APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday September 09, 2013

Quote of the day:

"In the end, they will still be sitting in Washington and because of them, the Israelis will be going down to the shelters."

--Maariv political commentator Shalom Yerushalmi on AIPAC's 'help' in getting the US Congress to support a US attack on Syria.**

Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Russia and Iran advancing plan to prevent attack
• The pro-Israel lobby (AIPAC) is using all its efforts to support Obama - and is putting its reputation in danger
• Weinstein against High Court's position: A tender bidder is not required to declare his criminal past
• State Attorney: (Two mayors) accused of corruption can run for municipal elections
• Working more and producing less: What are the causes for low labor productivity in Israel
• Five years after the accident, bus driver convicted of manslaughter in killing of 24 passengers on way to Eilat

Yedioth Ahronoth

• The mouse that gave birth to a mountain // Nahum Barnea
• Sderot's cry - Dozens of municipal cleaning employees received dismissal letters, but yesterday a solution may have been found that would save the city from collapsing
• 40 years later - His eyes...When Doron Sdeh-Lavan was injured in battles on the Golan, his girlfriend sat by his side in the hospital. Yesterday she saw her photo in the newspaper.
• Netanyahu had dinner in restaurant that has no permit to work

Maariv

• Yaalon hinted: US to attack Syria only after the holidays - Congress returned from summer recess ahead of fateful decision on US action against Assad regime (Hebrew)
• The lobby against Israel // Shalom Yerushalmi (Hebrew)
• Peek into the extensive industry of arms shipments to the Assad regime (Hebrew)
• German intel report: It's possible the chemical weapons massacre was on the order of officers in the Syrian army - without the President's approval
• The camera documented the moment before the death of the paratrooper in the Yom Kippur War (Hebrew)
• Leaks from the negotiation rooms - The negotiations: Israel demands control of the Jordanian border and points of alert in Samaria (northern W. Bank) (Hebrew)
• War in Sderot: The municipality collapsed, the cleaning employees are fighting to make a living (Hebrew)

Israel Hayom

• In the hands of Congress - Defense Minister Yaalon sends calming message: "Preparing for vacation during the holidays? Continue as usual."
• Eradicate the evil // Dan Margalit
• 40 years to Yom Kippur - Life alongside the trauma
• Trick: Municipal elections releases career soldiers from the army
• Firing of 43 cleaning employees of Sderot municipality likely to be cancelled
• Today (convicted former president) Katzav to get 24-hour furlough from prison

Peace Talks Highlights:
Israel demands control over the Jordan border, Israeli Prime Minister Binaymin Netanyahu caves in to the right on Palestinian work permits, the Qatari Foreign Minister says Israeli settlement construction is an obstacle to peace and US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in London.

Quoting from the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, Maariv/NRG Hebrew reported that Israel is demanding control over the Jordanian border and the establishment of security alert stations in the West Bank, while the Palestinians continue to demand an Israeli withdrawal to the '67 border with land swaps.

What was meant to be an Israeli goodwill gesture towards the Palestinians in the revival of the peace process, was stymied yesterday after Netanyahu caved in to right-wing ministers. Netanyahu agreed to remove a sentence from a resolution linking 5,000 new work permits for Palestinians to the peace process and the 'desire to help Palestinian economy,' Haaretz reported.

Kerry met with Abbas and representatives of the Arab League yesterday. Kerry met Abbas at London's Ritz Carlton on Sunday evening and AFP reported the pair were "smiling and joking before holding a three-hour private meeting, their first talks since direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians began last month." In Paris, he met with the Arab League representatives to discuss the Arab Peace Initiative. At a joint press conference, the Qatari Foreign Minister said that Israeli settlement construction is an obstacle to peace. NRG Hebrew reported that Netanyahu was also supposed to meet with Kerry yesterday, but cancelled because he did not want to leave Israel during the present tension over Syria.

Syria-related News:
Haaretz reports that Syria, Iran and Russia are working on a diplomatic compromise and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon hints that no attack will take place before the end of the Jewish holidays, but Israel still takes security precautions, deploying another Iron Dome - this time near Jerusalem. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama is preparing a PR blitz, Yedioth writes that the decision over an attack might not take place for a few weeks if Obama waits for the UN, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad tells CBS News that he was not behind the chemical attack and German intelligence said that Syrian Army officers could have made the chemical massacre without consulting him. A Syrian rebel tells Haaretz that the US must not turn Syria into another Iraq. In the Christian Palestinian village of Beit Jala, dozens demonstrated yesterday against military action against Syria.
 

Quick Hits:

• Document confirms World Zionist Organization allocates land to settlers in Jordan valley - Government coordinator in the territories confirms: Settlers farming over a thousand acres of lands belonging to absentee owners in Jordan Valley. (Haaretz)
• Not worried about being evacuated: Sharp jump in housing prices in Samaria (northern W. Bank) - Itamar, Alon Moreh and Har Bracha are considered settlements that it is doubtful will remain in Israel's hands in framework of a future peace agreement, but that does not bother many families from grabbing any available house. (Maariv, p. 6/NRG Hebrew)
• Israeli forces issue 4 demolition orders in Jerusalem - Israeli municipality staff and police issued four demolition orders for commercial properties in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sunday. (Maan)
• Israeli forces clash with Al-Quds university students - An Israeli forces stopped and searched several students at the main gate of the university in Abu Dis, inspecting identity cards and detaining several students for over an hour. Clashes broke out after university staff prevented Israeli forces from entering the campus. (Maan)
• For first time in 20 years: marking of nature trails in W. Bank - After 20 years that new nature trails were not marked in Samaria (northern W. Bank), in the last few days two new trails were marked and will open to the [Israeli -OH] public during Sukkot holiday. (Maariv, p. 6)
• Israel refuses to let Polish aid worker back into country - Attorney to appeal to Supreme Court after district court rejects motion for release by Kamil Kandil, a Pole of Palestinian descent, who is in detention at Ben-Gurion Airport. (Haaretz)
• Proposal: Equip all police officers with mini video cameras to wear during arrests - According to Meretz chairwoman Zahava Gal-On, who has sought the public security minister's cooperation, the bill would protect both protesters' and police officers' rights by reducing violence and false complaints. (Haaretz)
• Israeli forces raid Nablus village - Around 15 army jeeps entered several neighborhoods in Beta village, south of Nablus, Sunday and fired tear gas and stun grenades. (Maan)
• Hebron woman detained for 'attempting to stab soldier - Israeli forces detained Ayat Mahfouth, 20, in Hebron on Sunday for attempting to stab an Israeli soldier. (Maan)
• Beit Jala priest urges pope to help Palestinian Christians - A priest in Beit Jala on Sunday wrote a letter to Pope Francis describing the ongoing persecution which Christians face under Israeli occupation. (Maan)
• Erdogan: Olympics in Istanbul would have given hope for peace  - Disappointed Turkish PM says holding Games in Muslim country would 'give hope for an alliance of civilizations.' (Agencies, Ynet)
• Israeli filmmakers honored in Venice - Prestigious film festival's Lion of Future Award for Debut Film Jury goes to Noaz Deshe for 'White Shadow.' Yuval Adler's 'Bethlehem' wins prize on behalf of Federation of Film Critics of Europe and Mediterranean. (Ynet)

Features:

Not acceptable
In the new community Karmit, which is meant to be the pearl of the northern Negev, they wanted to preserve 'an elite population." The solution: A code that prevents ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs and single-parents from being accepted. Following a petition by Yedioth, the code was removed. The question whether in the end the community will also have Arab residents remains open. (Ofer Petersburg, Yedioth '24 Hours' supplement.)
A lesson in cowardice
High Court justices show critics are right to accuse them of failing to address military dictatorship to which Palestinians are subjected. (Amira Hass, Haaretz)

Commentary/Analysis:

The impure alliance between officials and settlement construction (Haaretz Editorial) Many government officials try to obscure the nature of their ties to settlement construction but the conflict of interests is crystal clear.
**AIPAC is making a battle and dragging Israeli into the campaign (Shalom Yerushalmi, Maariv/NRG Hebrew) Israel is making extraordinary efforts to keep itself out of this conflict. But AIPAC is dragging us in by force. The lobbyists are telling Congressmen that the attack was intended to help Israel, and in this way they are giving legitimacy to Assad to shoot missiles at Israel if he is attacked. In the end, they will still be sitting in Washington and because of them, the Israelis will be going down to the shelters.
Beware the extremists: Lessons from Oslo, twenty years on (Yossi Beilin, Haaretz) The consequences of the Oslo Accords, which gave Israel a Palestinian partner for negotiations, reduced its isolation, and confirmed a two-state solution, will be wiped out if the current talks process fail.
Man of the year  (Smadar Peri, Yedioth) Egypt's General al-Sisi has declared war on villains; he has no patience for democracy nonsense.
A favor, supposedly, from America (Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz) The U.S. destruction of Iraq brought enormous profit to the American economy. Even Syria under jihadist control - if that should be the result of American intervention - will not cause losses for its war industry, though it will drain our blood.
Syria strike will be no tea party (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) There is a reason for the disarray among Republicans over the proposal to attack Syria -- and it is called the Tea Party.
Intervention in Syria can only invite trouble and guilty consciences (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz) Syria is being pulled in every which direction and the most outside forces can do is replace the tormenter-in-chief. 
Obama's war: When cynicism trumps credibility (Richard Baehr, Israel Hayom) The president has communicated an utter lack of strategic seriousness, and does not seem to care if he wins or loses in Congress. 
The two elephants in the negotiating room (Alexander Yakobson, Haaretz) The Palestinian leadership often repeats that the right of return for Palestinian refugees is sacred, so why does everyone ignore this major challenge to the peace process?
Was an offer really on the table? (Uri Heitner, Israel Hayom) Had Egypt harbored a genuine desire to make peace in the years leading up to the 1973 war, it would not have attacked Israel.
Are Rohani's Rosh Hashanah blessings a diplomatic signal? (Barak Ravid, Haaretz) 'Happy New Year to you. Now, could you ask your Supreme Leader to stop calling for the elimination of the Jewish state,' Jeffrey Goldberg tweets back.

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