APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday January 27, 2015
Numbers of the day:
26:23.
--Number of mandates for Herzog-Livni 'Zionist Camp' party vs. Likud in latest elections poll.**
--Number of mandates for Herzog-Livni 'Zionist Camp' party vs. Likud in latest elections poll.**
Breaking News:
Haaretz: At least two rockets exploded in Israel's Golan Heights, apparently fired from Syria. It was not yet clear whether the rockets were fired intentionally or in a spillover from the Syrian civil war.
Walla News (Hebrew): Israel responding with fire into Syrian Golan.
Front Page:
Haaretz
- Sixth police commander resigns: Deputy Police Commissioner suspected of sexual crimes against female police officers
- Six police commanders carrying the coffin of the (Israel) police // Amir Oren
- 18 police commanders, without a woman: This is the message given to the female police officers // Yaniv Kobovitz
- Israel Beiteinu (corruption) affair: Former cabinet secretary suspected of brokering bribery
- Criticism in Labor party on elections headquarters: Millions wasted on PR people
- State advancing (establishment of) religious community in Galilee for handicapped people
- The distress of the pre-school aides: Parents in Tel-Aviv to boycott the pre-schools
Yedioth Ahronoth
- Shame – Police in crisis: 8 (out of 18) police commanders got in trouble within 1.5 years
- A small hit on the wing - aviation cadet crashed into car
- The mother who gave birth at age 56
- (Former soccer star) Eli Ohana in Habayit Hayehudi: Supported disengagement (from Gaza) and will get realistic spot
- The world remembers – International Holocaust Day
- Obligation // US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro
- Returning there // Noah Klieger in Auschwitz
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
- Deputy Police Commissioner interrogated on suspicion of sexual harassment
- What ‘type’ (pun for in Hebrew for the word sex) of Police? // Tal Ariel-Amir
- Went free – (former aide to former prime minister Olmert) Shula Zaken released from jail and returned home.
- Eli Ohana joins Habayit Hayehudi
- Lapid and Deri’s social-justice war
- Maariv’s wandering poll box sets off
- Remembering – Many countries to hold hundreds of ceremonies and events to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Israel Hayom
- “A difficult day for the Police” – Deputy Police Commissioner, Commander Nissim Mor, suspected of sexual harassment
- Auschwitz, 70 years later
- Yedioth’s shame index: 7 headlines and 4,000 words about Netanyahu – and everything is negative
- Surprising acquisition: (former soccer star) Ohana on way to Habayit Hayehudi
- TGI poll for 2014: “Israel Hayom newspaper continues to lead with 39.3%”
- 18-month-old baby swallowed pill and died
- Harsh sanctions: West considering cutting Russia off from international clearing system
- Story, success: Sapir Prize awarded to Reuven Nemdar for his book “The house that was destroyed”
News Summary:
Another Israeli police commander leaves the force after sending sexually explicit text messages to a young female officer and more election news were the top headlines in today's Hebrew newspapers. Meanwhile, an anonymous Israeli official and a candidate for defense minister make statements putting in question the timeliness of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress about Iran and the latest on the fallout from the Israeli attack on a Hezbollah-Iranian convoy in the Syrian Golan.
An anonymous Israeli official contradicted Netanyahu, telling Israeli reporters that a nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers is unlikely by March, as significant gaps remain. Netanyahu insists that an agreement between Tehran and world powers is imminent - and thus the importance of his planned speech to Congress in March. Moreover, the former IDF Intel chief, Amos Yadlin, who is now running on the Herzog-Livni 'Zionist Camp' list and will be defense minister if they win, told Ynet that Netanyahu was playing a political game with US-Israeli ties and called him 'irresponsible.'
Yadlin stressed the most pressing issue facing Israel at the moment is Hezbollah and its activities on Israel's northern border. Hezbollah accused Israel of trying to set 'new rules'
through the Israeli drone strike on the convoy in Quneitra last week. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Iran and Hezbollah of trying to open a front with Israel on the Golan Heights. In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Syria never planned to attack the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as Israel had claimed, but that Israel was trying to assassinate Hezbollah men. He also said that Israel has been attacking Syria for two years 'without any reason.' Due to the high tension, the IDF set up concrete blocks on northern roads to foil snipers and deployed more troops in the area. However, Hezbollah said it does not intend to respond to the Israeli strike. But, an Iranian website said Netanyahu's sons were targets for assassination
Another Israeli police commander leaves the force after sending sexually explicit text messages to a young female officer and more election news were the top headlines in today's Hebrew newspapers. Meanwhile, an anonymous Israeli official and a candidate for defense minister make statements putting in question the timeliness of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress about Iran and the latest on the fallout from the Israeli attack on a Hezbollah-Iranian convoy in the Syrian Golan.
An anonymous Israeli official contradicted Netanyahu, telling Israeli reporters that a nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers is unlikely by March, as significant gaps remain. Netanyahu insists that an agreement between Tehran and world powers is imminent - and thus the importance of his planned speech to Congress in March. Moreover, the former IDF Intel chief, Amos Yadlin, who is now running on the Herzog-Livni 'Zionist Camp' list and will be defense minister if they win, told Ynet that Netanyahu was playing a political game with US-Israeli ties and called him 'irresponsible.'
Yadlin stressed the most pressing issue facing Israel at the moment is Hezbollah and its activities on Israel's northern border. Hezbollah accused Israel of trying to set 'new rules'
through the Israeli drone strike on the convoy in Quneitra last week. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Iran and Hezbollah of trying to open a front with Israel on the Golan Heights. In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Syria never planned to attack the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as Israel had claimed, but that Israel was trying to assassinate Hezbollah men. He also said that Israel has been attacking Syria for two years 'without any reason.' Due to the high tension, the IDF set up concrete blocks on northern roads to foil snipers and deployed more troops in the area. However, Hezbollah said it does not intend to respond to the Israeli strike. But, an Iranian website said Netanyahu's sons were targets for assassination
Quick Hits:
- IDF dismisses intel reservists who refused to serve over Palestinian 'persecution' - Accuses the 43 from the 8200 Unit who wrote public letter of ‘exploiting service to express political stance’; reservists had said information the elite unit gathers is being used to harm innocents. (Haaretz+, Maariv and Ynet)
- Six arrested in Jerusalem over attack on Israeli Druze man - Suspects appear in court for remand hearing over attack on 21-year-old music student last week; Tommy Hassoun was reportedly attacked for speaking Arabic. (Ynet)
- **Poll gives 26 seats to Zionist Camp, 23 to Likud - Channel 2 survey shows 3-seat lead for Herzog-Livni over Netanyahu; Bayit Yehudi receives 15 and Arab list 12. (Ynet)
- Netanyahu: Labor-Hatnuah are 'anti-Zionist camp' - PM levels scathing criticism at "Zionist Camp," says parties represent radical Left. "We have to win these elections because we know exactly what the Left will do. All it does is look for excuses to make more and more concessions," Netanyahu says. (Israel Hayom)
- Habayit Hayehudi, 'Zionist Camp' at loggerheads over names - Habayit Hayehudi asks Central Election Committee to order Labor-Hatnuah union to nix "Zionist Camp" name, says it misleads public. Labor-Hatnuah counter-petitions, demand Habayit Hayehudi change name, as party operates "contrary to Jewish values." (Israel Hayom)
- Netanyahu hits back at claims of wife's alcohol abuse: Leave my family alone - Prime Minister points finger at media after publication of allegations by former staff against his wife Sara, says he is victim of media plot to bring him down. (Ynet)
- Clashes in East Jerusalem: Police officer lightly wounded - Dozens of Palestinian youths throw stones, firecrackers at police after rumors spread that Jews had abducted a 10-year-old boy. Maan reported that Israeli undercover police assaulted and detained him near his home in Shuafat, which is why locals thought he was kidnapped. [Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped from Shuafat and burned alive by Jews. – OH] (Haaretz and Maan)
- Settlers enter Nablus-area village, visit 'holy sites' - Dozens of Israeli Jews entered the West Bank village of Awarta near Nablus after midnight on Sunday and performed religious rituals. More than 25 vehicles, escorted by an Israeli military vehicle, entered the village at 2:30 a.m. (Maan)
- Israeli police detain 3 Palestinian women at Aqsa compound - Israeli police detained three Palestinian women as they were leaving the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Monday and took them for interrogation. (Maan)
- Jewish leader: European Jews should think twice before moving to Israel to flee anti-Semitism - At International Holocaust Remembrance Day conference in Prague, European Jewish Congress head says jihadism is 'very close' to Nazism. (Haaretz)
- Fatah organizes West Bank rallies against Israel - The Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah movement was set to organize rallies across the West Bank yesterday in protest against "the Israeli occupation's punitive procedures” [i.e. not transferring Palestinian tax revenues – OH] (Maan)
- Boehner: Netanyahu invitation did not blindside White House - White House said invitation by Republican leader, which came a day after Obama's State of the Union address, was breach of protocol. (Haaretz)
- Charlie Hebdo issue sells out in Israel - Court rejects injunction request by organizations and leaders in the Arab sector seeking to stop sale of issue; 550 copies sold on Steimatzky's site in seven minutes. (Ynet)
- Israeli film fund closes Palestinian loophole: Creators must pledge to be 'Israeli' - After local Arab filmmaker accepted large grant, then registered movie as ‘Palestinian’ at Venice Film Festival, country’s two big film foundations close loophole. (Haaretz+)
- Israeli authorities prevent PA minister from leaving Gaza - Israel prevented the Palestinian Authority Minister of Public Works and Housing from leaving the Gaza Strip to travel to the West Bank. Israel's siege on Gaza severely limits imports and exports, in addition to preventing Palestinians in the Strip from leaving the tiny coastal enclave, with few exceptions. (Maan)
- 87 Palestinians in Gaza visit relatives jailed by Israel - International Committee of the Red Cross Spokeswoman Suheir Zaqut told Ma'an that 29 children were among the group, including 13 aged between 10 and 16. There are around 450 Palestinian men from the Gaza Strip in Israeli jails. (Maan)
- Israelis no longer afraid to commemorate the Holocaust in a humorous way - From comedy show ‘Hahamisha Hacamerit’ to ‘Eretz Nehederet’ - humor has become an integral part of Holocaust commemoration. International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dr. Liat Steyr-Livni explains how the trauma of the Jewish people was lodged into our popular culture. (Maariv)
- Study: Germans skeptical on Israel, but Israelis view Germany favorably - 35% of Germans equate Israeli policies toward Palestinians with Nazi policies toward Jews, but majority in both countries believe Germany still has special responsibility toward Israel. (Agencies, Ynet)
- Egypt revolt anniversary death toll rises to 20 - Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Egyptian police of using "excessive force" against protesters after 20 people were killed in clashes on the fourth anniversary of its 2011 uprising. (Agencies, Maan)
- Egyptian officials: Mubarak's sons freed from prison - Alaa and Gamal Mubarak released from Torah Prison in Cairo almost four years after arrests; both still face retrial on corruption charges, trial for alleged insider trading. (Agencies, Ynet)
- Egypt court overturns decision to ban Hamas - The court ruled that determining whether or not Hamas is a terror group does not fall under the court's jurisdiction. (Maan)
- Argentine president seeks overhaul of intelligence services - President Cristina Fernandez calls on Congress to dissolve SI after her gov't suggested 'rogue intelligence agents' may have orchestrated AMIA prosecutor's death. (Agencies, Ynet)
- Islamic State group pushed out of Syria's Kobani - US says it has carried out 17 airstrikes near Kobani in last 24 hours, hitting Islamic State infrastructure, fighting positions; most IS fighters said to have withdrawn. (Agencies, Ynet)
Features:
The Herzog family tree: Israel's answer to the Kennedys
From Chaim Herzog to Abba Eban and Oliver Sacks, Labor leader Isaac Herzog's family is often called the closest thing Israel has to Camelot. How many of these names do you recognize? (Alona Ferber, Haaretz+)
Commentary/Analysis:
From Chaim Herzog to Abba Eban and Oliver Sacks, Labor leader Isaac Herzog's family is often called the closest thing Israel has to Camelot. How many of these names do you recognize? (Alona Ferber, Haaretz+)
Commentary/Analysis:
Netanyahu must curb his incitement against 'traitors' - before Israel sees a Rabin
replay (Sefi Rachlevsky, Haaretz+) The campaign Netanyahu is leading against Herzog and Livni is nothing short of
calling them 'traitors.'
A waiting game on the northern border (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) If targeted assassinations on Syrian Golan were designed to prevent establishment of new front against Israel, result may well be exact opposite; but at least intelligence was accurate, for it can only be assumed perpetrators knew who was in vehicle, including general from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Is Caroline Glick really the woman Bibi thinks can help save Likud? (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+) Netanyahu has offered the controversial columnist who wrote 'A One State Plan for Peace' to run on the Likud slate. If she accepts, she would be the latest example of American-Israelis invading mainstream political parties.
Netanyahu's gift to Iran (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) Decision to concoct US trip behind administration's back has put prime minister up against Democrats in both houses of Congress and some of Republicans, reducing chances of stepping up sanctions through legislation. And how has Naftali Bennett turned into Israel's acting prime minister?
Lieberman, the 'champion of democracy', uses Charlie Hebdo to bash Muslims (Mira Awad, Haaretz+) Yisrael Beiteinu is being dishonest in going to war over freedom of expression and the democratic right to buy a newspaper.
Yedioth: Herzog's official mouthpiece (Itsik Saban, Israel Hayom) The Left is focused on creating a diversion from reality and denying the public the right to think freely.
Otherwise Occupied / It's only corruption when land is stolen from Jews (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) The long-running case of an illegal land transfer in northern Israel vividly illustrates the two sets of standards in operation here.
A new low for the Left (Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) In its despair, the Left has turned to underhanded tactics, making the PM's wife its target.
If Netanyahu allegedly violated the law, he must stand trial like anyone else (Haaretz Editorial) Attorney general and state prosecutor seem to work to keep Netanyahu in office, and betray their role of getting at the truth.
The familiar tactic, mudslinging (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) The Left, looking to take down the prime minister in any way possible, is directing its venom at Sara Netanyahu without any regard for the truth.
Last time he did that, a prime minister was murdered.
Tiptoeing through the ICC raindrops (Aeyal Gross, Haaretz+) By focusing on Israeli and Turkish settlements, rather than Gaza, the ICC prosecutor may be able to make progress while avoiding accusations of bias.
Lessons from the shores of Tripoli (Eitan Charnof, Yedioth/Ynet) West's current campaign against Islamic State radicals should look back to America's Barbary Wars, when the new state first's foreign policy failed to appease Islamist pirates.
Argentina’s Jews are serving the far right’s silent revolution (Meir Margalit, Haaretz+) I ask myself how these wise and good-hearted people could have fallen into a trap and wound up on the same side as the country’s fascists.
U.S., Israeli leaders: Stop meddling in each other's internal politics (Mark A. Shiffrin and Avi Silberschatz, Haaretz+) The troubling relations between Netanyahu and Obama, and their political parties, threaten to undermine the Israeli-U.S. alliance and each country's national interests.
A waiting game on the northern border (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) If targeted assassinations on Syrian Golan were designed to prevent establishment of new front against Israel, result may well be exact opposite; but at least intelligence was accurate, for it can only be assumed perpetrators knew who was in vehicle, including general from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Is Caroline Glick really the woman Bibi thinks can help save Likud? (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+) Netanyahu has offered the controversial columnist who wrote 'A One State Plan for Peace' to run on the Likud slate. If she accepts, she would be the latest example of American-Israelis invading mainstream political parties.
Netanyahu's gift to Iran (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) Decision to concoct US trip behind administration's back has put prime minister up against Democrats in both houses of Congress and some of Republicans, reducing chances of stepping up sanctions through legislation. And how has Naftali Bennett turned into Israel's acting prime minister?
Lieberman, the 'champion of democracy', uses Charlie Hebdo to bash Muslims (Mira Awad, Haaretz+) Yisrael Beiteinu is being dishonest in going to war over freedom of expression and the democratic right to buy a newspaper.
Yedioth: Herzog's official mouthpiece (Itsik Saban, Israel Hayom) The Left is focused on creating a diversion from reality and denying the public the right to think freely.
Otherwise Occupied / It's only corruption when land is stolen from Jews (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) The long-running case of an illegal land transfer in northern Israel vividly illustrates the two sets of standards in operation here.
A new low for the Left (Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) In its despair, the Left has turned to underhanded tactics, making the PM's wife its target.
If Netanyahu allegedly violated the law, he must stand trial like anyone else (Haaretz Editorial) Attorney general and state prosecutor seem to work to keep Netanyahu in office, and betray their role of getting at the truth.
The familiar tactic, mudslinging (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) The Left, looking to take down the prime minister in any way possible, is directing its venom at Sara Netanyahu without any regard for the truth.
Last time he did that, a prime minister was murdered.
Tiptoeing through the ICC raindrops (Aeyal Gross, Haaretz+) By focusing on Israeli and Turkish settlements, rather than Gaza, the ICC prosecutor may be able to make progress while avoiding accusations of bias.
Lessons from the shores of Tripoli (Eitan Charnof, Yedioth/Ynet) West's current campaign against Islamic State radicals should look back to America's Barbary Wars, when the new state first's foreign policy failed to appease Islamist pirates.
Argentina’s Jews are serving the far right’s silent revolution (Meir Margalit, Haaretz+) I ask myself how these wise and good-hearted people could have fallen into a trap and wound up on the same side as the country’s fascists.
U.S., Israeli leaders: Stop meddling in each other's internal politics (Mark A. Shiffrin and Avi Silberschatz, Haaretz+) The troubling relations between Netanyahu and Obama, and their political parties, threaten to undermine the Israeli-U.S. alliance and each country's national interests.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.