APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday August 18, 2014
Quote of the day:
“1,000 flames will not extinguish the love.”
--Words on a sign held by left-winger demonstrating against the right-wing Jews from "Lehava", who demonstrated outside a wedding of a Jewish woman and an Arab man. Lehava is both a Hebrew word meaning “flame” and a Hebrew acronym for the organization "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land.")**
--Words on a sign held by left-winger demonstrating against the right-wing Jews from "Lehava", who demonstrated outside a wedding of a Jewish woman and an Arab man. Lehava is both a Hebrew word meaning “flame” and a Hebrew acronym for the organization "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land.")**
Front Page News:
Haaretz
- Abbas pushes Mashaal to accept draft of Egyptian proposal
- Israel preventing aid organizations from entering Gaza
- Mahmoud and Moral celebrated, outside hundreds demonstrated in support and against
- Flames of racism, discrimination under the auspices of the law // Aeyal Gross
- Want to prevent assimilation? First ease conversions // Yair Ettinger
- How people convert to Islam in Israel
- Kurdish forces in Iraq retake Iraq's largest dam
- Police not reporting to Knesset about extent of cellular phone surveillance since 2011
- Guitarist of "Habrira Hativit," suspected of murdering Dafna Ben-Tzion, was arrested
- Terror victims against Hamas bank
- Efforts to extend ceasefire
- Dangerous meddling // Nahum Barnea
- Yigal Bashan's sad song
- Wedding ring, security guards
- "I know why you came" - Arrest of guitarist suspected of murdering ex
- Arrangement or escalation
- Three openings suspected of being attack tunnel shafts found around Gaza Strip
- Wedding in dispute
- The saddest happiest day // Eyal Levi
- The hunt is over (for the guitarist suspected of murdering his ex)
- (Ultra-Orthodox) protest over draft renews
- "If Hamas renews fire - we will respond forcefully - Ceasefire ends tonight at midnight; Israel preparing for failure of talks
- "US always will stand at your side" - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham
- Companies answer their phones within minutes - or you are compensated
- Yigal Bashan in hospital with stab wounds
- The hunt is over (for the guitarist suspected of murdering his ex)
- Morel and Mahmoud got married, right-wing activists demonstrated outside "against assimilation"
- Police to recommend: Indictment against (Ashdod Port labor union chief) Alon Hasson for bribery
- Economy slowed down: GNP rose by only 1.7% in second quarter
The five-day ceasefire expires tonight at midnight and no long-term agreement is in sight, left-wing and right-wing
Jews face off outside the wedding of a mixed Jewish-Arab couple and the suspect in the murder of his ex-wife is
caught by police making top stories in today's Hebrew papers.
Israel expects that even without an agreement, Hamas will not renew the rocket fire and there will be de facto quiet, Israel Hayom reported. That said, the IDF is on high-alert, the train to Sderot was cancelled and Israel has warned it will respond forcefully if rocket fire is renewed. Egypt is trying to get another extension. The papers also write that the Palestinian Authority is urging Hamas to continue the truce talks, and accept the new Egyptian proposal even if it does not immediately answer Palestinian demands. Ynet reported that Israel said yesterday that it approved fishing up to three nautical miles out to sea. [However, in the 2012 agreement with Hamas, Israel agreed to allow the Gaza fishermen to go out 12 nautical miles and later shortened that in violation to the agreement to 3 nautical miles, meaning that there 'gesture' was empty. - OH] Haaretz has an excellent review of the day's live updates on the Gaza-Israel crisis, which it has returned to calling by the number of days of Operation Protective Edge, in this case Day 41.
**Organized by the right-wing LEHAVA organization, some 200 protesters demonstrated outside a wedding against what they called 'assimilation in the Holy Land.' Mahmoud Mansour, 26, a Muslim Arab from Jaffa, married Moral, 23, a Jewish neighbor, who converted to Islam. [In Israel, it is illegal and therefore impossible to marry someone in the country from a different religion. Jewish women marrying Muslims who don't want to marry abroad in a civil marriage often 'convert' to Islam for the wedding ceremony. - OH] The right-wingers shouted slogans such as “Death to leftists,” waved Israeli flags, carried signs saying “Assimilation is a Holocaust," and blew the shofar. Left-wing Jews held a counter-demonstration near the entrance to the hall, holding flowers and signs that read "Love for everyone" and sang love songs. Some 1000 people attended the wedding.
President Reuven Rivlin posted a condemnation against LEHAVA on his Facebook page, saying: “Not everyone has to be happy for Mahmoud and Morel, but everyone has to respect them. There is no room for demonstrations of incitement, violence and racism in the Israeli society."
Israel expects that even without an agreement, Hamas will not renew the rocket fire and there will be de facto quiet, Israel Hayom reported. That said, the IDF is on high-alert, the train to Sderot was cancelled and Israel has warned it will respond forcefully if rocket fire is renewed. Egypt is trying to get another extension. The papers also write that the Palestinian Authority is urging Hamas to continue the truce talks, and accept the new Egyptian proposal even if it does not immediately answer Palestinian demands. Ynet reported that Israel said yesterday that it approved fishing up to three nautical miles out to sea. [However, in the 2012 agreement with Hamas, Israel agreed to allow the Gaza fishermen to go out 12 nautical miles and later shortened that in violation to the agreement to 3 nautical miles, meaning that there 'gesture' was empty. - OH] Haaretz has an excellent review of the day's live updates on the Gaza-Israel crisis, which it has returned to calling by the number of days of Operation Protective Edge, in this case Day 41.
**Organized by the right-wing LEHAVA organization, some 200 protesters demonstrated outside a wedding against what they called 'assimilation in the Holy Land.' Mahmoud Mansour, 26, a Muslim Arab from Jaffa, married Moral, 23, a Jewish neighbor, who converted to Islam. [In Israel, it is illegal and therefore impossible to marry someone in the country from a different religion. Jewish women marrying Muslims who don't want to marry abroad in a civil marriage often 'convert' to Islam for the wedding ceremony. - OH] The right-wingers shouted slogans such as “Death to leftists,” waved Israeli flags, carried signs saying “Assimilation is a Holocaust," and blew the shofar. Left-wing Jews held a counter-demonstration near the entrance to the hall, holding flowers and signs that read "Love for everyone" and sang love songs. Some 1000 people attended the wedding.
President Reuven Rivlin posted a condemnation against LEHAVA on his Facebook page, saying: “Not everyone has to be happy for Mahmoud and Morel, but everyone has to respect them. There is no room for demonstrations of incitement, violence and racism in the Israeli society."
Quick Hits:
- Israel bars Amnesty, Human Rights Watch workers from Gaza - Human rights organizations prevented from conducting investigations into Israel-Hamas fighting. (Haaretz+)
- Israeli army backtracks on expropriating West Bank road - The saga of expropriating privately owned Palestinian land for a road to the illegal Amona settlement has been going on for years, and the High Court of Justice has been hearing the matter since 2008. (Haaretz+)
- UN releases Gaza Crisis Atlas documenting damage to Strip - 108-page report with high-resolution satellite photos captures extent of destruction in Gaza, to be used by UN committee on Operation Protective Edge. (Ynet)
- Police isn’t telling Knesset whose phones it’s following - Requirement of periodic reporting under 2011 'Big Brother Law' not being implemented. (Haaretz+)
- Israel ends export to EU of dairy, poultry produced in West Bank - European Commission directives effective September 1 lead Israel to halt sale of certain settlement-made products. (Agencies, Ynet)
- Attorney General freezes ban on B’Tselem National Service - Says barring human rights NGO from using volunteers raises 'complicated legal questions.' (Haaretz+)
- Gaza tunnel digger recounts being beaten, threatened by Hamas - Letter written by 30-year-old Gaza man, which was smuggled out of the Strip and published by Fox News over the weekend, reveals grim picture of life under Hamas rule. "We didn't know where we were or which tunnel we dug," he allegedly writes. (Israel Hayom)
- Israeli officer: Iran involved in cyber attacks during Gaza war - Hackers penetrated the official IDF Twitter account and tweeted the fabrication that there was fear of radioactive seepage after two rockets hit the Dimona nuclear reactor. (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)
- Balad party members visited Qatar, met with Azmi Bishara - MKs Zoabi, Zahalka and Ghattas met with former party chairman who left the country after he was wanted on suspicion of aiding Hezbollah. (Maariv and Ynet)
- During Gaza op: Five Israeli soldiers killed in 15 cases of friendly fire - IDF probing other safety incidents from op, including one in which Israeli tank fired shell at comrade tank close to Israeli border. (Haaretz)
- Gaza running on 6 hours of electricity per day - The Palestinian Energy Authority will be able to continue supplying Gaza with six hours a day for another two months, according to a statement and, meanwhile, it will begin working on a new power line running from an Israeli power company to the northern Gaza Strip. (Maan)
- Hundreds protest arrest of Haredi draft-dodger - The demonstrators are members of the relatively extreme 'Jerusalem faction' of the non-Hasidic Haredim led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach. (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)
- Royal Jordanian Airlines returning to Israel - Airline stopped flying to Ben-Gurion Airport during Gaza conflict due to security concerns. (Haaretz+)
- British demonstrators trash supermarket over Israeli products - Palestinian supporters throw Israeli food products on the floor at Tesco supermarket in Hodge Hill, Birmingham. (Agencies, Haaretz and Israel Hayom)
- Chief of UN Gaza probe, in 2010: Netanyahu greatest threat to Israel - UN monitoring group releases video to prove William Schabas' bias against Israel. (Haaretz)
- Jewish Chronicle apologizes for running Gaza aid ad - Editor says ad was not an expression of the newspaper's editorial view, which he says is different from its commercial aspirations. (JTA, Haaretz)
- NYT finds 'disproportionate role' of Israelis in world organ trafficking - NYT identifies six patients who underwent kidney transplants in Costa Rica and three Israeli men it says are involved in trafficking. (Haaretz)
Features:
Psychologist to bereaved Gazans becomes one of them
Hassan Ziadah, who lost five members of his family last month, has been treating traumatized Palestinians since 1991. (Haaretz+)
Female IDF paramedics' fight for life
The resuscitation attempts inside moving tanks, the ceaseless shooting, the burnt aroma in the air – four paramedics, the only women who served in Gaza for a long period of time, tell of days filled with pain and pride. (By Anat Meidan, Yedioth/Ynet)
Instead of taking away 'Call of Duty,’ Swedish dad takes his kids to Israel
Carl-Magnus Helgegren wanted to show his children what a real warzone looks like, and to teach them that war is not a (video) game. (Haaretz+)
Commentary/Analysis:
Hassan Ziadah, who lost five members of his family last month, has been treating traumatized Palestinians since 1991. (Haaretz+)
Female IDF paramedics' fight for life
The resuscitation attempts inside moving tanks, the ceaseless shooting, the burnt aroma in the air – four paramedics, the only women who served in Gaza for a long period of time, tell of days filled with pain and pride. (By Anat Meidan, Yedioth/Ynet)
Instead of taking away 'Call of Duty,’ Swedish dad takes his kids to Israel
Carl-Magnus Helgegren wanted to show his children what a real warzone looks like, and to teach them that war is not a (video) game. (Haaretz+)
Commentary/Analysis:
I know how to kill, but I know I want peace' (Yonatan S., Haaretz+) A former soldier in an elite combat unit of the IDF writes that compared to war,
peacemaking may be an unexciting and boring task. But he also says peace is inevitable.
Saddest happiest day: The great shame of the demonstrations against the wedding (Eyal Levi, Maariv) Is there any country in the world where there are demonstrations over the identity of the bride and groom? I do not know of one. The protests against Mahmud and Moral's wedding show that we, the enlightened people, are raising a racist, dark cell here, that is only expanding.
Israel’s defense minister is particularly good at taking over land (Haaretz Editorial) Moshe Ya’alon has turned into a real estate broker finding loopholes that will legitimize illegal outposts.
The 'crisis' is a wish, not reality (Boaz Bismuth, Israel Hayom) The talking heads who are trying to turn the tension between the U.S. and Israel into 'Apocalypse Now' are serving someone's agenda.
Israeli indulgence is getting out of hand (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz+) If not for the sake of the Jews then for our sake, for the sake of the “non-Jews” and for the sake of our children, stop provoking the neighbors.
Should we take B'Tselem seriously? (Lilach Segen, Maariv) If the organization is really so eager to be considered professional, it should be remembered that the essence of democracy is openness to accept criticism.
Heroism and forgiveness (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) Residents of the Gaza periphery who called the people of Gush Katif "occupiers" should apologize.
Where is Bibi’s 'mazel tov' for Mahmoud and Morel? (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+) The prime minister has been silent on the wave of racism washing over the Israeli public this summer, including incitement against the wedding of a Jaffa couple. Thank goodness for President Rivlin.
Why did not I go to the Left-wing demonstration (Ben Caspit, Maariv) The vast majority of the center-left actually thinks that we must fight those rising to destroy us, but the voice of that majority is marginalized in the public discourse in favor of the lunatic fringe figures, who are greatly damaging the peace camp which will cause problems for generations.
Israel’s lot after the Gaza war: Despair without catharsis (Rami Livni, Haaretz+) Israel has accepted that it is locked in a game stacked against it. The enemies are irrational, so a political solution is impossible.
Hamas -- the heavy gambler (Prof. Eyal Zisser, Israel Hayom) Drowning in debt, it just lost its last shekel and has no recourse but to bet the house.
Beware of anti-Arabism (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) There is a great deal that Jewish Israelis can and must do to marginalize, and if possible to suppress, the foul anti-Arab voices that have been heard in Israel these past two months.
When friends lock horns (Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi, Israel Hayom) White House sanctions against Israel usually have no bearing on the Israeli-U.S. relationship and are offset by Israel's defensive shield in Congress.
There will be no peace with the Arabs (Aryeh Eldad, Haaretz+) Our political goal should not be 'the resolution of the conflict,' but rather finding the formulas that will enable us to live — and if possible, to live well.
The Left should focus on Qatar (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Plenty of Israelis who support talks with the Palestinians and oppose settlement construction wonder what has happened to the credibility of the Left.
Saddest happiest day: The great shame of the demonstrations against the wedding (Eyal Levi, Maariv) Is there any country in the world where there are demonstrations over the identity of the bride and groom? I do not know of one. The protests against Mahmud and Moral's wedding show that we, the enlightened people, are raising a racist, dark cell here, that is only expanding.
Israel’s defense minister is particularly good at taking over land (Haaretz Editorial) Moshe Ya’alon has turned into a real estate broker finding loopholes that will legitimize illegal outposts.
The 'crisis' is a wish, not reality (Boaz Bismuth, Israel Hayom) The talking heads who are trying to turn the tension between the U.S. and Israel into 'Apocalypse Now' are serving someone's agenda.
Israeli indulgence is getting out of hand (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz+) If not for the sake of the Jews then for our sake, for the sake of the “non-Jews” and for the sake of our children, stop provoking the neighbors.
Should we take B'Tselem seriously? (Lilach Segen, Maariv) If the organization is really so eager to be considered professional, it should be remembered that the essence of democracy is openness to accept criticism.
Heroism and forgiveness (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) Residents of the Gaza periphery who called the people of Gush Katif "occupiers" should apologize.
Where is Bibi’s 'mazel tov' for Mahmoud and Morel? (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+) The prime minister has been silent on the wave of racism washing over the Israeli public this summer, including incitement against the wedding of a Jaffa couple. Thank goodness for President Rivlin.
Why did not I go to the Left-wing demonstration (Ben Caspit, Maariv) The vast majority of the center-left actually thinks that we must fight those rising to destroy us, but the voice of that majority is marginalized in the public discourse in favor of the lunatic fringe figures, who are greatly damaging the peace camp which will cause problems for generations.
Israel’s lot after the Gaza war: Despair without catharsis (Rami Livni, Haaretz+) Israel has accepted that it is locked in a game stacked against it. The enemies are irrational, so a political solution is impossible.
Hamas -- the heavy gambler (Prof. Eyal Zisser, Israel Hayom) Drowning in debt, it just lost its last shekel and has no recourse but to bet the house.
Beware of anti-Arabism (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) There is a great deal that Jewish Israelis can and must do to marginalize, and if possible to suppress, the foul anti-Arab voices that have been heard in Israel these past two months.
When friends lock horns (Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi, Israel Hayom) White House sanctions against Israel usually have no bearing on the Israeli-U.S. relationship and are offset by Israel's defensive shield in Congress.
There will be no peace with the Arabs (Aryeh Eldad, Haaretz+) Our political goal should not be 'the resolution of the conflict,' but rather finding the formulas that will enable us to live — and if possible, to live well.
The Left should focus on Qatar (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Plenty of Israelis who support talks with the Palestinians and oppose settlement construction wonder what has happened to the credibility of the Left.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.