarian ceasefire of seven hours which it broke in strikes against Islamic Jihad leaders, which also killed an eight-year-old girl and wounded 30 Gazans. Daniel Mansour, the highest-ranking leader of Islamic Jihad to be targeted, was killed in an attack on his home before the seven-hour ceasefire began. Gaza militants fired more than 30 rockets during the ceasefire, most of them falling in open areas. Militants said the rockets were in response to Israel's violation of the ceasefire. 
 
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem an E. Jerusalem tractor operator ran over a Jewish man, killing him, and pushed over a bus before he was shot to death by police. Just hours later and a few kilometers away, a man on the back of a motorcycle shot a soldier standing on the side of the street in E. Jerusalem, severely injuring him. Ynet quoted a source who knew the tractor driver and said it was an accident which was perceived as a terror attack. Maariv reported that Muhammad Nayef Gabis, 23, had opposed vehicle attacks in the past, and even organized a protest on the issue, but recently, say people who knew him, he had become enraged over the situation in Gaza and "Operation Protective Edge."  Ynet has a video of the end of the attack. Hamas called the tractor attack a "welcomed local initiative," which it had no part in.
 
On the humanitarian front in Gaza, Maariv's military affairs reporter Avraham Zino and Haaretz's military affairs reporter Gili Cohen had very similar stories, and appeared to have spoken to the same 'senior officer' in the IDF. Both articles put Israel in a very positive light. Zino wrote that the Israel Electricity Company was repairing the power supply to Gaza at the IDF request because "the economic and humanitarian reality in Gaza is very difficult and the main problem is the energy infrastructure.

However, Maariv's Yasser Ukabi revealed that Israel fixed the electricity lines coming from Israel, after Egypt called on Israel to do so. Egypt also increased the amount of power it is supplying to Gaza. Ukabi wrote about the Palestinians by talking to them. The article reported about the terrible situation in the hospitals and how desperate the people were. One man was quoted saying, "We want to live in peace and security - just like the Israelis." 

Both Zino and Cohen wrote that a senior military official said that in recent days the 'IDF discovered that Hamas was preventing Gazans' from receiving medical treatment at an Israeli field hospital and that "Hamas is trying to speed up and intensify the humanitarian crisis, partly by the prevention of aid from Israel." The IDF said that fewer than 50 injured people have sought treatment at the field hospital, due to Hamas’ opposition to it. This was not corroborated. Zino also blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths, writing that "the IDF reported more than 1,700 killed in Gaza, including hundreds of women and children because of Hamas' use of the people as human shields."  The senior officer told Haaretz: “The reality in Gaza – both civilian and economic – is very, very bad. We are closely monitoring the humanitarian situation to ensure it does not reach a crisis point.”
 
Haaretz has an excellent review of live updates of Day 29.

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Quick Hits:

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Features:

Red light
Maharan Ghadi is going through one of the most difficult periods of his career: The racist calls from some of Maccabbi Tel-Aviv's fans are not stopping and the football club is not doing enough to eradicate the phenomenon. "We don't want Arabs in Maccabi," "Ghadi is dead," and "Ghadi go home" was also spray-painted at Kiryat Shalom. (Yedioth, Sports, cover)

Commentary/Analysis:

**When dead children have no names: Israel's terrifying descent into numbness (Asher Schechter, Haaretz+) Protective Edge may or may not stop the rocket attacks on Israel. But somewhere along the line, Israelis seem to be approaching a dangerous apathy. 
Gaza war images you won't see on Israeli TV (Eyal Sagui Bizawe, Haaretz+) Mutilated corpses and children’s funerals are just some of the photos taken by young Palestinian photojournalists, who show their work in museums and on social media.
In Gaza, there is no such thing as 'innocent civilians' (Former head of National Security Council Giora Eiland, Yedioth/Ynet) Fighting an enemy state with one hand while supplying food and energy to its residents with the other hand is absurd.
Gaza cease-fire could save Hamas from military collapse and Israel from PR disaster (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) After the outrage sparked by the carnage in Rafah, Israel stood on the verge of the 'Goldstonization' of its’ Gaza campaign and on the brink of a diplomatic meltdown.
Israel's Gaza operation is a diplomatic turning point (Sever Plocker, Yedioth/Ynet) Obama plans to resume his efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as soon as the fighting in Gaza ceases, this time with the help of the majority of the moderate Arab world.
Time will tell (Gen. (res.) Eliezer Merom, Maariv) Israel should strive for a long period of quiet as possible, achieved through deterrence achieved in this round. In addition, Israel needs to demand freedom of military action if Hamas violates the quiet. Israel maintains the right to respond to rockets on Israel, and it can act against any offensive tunnel that would endanger citizens. Israel will demand the demilitarization of Gaza weapons, but it is hard to believe that this goal is achieved the current arrangement....Israel is holding many cards that will help it achieve its goals. First and foremost it can allow a comprehensive international aid program, on condition that it takes place under supervision, so that tunnels will not be built with it. It is also possible to reach other arrangements related to attacking senior Hamas figures, but this is not the place to detail them. In summary, the military chapter in this round is over, at least for now. The focus of events moves to Cairo, where an Egyptian-sponsored arrangement is emerging - with the assistance of the U.S. and moderate Arab states. Whether the central goal was reached in this round - returning deterrence and quiet the south for an extended period of time (while Hamas controls the Gaza Strip) - will need to be tested over time. Time will tell.
Syrians left to fend for themselves as world agenda focuses on Gaza (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) If June was Iraq’s month, July belongs to the Palestinians, even though over 1,500 Syrians were killed in one week. 
Hamas' crushing defeat (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Those who feel Israel should have done more must compare the gains made to the goals that were spelled out at the start of the campaign, not to some fantasy.
 A 'targeted assassination' of international law (Michael Sfard, Haaretz+) We Israelis can blame allegations of war crimes on global anti-Semitism, or we can take a tough look on the way we have waged armed conflict over the past decade.
After the cease-fire - a political path is needed (Yossi Melman, Maariv) The Israeli government must understand - and there are those who already understand - that without a long-term political settlement with the Palestinian Authority, the chances of a third intifada are increasing. An example of that is what we saw in Jerusalem.
Gaza war taught IDF: Time to rethink strategies (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Israel clearly struck a major blow to Hamas; but if the military wants to keep its edge, it will have to answer some tough questions.
Reconstruction in return for demilitarization (Zvi Hauser, Yedioth/Ynet) Israel must make it clear that every truck of cement entering Gaza from the Israeli side will be followed by a truck of rockets exiting the Strip from the Egyptian side.
Why do Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas? (Dr. Lorenzo Kamel, Haaretz+) Unlike the Islamic State and other Islamist groups that lack local anchorage and are based on obsolete ideologies, Hamas has evolved into a political movement deeply rooted in Gaza.

Interviews: 

Interview with Adv. Daniela Kahat, the director of the NGO, "No to violence": (Yedioth)
Is there a rise in violence against women since the start of Operation Protective Edge?
DK: Yes. There is a rise in the number of women contacting us and also in complaints to the police over family violence.
Are only husbands abusive?
DK: No. One woman arrived at our shelter in dire fear of her sisters. She is left-wing and they are right-wing. They threatened to beat her.

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