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

• Netanyahu’s trouble // Yossi Verter
• Choosing of next Attorney General by Shaked will shape the judicial system
• The Republican twin of the Netanyahu government // Chemi Shalev
• In the committee for appointing religious judges, they are returning to the glory days // Yair Ettinger
• Fischer affair: (Israel police is a) third world police and many secrets for a price // Gidi Weitz
• Those arrested at Ethiopian-Israeli demonstration tell of continued discrimination in the police van
• First stop in the journey of discrimination: the Ethiopian Israelis first encounter with bias is at schools
• High voter turnout likely in British elections that are the closest in years
• Ultra-Orthodox women break the secular male image of the hi-tech world
• (Lt. Col. Liron) Hajabi convicted of inappropriate behavior; (sexually harassed female soldier) Fattal protested in court

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Battle of the senior members of Likud begins
• The temporary government // Nahum Barnea
• Limping to the goal // Sima Kadmon
• Leave it alone // Hanoch Daum
• No friends for coffee // Yoaz Hendel
• The bad news // Ben-Dror Yemini
• Face to face: The Lt. Col. and the soldier
• Exit polls from UK: Big victory for Cameron

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

• Catch 61 (on Netanyahu coalition)
• Netanyahu and Herzog’s contacts channel: Natan Eshel, Shaya Segel and Shimon Batat
• Maariv poll: 44% support appointment of Ayelet Shaked as Justice Minister
• Actor Arieh Elias 1921-2015
• The fax that incriminated the prosecutor (in the Ronal Fischer affair)
• The Chief of Staff put the IDF on its feet // Noam Amir
• My brother, Eli Cohen: Journey in the footsteps of the spy at 50 years since his hanging

Israel Hayom

• High tension in Likud ahead of distribution of government portfolios
• The UK exit polls: Victory for Cameron
• The deal between (arrested lawyer Ronal) Fischer and Wasserman
• (Sexually harassed female soldier, May) Fattal and Lt. Col. (Liron) Hajabi – face to face
• By an enormous majority: Senate approved bill allowing Congress to reject the agreement with Iran
• Lt. Col Tzion Shankur, the highest ranking Ethiopian officer in IDF, is angry
• Even without Lieberman – a 61 member government starts on its way, with the option of ’61 plus’

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.