News Nosh 10.15.14

APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday October 15, 2014

Note: News Nosh is off Thursday.

Quote of the day:
"Burning holy places of worship is terror and it needs to be taken care of like terror, regardless of whether it was perpetrated for nationalistic, racial or religious motives. In order to deal with this problem – we must first acknowledge the seriousness of the problem."
--President Ruvi Rivlin reacts to the torching of a West Bank mosque by Jewish vandals.**


Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
  • “We need to lower the price of living. We failed to lower the price of housing. We must find a solution for this. Milky, yoghurt, it does not matter what. People here are paying more for groceries and it needs to stop.” – Interview with Defense Minister Yaalon
  • “Merkel, get me a visa to Germany” – The ‘Milky Protest’ did not pass the street test: Only a few dozen arrived to protest the cost of living at Rabin Square last night. One of them: “If it’s not good here, we don’t need to stay”
  • Doesn’t forgive the driver – Riva Aharoni, who lost her son and daughter, Maya, in a car accident
  • “I was shocked by the terror tunnels” – UN Sec. Gen. visited the Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip and inside a terror tunnel. Earlier, he visited Gaza. IDF also transferred to Gaza hundreds of tons of cement and metal for construction
  • World Health Organization warns: Tens of thousands will be infected with Ebola weekly
Israel Hayom

News Summary:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expresses shock at destruction in Gaza and a ‘terror tunnel’ leading into Israel, Jews torch a mosque in Nablus and attack Arab laborers in Jerusalem and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon gives interviews to each of the main Israeli papers making top stories today.

Ban said the destruction he saw in Gaza was "beyond description,” calling it much worse than what he had witnessed after the 2008-9 Gaza war and said “it was impossible to solve the problems of Gaza without discussing their roots, including ending the Israeli siege.” Afterward, he visited Israeli communities around Gaza and expressed condolences to the grandparents of a 4-year-old boy that was killed. Ban also entered a tunnel leading from Gaza into Israel and said the tunnels should be condemned.

Interestingly, Yedioth and Israel Hayom added the word ‘terrorists’ to his quote: “I was shocked by the underground tunnels used by terrorists,” they wrote he said. But Bloomberg, AP and Reuters quoted him saying: "I was shocked and alarmed by the underground tunnels. No one should live under constant threat or fear of these rockets or the penetrating underground tunnels." Maariv translated the quote similarly to the English-language media. Israel Hayom reported that Israel tried to convince Ban to stop the probe into Israel’s actions in Operation Protective Edge, but Ban refused. As Ban was in Gaza, Israel allowed cement and metal for construction into the Strip for the first time since the war.
 
**Meanwhile, Jews torched a mosque in the West Bank village of Kufr Aqraba and attacked and beat Arab workers in Jerusalem in what the Israeli press is calling ‘hate crimes.’ (Note: When Arabs attack Jews in Israel it is called a nationalist crime, which according to Israeli law, is worse. – OH] The words 'price tag Tapuach' were spray-painted nearby, referring to the nearby Tapuach settlement [which is known for being the center for Kahani Chai activists – OH.] Yedioth gave the article almost half a page and titled it, “With a metal rod and without mercy.” Maariv has a video of it here. President Ruvi Rivlin slammed the 'price tag' attack and said such acts must be “taken care of like terror.”
 
Yedioth reported that the European Union is mulling 'blacklisting' settlers convicted of crimes. The move is meant to put pressure on Israel to stop settlement construction, wrote the paper. Maariv and Israel Hayom reported that the European Union and the British Foreign Ministry have told Israel that it needs to be concerned that the opinion in the street is moving against Israel.
 
Contrary to Israeli speculation that the Har Dov explosion that injured two Israeli soldiers was called for by Iran in revenge for the explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said that it was revenge for the killing of an operative.
 

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