APN's daily news review from Israel

 Friday September 20, 2013

Quote of the day:

"We hope...that the law will be enforced and the Israelis staying there will be removed and the Palestinian owners can return safely to their lands."
--Yesh Din Israeli human rights organization comments on the return of private Palestinian land to their owners after 35 years since the establishment of Homesh settlement.**

Front Page News:

Haaretz

• The Iranian smile - Meeting with Obama in the works, softened messages to Israel and the release of political prisoners. The world is waiting to see what stands behind Rouhani's declarations
• Obama's lost dignity by the president of Iran // Chemi Shalev
• Father kidnapped his children and jumped with them from roof of building - to take revenge on their mother
• Syria: Agree to ceasefire, no side can win the war
• Putin: Israel must dismantle the nukes
• Greece considering outlawing the neo-Nazis  
• Document reveals rare criticism by court of Shin Bet for the abandonment of an agent
• Jewish labor - Did the Romans really pave the step trails in the Land of Israel
• 1/4 page ad: by The Lobby for The Land of Israel - Dear PM Binyamin Netanyahu, Soon you will represent Israel in a meeting with the US President and in a speech at the UN General Assembly. We call on you to make clear the official position of the State of Israel as expressed a year ago in the cabinet decision #5251, according to which - The Jewish people have a natural, historic and legal right to all of their homeland and the eternal capital, Jerusalem. 20 years after the miserable Oslo Accords, our position is that there is no place to return to the Oslo guidelines and to transfer the ropes of the homeland to the Palestinian Authority. Signed (Likud) MK Yariv Levin, co-chairman of the lobby and of the coalition and MK Orit Struck, co-chairwoman of the lobby. Also signed by: MK Zeev Elkin, MK Ofir Akunis, MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, MK Danny Danon, MK Avi Wartzman, MK Tzipi Hotovely, MK Haim Katz, MK Nissan Slomianski, MK MIri Regev, MK David Rotem, MK Moti Yogev, MK Ayelet Shaked, MK Moshe Feiglin, MK Yoni Sitbon, MK Shimon Ochion, MK Zevulon Khalfa, MK Shuli Meulam-Rafaeli

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Helpless victims - Two siblings, age 4 and 5, thrown off the roof of a building by their father, Eli Gur, who jumped after them
• President of Iran: We do not want nuclear weapons
• Yam was killed on a trip in the Alps

Maariv

• Putin: Israel needs to dismantle its nuclear facility; Syria armed itself with chemical weapons as a response to it
• Head of an opposition // Uri Elitzur
• Father murdered: Pushed his two children to their deaths from the 11th floor - 10,000 restraining orders a year, only 1/2 of the men are detained (Hebrew)
• This is how the US Secretary of State turned from a joke into hope: John Kerry gave the Syrians a week to disarm from their weapons and was derided. This week, when he landed in Israel as the architect of the historic agreement with Assad, they were sure he would not rest until he makes order in the whole Middle East (Hebrew)
• Sad end in Germany: Yam Levy's body was found (Hebrew)

Israel Hayom

• Monster father - All the red lights lit, but no one succeeded in preventing the horror. Eli Gur threw his two children from the 11th floor
• Signs of reconciliation? Deputy PM Syria to the 'Guardian': Assad is ready to make a ceasefire
• Tragic end to the trip: Yam Levy's body found

Peace Talk Highlights:
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Thursday that peace talks could come to an abrupt end if Israel continues killing Palestinians and building settlements on occupied land. "There is a kind of pattern in these negotiations since they began," Erakat said during a visit with diplomats and journalists to the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. "Every time there's a (negotiating) session, there is an announcement on tenders" for new settler homes, he said. Seven Palestinians have been killed "so far" in operations by the Israeli army since US-brokered bilateral talks resumed in August. (Maan)

Iran and Syria-related News:
In an interview with NBC News, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's statement that Iran "will never develop nuclear weapons," making headlines in Israeli newspapers today. And in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post Thursday, he urged world leaders to engage with Iran. However, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continued to say that the conciliatory messages from Iran were just media spin. In the NBC interview, Rouhani also blamed Israel for Mideast instability. Meanwhile, Iran's only Jewish lawmaker says he's going to the UN with Rouhani

Also making headlines was Russian President  Vladimir Putin's statement that Syria's chemical arms were a response to Israel's alleged nukes. He called on Israel to dismantle its nuclear project. Putin's call echoes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's comments in explaining why Syria developed chemical arms.
 
Putin was not alone. Despite a US warning, Arab states are pushing ahead with a bid to single out Israel at a UN nuclear meet. If the non-binding resolution they proposed is adopted, it would call on Israel to join a global anti-nuclear weapons treaty.

Quick Hits:

• Construction at new settlement damages archeological sites - Israeli bulldozers continued to level private Palestinian lands in Salfit district in the central West Bank setting up infrastructure of a new Israeli settlement to be called Leshem and damaging three major archeological sites. (Maan)
• **Israel forces raid former settlement near Nablus - Five military vehicles raided area of land near Nablus which was formally the site of Homesh settlement, and remained there for over three hours, the day after the AG announced the land wold return to Palestinian farmers. Palestinians say that armed Jewish settlers have been trickling back to try and reestablish a permanent presence there. (Maan and JPost)
• Israel Police launch investigation into death of illegal Palestinian worker in Tel Aviv - According to witnesses, a contractor apparently left a wounded 54-year-old Palestinian worker, and father of six, for dead on a Tel Aviv Street. (Haaretz)
• Settlers open fire toward shepherds south of Nablus - Israeli settlers opened fire on Thursday toward Palestinian shepherds south of Nablus near Itamar settlement. The settlers were accused of poisoning livestock in the area days earlier. (Maan)
• Defense ministry accuses treasury of creating NIS 4.5 billion hole in budget - Officials say they agreed to a NIS 3 billion slash in military funding, but not a NIS 7.5 billion cut. (Haaretz)
• J Street at the corner of Pennsylvania Ave: Biden as keynote speaker - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will speak at J Street conference in Washington on Sept. 30, the same day Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House. Martin Indyk will also address conference. (Israel Hayom)
• Gaza fighter injured in border clashes with Israeli troops - Several Israeli military vehicles and infantry troops crossed into a border area in north Gaza, clashing with fighters stationed in the area. (Maan)
• Israeli forces detain 2 Gaza men at border - Israeli forces detained two Palestinians from the Gaza Strip after they tried to cross the borders into Israel. (Maan)
• Ya'alon delays removal of forces from border towns - Defense minister decides to put off lifting of security arrangements in 22 communities following conversation with Kibbutz Movement official. (Ynet)
• Israel to close Ibrahimi mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) to Palestinians for 2 days - Israeli authorities decided on Thursday to close the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron next Sunday and Monday, and prevent Palestinian worshipers from praying during Israeli holidays, an official said. (Maan)
• 2 Jerusalem teens surrender to Israeli police, sentenced to 1.5 years in jail - The 14 and 15-year-olds were convicted of playing a lookout role when an Israeli settler was stabbed at Damascus gate years earlier. Their families noted that the two teens were under house arrest since last year, were barred from their homes and prevented from going to school. (Maan)
• Israeli dance troupe performs on Kippur - German Jews outraged after learning that Mayumana held show in Berlin on Jewish holy day. 'Israeli dancers who chose to fast didn't perform,' group's spokesman responds. (Ynet)
• Egypt sentences 5 Palestinian fishermen to year in jail - An Egyptian military court sentenced five Palestinian fishermen on Wednesday for one year in jail for breaching territorial water off the Rafah coast. (Maan)
• Hamas official applauds Abbas remarks on Gaza - Member of Hamas' politburo Mousa Abu Marzouk applauded President Mahmoud Abbas' latest speech in which Abbas maintained that the Gaza Strip should receive more support and the Rafah crossing should remain open. (Maan)
• Israel to Germany: Return treasure stolen by Nazis - State asks Germany to act towards retrieving art collection to heirs of its Jewish owners, who were forced to sell collection to Nazi regime in 1935 in process heirs claim was illegal. (Ynet)
• Assad regime says conflict has reached stalemate, plans to call for ceasefire - Syria's deputy PM tells The Guardian that neither side is strong enough to tip the balance in the two-year civil war. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Maj.-Gen. Alon: We can't rely on int'l force - In special interview, GOC Central Command addresses West Bank violence, says Tanzim, Islamic Jihad members reject PA's security arrangements with Israel. Adds: We can't rely on foreign force to secure border with Jordan. (Ynet)

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