News Nosh 12.19.14

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday December 19, 2014

Quote of the day:
“I invited the President to the graduation ceremony of Moran and Inbar in a few years, but I suggested he come before that to play basketball with the school’s men’s team. He asked, ‘Are they good?’ I said they were excellent and he reacted with a big smile.”
--Rebecca Bardach, Yad B’Yad (Jewish-Arab) School employee and mother of two children at the school, who was invited to light Hannukah candles at the White House with two of the school’s 9th graders, following the arson attack on the school.**

Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links only)
Israel Hayom
  • Olmert to Zaken: “$10,000 for every month you’re in jail” – Unbelievable that this man was prime minister
  • That’s how you buy silence // Mordechai Gilat
  • Heavy feeling // Dan Margalit
  • Storm in Givati: Brigade commander questioned under warning
  • Outstanding in the shadows – Among the 12 outstanding Mossad people: A female agent in her ‘20’s. “It was clear she was a genius”
  • Saturday night: (Housing Minister Uri) Ariel will decide whether to leave Habayit Hayehudi party
  • Are the coming elections about ideas or people? // Mati Tuchfeld and Nadav Shragai
  • Oversight: First grade student got vaccinations twice
  • Happy holiday: Tonight – the fourth Hannukah cancle

News Summary:
Commander of the Givati Brigade was questioned under warning on suspicion of covering up alleged sex crimes of a battalion commander and tape recordings revealed that former prime minister Ehud Olmert assured his former aide she would get $10,000 a month in jail making the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspaper.
 
Also in the news, hours after the French-sponsored Palestinian UN proposal for an end to the occupation and the recognition of a Palestinian state within two years was submitted to the UN Security Council yesterday,
the US announced it would not support it. Israeli sources told Yedioth that the proposal would not be brought before a vote in the coming days and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called it an “act of aggression” and said it was a political-strategic tactic “to bash Israel” by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Labor party reacted to the proposal saying it was “the result of lack of initiative by the Prime Minister,” Maariv reported. The Palestinians said the draft proposal was open to negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel will never accept unilateral steps by Abbas.
 
**Yedioth and Times of Israel reported on the special Hannukah candle-lighting ceremony at the White House. US President Barack Obama invited two 9th-graders from the Jewish Arab 'Hand in Hand (Yad B'Yad) Bilingual School' in Jerusalem and spoke about how the school was attacked by arsonists. The menorah they lit was commissioned from the school by the White House. Great video clip here! [Israel Hayom made no mention of the arson attack on the school by right-wing Jewish extremists – the act that prompted the invitation from the White House, in the article it ran that only appeared on their English website. (Also on Ynet Hebrew.)


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