News Nosh 09.12.13

by APN 09/12/13
Share

APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday September 12, 2013

 

Quote of the day:

"This thing is being handled like some moonlighting gig."
--Speaking at a conference, Yossi Beilin slams Israel's handling of the peace talks.**


Front Page News:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

  • Commander of the southern front in the Yom Kippur War writes in his diary on the moment of losing their minds - "Golda said to me: Dayan offers to use unconventional means as a kind of 'Let me die with the Philistines'
  • Obama: Need to give chance to arrangement; Netanyahu: If I am not for myself - who is for me - Following US president decision to give up on attack on Syria in the meantime: PM declares we have no one to depend on

Maariv

  • Netanyahu: "The message that will be received in Syria will be heard clearly in Iran - whoever uses WMD needs to pay"
  • Rabbi Yeshayahu Pinto invited to event with the participation of Iranian President Rowhani in New York
  • Gold Meir's testimony to the Agranat Committee to be permitted for publication today: New revelations on "special means' and about the agent, Ashraf Marwan
  • The frustration of Israeli farmers: New laborers from Thailand are "spoiled city people"
  • Haifa municipality demands taking municipal taxes from the Tamar gas field - 90km from the coast
  • Likely that Netanyahu and Lapid will declare the next Governor of the Bank of Israel "by the end of Yom Kippur"
  • The revival of the Arab cinema - While the Egyptian film and TV industry is having difficulty getting over the economic crisis and the censor of the Muslim Brotherhood, documentary filmmakers are flowering

Israel Hayom

 

Peace Talk Highlights:
Israel Hayom's Shlomo Cesna reported on remarks made yesterday by senior Israelis concerning the peace process blaming both Israel or the Palestinians for the lack of movement towards an agreement. MK Avigdor Lieberman wrote on Facebook the connection he sees between the Oslo Accords and the Yom Kippur War.

**"The Palestinian Authority has yet to form the political infrastructure that would allow it to reach a permanent peace agreement with Israel," said Yossi Kupperwasser, Director of the Ministry for Intelligence and Strategy, at a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel-Aviv yesterday. Yossi Beilin said he expects Minister Tzipi Livni, the head of the Israeli team for peace talks, to quit her job as Justice Minister and devote all her time and energy to the negotiations. "This thing is being handled like some moonlighting gig. Once a week, once every other week, an afternoon here and there -- what is this?" asked Beilin. Science Minister Yaakov Peri said: "The Palestinians came to the present negotiations with the understanding that time is running out. Everyone understands that a bi-national state is the end of Zionism."

And MK Avigdor Lieberman wrote on his Facebook page that the Oslo Accords and the Yom Kippur have something in common: the common thing for both of these events is the concept, or rather the danger of being a prisoner to a concept. In both events, with all the significant differences between them, the mental fixation, which regarding Oslo has lasted for some people to this day, (has led) to serious consequences and the loss of many lives." Lieberman noted that there is no dispute that the country's leadership before the Yom Kippur War was imprisoned in a mental fixation. However, regarding the Oslo Accords, there are still those who "won't let reality confuse them."

Syria-related News:
Following US President Barack Obama's decision to postpone the attack on Syria till it is seen whether the Syrian regime can be disarmed of chemical weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had almost two contradictory messages. He said the message that crimes against humanity will not be accepted and that message 'would be clearly heard in Iran." Yet Netanyahu also said after Obama's speech: "If I am not for myself, who is for me?" - an expression meaning we are alone and can only count on ourselves, as Yedioth's Itamar Eichner and Lior El-Chai wrote. At memorial ceremony for fallen Armored Corps soldiers, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon repeated the sentiment, saying Israel "must not ignore warning signals from Yom Kippur war." Yedioth wrote that Netanyahu's associates said that Netanyahu's speech was not meant as a criticism of Obama and that the two are coordinated since the crisis in Syria broke out and have spoken a number of times. Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed support for Obama, saying, "Even in these days, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, the US is demonstrating its moral and democratic greatness and power of its military force in an effort to bring an end to bring an immediate end to the use of chemical weapons and to have them destroyed."
 
Meanwhile, the UN has quietly begun to debate a resolution to see Syria chemical arms dismantled. The Russian proposal would put Syria's chemical weapons under international control and end a diplomatic stalemate over  the deadly August 21 poison gas attack. The US and Russian foreign ministers are discussing today in Geneva how to formulate the agreement on Syria's disarmament. Meanwhile, Israel is adamant it won't ratify a chemical arms treaty before its neighbors do. Haaretz writes that the talk of a deal to eliminate Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons sends jitters through Jerusalem. Haaretz also reported that the Syria crisis has created a rift in J Street. And there are conflicting reports about whether Russia has just sold advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. The U.S. said it sees this sale as 'troubling,' and the U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Washington was ready to work with the new Iranian government 'to reach a diplomatic solution' over Iran's nuclear program.
 

Quick Hits:

  • Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem - Israeli court may suspend law used to take over Palestinian land in Jerusalem - Judges worry that such a ruling would have far-reaching consequences, if applied to every case since 1967; Justice Elyakim Rubinstein calls idea a 'Pandora's box' that could cause legal and practical chaos. (Haaretz)
  • The tankist who kept the dog tags of an Egyptian soldiers asks to return them to his family - For years Shlomo Ohion repressed the memories from the Egyptian front. But following the POW exchange deal, his conscience tormented him. "I don't know what happened to the owner of the dog tags (military ID), if he was killed by our forces, became a POW, or escaped and my conscience tormented me. It may be the only keepsake that is left for his family." The tag reads: Army sergeant Mohammad Rashad Abd al-Wahab #3122313, Platoon 8. (Maariv, p. 8/NRG HebrewPHOTOS)
  • Document: NSA shares Americans' data with Israel - Secret document provided to the Guardian by Snowden indicates US government handed over to Israel intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens; also suggests Jewish state 'third most aggressive intelligence service against US.' (Ynet and Israel Hayom)
  • Israel's highest academic society: 108 professors, but not a single Arab - The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities selects its members from among scholars at the peak of their career, usually when they've passed 60 years old; academy official says: 'Regrettably, the number of Arab scientists... is too small'. (Haaretz)
  • New prize to honor English-language immigrants' contributions to Israel - Nefesh B'Nefesh invites public to nominate candidates whose contributions to Israeli society 'encapsulate the spirit of modern-day Zionism.' (Haaretz)
  • Palestinians demonstrate at Al-Jazeera offices - Police prevent break-in following Arafat insult on television talk show. (Ynet)
  • Jerusalem court convicts Hamas 'charity' workers - Three Israelis helped boost terror group's popularity among capital's Muslim population through various educational, welfare activities. (Ynet and Israel Hayom(
  • Letters to Menachem Begin go on display - Thirty years after his resignation as prime minister, letters from world leaders thanking him or asking him to reconsider go on display. Nixon: "I always respected you for your intelligence, your courage and, if I may use the vernacular, your guts." (Israel Hayom)
  • Sinai bomb attacks target Egypt army; 9 killed - Two explosions hit military intelligence headquarters in Rafah, nearby army checkpoint. (Agencies, Ynet)
  • U.S. softens Iran sanctions for disaster relief, sports - In effort to make it easier for U.S. humanitarian groups to work there and sports exchanges to occur between Americans and Iranians, a possible goodwill gesture after Iran elected a new moderate president. (Agencies, Haaretz)


Features:

The revolution of Egyptian cinema
While movies and TV series are having difficulty getting over the religious censor of the Muslim Brotherhood, a genre that characterizes free societies is developing in the land of the Nile - documentary films that document the two violent revolutions that took place in the country in the last years. Director Mohammad Siam: "Our youth want to show - without any commitment to the different regimes - the face of another Egypt" (Asaf Gabor, Maariv/NRG Hebrew)
 
Meet the men and women who keep Israel's press in check
The Israel Press Council celebrates 50 years of tiptoeing through the raindrops of government pressure and professional rivalries. (Haaretz)

Commentary/Analysis:

Obama's wise decision to back down (Haaretz Editorial) The lesson of embracing a diplomatic solution over a military one can be applied to Iran as well.
Acknowledging both horns of the Syrian dilemma (Ari Shavit, Haaretz) After weeks of grotesque and embarrassing talk, the international community is now addressing the complexity and combustibility of the Syrian crisis.
In praise of the fog of war (Yael Paz-Melamed, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) Melamed writes that in the initial stages of the Yom Kippur war, "The media did not even try to check the veracity of the reports it received from the IDF Spokesperson, about our forces defeating the enemy forces with an iron hand...None of the journalists told what was really happening in the field and how false the stories about how our forces were galloping toward a splendid victory." Melamed notes that this could not happen today, "both because the media has changed beyond recognition and because most soldiers have mobile devices on which they can tell the truth."
No, it's hardly a childish movement (Tal Niv, Haaretz) Do you recall that Im Tirtzu disseminated the libel that Prof. Naomi Chazan (then chairwoman of the New Israel Fund) was giving secrets to the enemy via the Goldstone Report on Israel's 2009 operation in Gaza?
Who is silencing whom? (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) The Left sees Israeli society as racist, militaristic and fascist, requiring "education" by "social" organizations like the media and academia.  
'Certain similarities' do not fascism make (Avi Shilon, Haaretz) Im Tirtzu is a childish organization, not a fascist one. 
40 years and everything has changed - A completely different Kippur (Guy Bechor, Yedioth) "Forty years ago one spoke about 'the Israeli-Arab conflict' but in the meantime the Arabs have become enmeshed in their internal wars and no longer have time for Israel. Therefore, today, it has become the 'Israeli-Palestinian' conflict, i.e. the conflict has shrunk. And those same Arabs, known as Palestinians? They are divided among themselves between Judea and Samaria and Gaza, with no connection between these two different and hostile communities, and in Judea and Samaria itself they are divided and torn, influenced by the deadly spring around them. Luckily for them, the IDF and Israel guard them against the civil wars that beset the other Arab areas. Many of them already understand that an Arab state in Judea and Samaria is another illusion, one of many."
Spasibo, Moscow, for saving the U.S. from itself and averting war (Gideon Levy, Haaretz) The era of the U.S. as the world's sole superpower is over. Henceforth, Washington's global ambitions will have to take Russia and other countries into account.
Check the DNA before calling Bennett your brother (Assaf Peleg, Haaretz) Don't be fooled by Naftali Bennett's sweet talk; a spoonful of sugar hides a bitter pill. 
9/11 reflections: 2001, 2012, and 2013 (Noah Beck, Ynet) Recent scandals undermined public's trust that US government conducts itself fairly, transparently and constitutionally.
The speech on Syria that Obama should have given weeks ago (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz) Most Americans say they support the speech, but many because it means that military option is off the table for now.
Murder will only continue (Hagai Segal, Ynet) Assad proved a long time ago that in addition to being a mass murderer, he is also a compulsive liar.
Lights, camera, inaction at the White House (Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi, Israel Hayom) After suffering paralysis at the moment of truth, Obama is trying to hide his utter weakness with a wall of noise.
Calculated risk - The Agranat mistake (Giora Eiland, Yedioth) Following the Agranat Report, that determined that we must be ready for every scenario, the IDF expanded its forces to a scope that the state could not bear. The result was 400% inflation and an economic crisis...
We are most heartily sorry, not that we care anymore (Asher Shechter, Haaretz) Our Father, we have sinned against you and against our own selves, not least by despising our fellow man.

 

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

Recent Entries