News Nosh 05.08.15

APN's daily news review from Israel

Friday May 8, 2015 
 

Quote of the day:

"...the reputation as the most advanced and enlightened legal system in the world will shatter, and as a country that faces international criticism every day, every Israeli should be worried."

--An unnamed Israeli state prosecutor expressed the concern of many over the coalition deal that has made far right-wing MK Ayelet Shaked the new justice minister.**



Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom


 

News Summary:
After Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ‘capitulated’ to the demands of far right-wing Habayti Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett to give the Justice Ministry portfolio to Ayelet Shaked, he announced the new razor-sharp government of 61members. Today’s newspapers focused on the reactions: the battle within the Likud for the remaining portfolios, the declaration by Opposition leader Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Camp that his party ‘won't save Netanyahu from himself’ by joining the government and the analyses by political analysts who wrote that this government won’t last long. Also in today's papers was the disappointment by a sexually harassed IDF soldier with the punishment her former commander received and features on discrimination towards Ethiopian-Israelis.

**While US President Barack Obama said he looked forward to working with Netanyahu's new government, EU Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen was more frank, saying that "Despair is growing in Europe towards the policies of Israel” and he implicitly criticized the Israeli government. The new Israeli government coalition will have to choose between settlements and peace talks, said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh. "The Palestinians will continue to briskly peruse its activity on the international stage, by joining international organizations and drafting new proposed resolutions for the UN Security Council, especially in light of the right-wing-settler character of the government," he said. Former chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, “This is an extremist government, a government of settlers, which will lead to the complete destruction of the two-state solution.” He reminded that “The new justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, called for the annihilation of the Palestinian people and the killing of women and children, during the last war in Gaza in the summer.” Shaked’s appointment has also raised concern in Israel's judicial system.
 
Meanwhile, the papers barely mentioned that Israel approved construction on 900 more settler homes in the E. Jerusalem Ramat Shlomo neighborhood. The US called the plans 'damaging and inconsistent' with resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The UN chief said he was 'concerned' by the plans. This was the same plan that caused a diplomatic crisis with the US in 2010, when it was announced while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel.


 

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