APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday November 1, 2015 
 

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

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News Summary:
The rally in memory of assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the mystery behind the crash of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai and the reports of an alleged Israeli attack of Hezbollah sites in Syria were top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Also in the news, alleged Palestinian attacks on Israelis and the running over of a stone-throwing Palestinian.
 
Despite the organizers’ attempts to ‘sanitize’ the Rabin memorial rally of anything ‘political,’ including the reason why he was murdered, i.e. peace, former US president Bill Clinton laid out the reasons Israelis needed to choose peace and said it was up to them to decide, the papers reported. He and the other speakers addressed Israelis from behind bullet-proof glass barriers and heavy security. Nevertheless, Peace Now has submitted a complaint to police after anonymous threats were made on the Peace Now Facebook page threatening to harm every ‘left-winger.’ US President Barack Obama also said in a televised speech that the only solution to the conflict was a two-state solution. And Hagai Amir, brother of Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, told Channel One that there was no conspiracy, despite the belief otherwise by many Israelis. He described how he and his brother planned to stop the Oslo Agreements, Maariv reported. “We believed that Rabin did not intend to make peace, just to remove settlements from Judea and Samaria. We looked for people who were willing to sacrifice. People were not willing to go to jail,” he told Channel One.
 
Numerous incidents of violence took place Friday and Saturday between Israelis and Palestinians, injuring dozens of Palestinians and two (or three) Israelis. In Jerusalem Friday, a U.S. citizen was injured on Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem in a stabbing by a 23-year-old Palestinian from E. Jerusalem and a bystander was wounded by the shots of security forces. Dozens of Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces across the West Bank and the Gaza border on Friday. In one incident near Ramallah, Border Police ran over a young Palestinian man, and released a statement saying the man was wielding a knife.  But a video later released by an Arab website of the incident showed the man raising a rock over the Israeli officer, Haaretz reported, noting that Israeli forces initially prevented Palestinian medics from treating the wounded youth.  Ynet wrote that the commander in the jeep “then exited the vehicle and struck the man, neutralizing him. He is reportedly in critical condition, and no Israeli troops were injured in the clashes. Another border policeman was later filmed spraying pepper spray at a Palestinian journalist.” The Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Friday evening, that an eight-month-old Palestinian baby died from tear gas inhalation following clashes between IDF forces and Palestinians in the village of Beit Fajer near Bethlehem. The IDF said it was not responsible for the baby's death because it had shot the tear gas a few dozen meters away and not directly at the house. [Haaretz's subtitle misquotes the IDF. - OH] And at Tapuach Junction in the northern West Bank, Ynet reported that “two terrorists on motorcycle attempted to stab a group of border police troops but were shot by a border policewoman. One of the terrorists was killed, while the other was in critical condition. However, Haaretz reported that a Border Police officer was stabbed and lightly wounded. Ynet has numerous photos and videos from Friday's Day of Rage. At a checkpoint in Jenin Saturday, an Israeli security guard shot dead a Palestinian allegedly charging security personnel with a knife. In all, 11 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the past six weeks, while 68 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. Of those, 42 were said by Israel to have been involved in attacks or attempted attacks, most of them stabbings.
 
Despite an Israeli cabinet decision not to return the bodies of suspected Palestinian attackers, the IDF returned seven out of the 16 corpses it is holding to their families yesterday. A Palestinian source in Hebron told Ynet’s Elior Levy that the move was probably meant to bring about quiet in Hebron after a wave of daily attack. He estimated that the other bodies will only be returned if the move has the desired effect. Celebrations were held upon the bodies arrival. 
 
Meanwhile, the Palestinians are urging the International Criminal Court at The Hague to quickly look into their allegations of extra-judicial killings of Palestinians. Israel blasted the 'political misuse' of the court. And Russia expressed support for New Zealand's UN draft resolution on peace talks, according to which Israel would stop ‘provocative acts’ such as settlement construction and threatening the status quo at the Temple Mount and the Palestinians would stop their petitions to The Hague as conditions to re-starting peace talks. Israel called the resolution ‘destructive.’
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

The Judaization of an East Jerusalem Neighborhood Gains Steam
The NGO Ateret Cohanim is cooperating with the government to establish a whole Jewish quarter inside the Silwan neighborhood. (Nir Hasson, Haaretz+)
How Rabin Memorial Day Changed in Schools
Attitudes toward the day have fluctuated among educators, especially in the state religious system. (Hilo Glazer, Haaretz+)
We must force Facebook to stop the incitement
Richard Lakin, who was murdered in the bus attack in Armon Hanatziv (Jerusalem), worked for co-existence. His son, Michah, submitted a suit against Facebook claiming that his father was murdered because of Palestinian incitement on the social network. But he did not believe, that Jews would curse his father on the Internet after his death, because he believe in co-existence with his Arab neighbors. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Oh no,’ when there are things like that. We need to cause Facebook to take responsibility and stop this.” (Noam Barkan, Yedioth’s ’24 Hours’ magazine, cover)
Searching for Yitzhak Rabin's Legacy
Did he leave us a belief in the need for a peace process, in military power, in the importance of compromise? Historians, politicians and political scientists attempt to answer. (Dalia Karpel, Haaretz+)
Refuge City
The despair, the treatment by locals and the life left behind: A visit to the UN offices for the Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Jordan reveals an impossible reality behind the dilemma that concerns the world. (Gideon Kotz in Amman, Maariv Magazine, cover)

Commentary/Analysis:

Temple Mount Extremists Making Inroads in Both Knesset and Israeli Government (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Netanyahu is appalled at the possibility that Temple Mount activists will become part of the governing faction, but their agenda is already voiced by some ministers. 
A brief history of the status quo (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) The great advantage of the status quo was also its great disadvantage. The Jews would never have formally agreed to forgo prayer on the mount. The Muslims would never formally agree to give up the Western Wall, which they call "al-Buraq." From that perspective, the Kerry understandings are an historic precedent. But the understandings might provide an opening for the Temple Mount activists to turn to the courts for assistance in forcing the government to allow freer visits.
A Justice Minister Who Doesn't Stand Up for the Justice System (Haaretz Editorial) MK Moti Yogev wants the Supreme Court to rule selectively: against Palestinians, and in favor of Jewish settlers; Justice Minister Shaked must loudly and clearly condemn his incitement.
Look at him (Sima Kadmon, Yedioth) The strongest emotion that was felt last night, when former US president Bill Clinton walked up on the stage, was anguish. Sadness that all the warm, wise, optimistic, embracing, uniting words had to come from a US president, and not from the Prime Minister of Israel. Why don't we have a leader like that - that is likely the question that passed through the heads of thousands of participants at the rally. Why doesn't our leadership soften and calm? Why does violence here start at the head - the prime minister and his ministers? And I am referring to verbal violence, to aggressiveness, to racism. Because how else can you call the voices that come up from Jerusalem? Because the antithesis of the speech by Clinton last night was Netanyahu's words this week, when he promised us we will forever live by the sword. Now imagine that Netanyahu said those things last night, at the 20th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's murder, in front of the tens of thousands of youth who stood there. Does a sentence like that not injure, cause despair, and lay the groundwork for violence and obliterate all possibilities of normal life? What do young people think when they hear a sentence like that, how can they continue to weave the dreams of their lives here? And why can't the Prime Minister of Israel stand on a stage like this and tell his citizens warm and empowering things. Promise something else and not the continuation of the bad that is present. It is unnecessary to say that if there was a poll placed at the square last night, Clinton would have been easily elected. Because sometimes that's all you need: soft charisma, not aggressive. The ability to identify with the troubles of the person in front of you. Clinton did not sell lies yesterday. He simply spoke the language we all understand....But not everything is despair. Also listening to our President, and to see the long path he made since the speeches when he was Speaker of the Knesset, which would always end in tears - his and ours - warmed the heart. It's amazing to see sometimes how someone grows into his position. And Rivlin is an excellent example of someone who immediately understood what was needed from him and he saw that need as his mission. And that mission, according to Rivlin, is to lower the flames of loathing, of hatred, of beastly behavior, and racism that destroys here every good patch. And the words he said yesterday have no political party, or camp, or side. From that aspect the choice of the rally organizers was wise and exact: It was a memorial rally in every sense of the word. A memorial to a prime minister who was murdered on the way, and the memory of peace that was left there with him. 
The Secular Israeli Will Go the Way of the Woolly Mammoth (Rogel Alpher, Haaretz+) Secular Israelis will meet their end through extinction. They will gradually emigrate or change their worldview and become religious Zionists. 
A Third World rain policy (Raanan Shaked, Yedioth/Ynet) Not so long ago, I asked the prime minister (in my undeveloped imagination, yes?): Will we forever live by the sword? And I think he said yes. I was pretty amazed by that defeatist answer, but in the meantime that question has become almost marginal compared to much more urgent questions: Will we forever live, every winter, in a huge, uncrossable puddle? Will we forever live without electricity for unreasonable periods of time? I assume that like with our sword, the answer is yes, yes and yes. And I assume that just like there is no partner, there is also no infrastructure, no drainage, no responsible people, no learning or drawing conclusions, and mainly no chance or hope for something to ever change - because we are talking, as you know, about a force majeure: Rain…Because we haven't learned a thing. We'll never learn. If a large Israeli public votes for a government which offers no platform, no security and no proper conduct, why should something marginal like infrastructures, welfare or - the greatest luxury, ongoing power supply to our homes - move forward? Change? Improve? 
Israelis Who Are Lost to Democracy (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) Israel is perpetrating horrors in the territories at a frequency and degree never seen before. Not that most Israelis seem to care. 
Radicals don’t want an open Arab society (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) The day Arab society is able to voice diverse, critical, irritating opinions without violent reactions and without needing bodyguards will be a historic day for all Arabs, wherever they are.  
After Four Weeks of Violence in Israel, a New Pattern Emerges (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) As the roadblocks and checkpoints in Jerusalem shift attention to the West Bank, the current wave of terrorist attacks may be running out of steam.
A dignified rally, a paralyzed nation (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) While tens of thousands of people showed up to honor Rabin's memory Saturday night, there was no energy at the square. The rage over the collapse of democratic values, over the racism and violence in Israeli society, has no voters. 
Terror Wave Still Raging, but Shifts to West Bank (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) For veterans of two previous intifadas, situation in Hebron is no surprise - proximity and long-standing resentment between local Jewish, Palestinian communities provide endless opportunities for terror attacks. 
An open letter to the boycotting professors (Yoaz Hendel, Yedioth/Ynet) A response to Jewish-American Professors Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl, who wrote an editorial for the Washington Post about why they now support a boycott of Israel. 
Netanyahu Must Examine Relationship With Those Who Undermine Temple Mount Status Quo (Friday Haaretz Editorial) As long as Israel's government cannot jumpstart a real peace process, the status quo is critical to preserve calm and prevent violence. 
How the Rabin Assassination Exposed Two Israels (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) While one Israel lost a leader, the other spawned his killer.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman: What I Wish for the Settler Who Attacked Me With a Knife (Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Haaretz+) In the moment my attacker nearly became my murderer, did he wonder why he was on a hilltop in the Occupied Territories, driven to violence because the Israeli army was protecting Palestinian farmers?
Candid camera to the rescue (David M. Weinberg, Israel Hayom) The Temple Mount camera scheme is a trap for Israel: It's a short hop from international cameras to global police in Jerusalem. 
Netanyahu Traps Israel in a World of False Images (Carolina Landsmann, Haaretz+) The prime minister is actually saying this: The right didn't incite to Rabin’s murder, although he was murdered, and you in the left are inciting to my murder, even though you won't murder me.
Stop using scare tactics on us (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) The Left and the West are trying to instill dread among Israelis while justifying Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinians' aim is to eradicate Israel, and the only solution is to expand Israel every time they attack, showing them we are here to stay. 
Talking to an Arab and Palestinian Audience Shouldn’t Lose You the Jewish Vote (Peter Beinart, Haaretz+) Recognizing that Palestinians are dying too, as did Democrat hopeful Martin O'Malley, shouldn't be controversial. But in the 2016 presidential campaign it's risky merely to acknowledge the suffering of both sides.
The Simple Truth About the Occupation (Carlo Strenger, Haaretz+) Yeshayahu Leibowitz got it right even before 1967 when he warned that Israel was heading down a dangerous moral slope. 
Collective Punishment: Arabs in Israel Face the Sack Because They're Arabs (Rawnak Natour and Ron Gerlitz, Haaretz+) Israel's local authorities are scandalously adopting the fearmongering and racism of parents demanding they prevent Arab workers from working in their children's schools.
Pros and cons of demolition (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Even while seeking new court orders to raze terrorists' homes, the state seems reluctant to act on previously granted ones.
An Organized Barbarity Called 'Demolishing Terrorists’ Homes' (Hagai El-Ad, Haaretz+) Insisting on due process in cases of demolition of terrorists' houses obscures the fact that this practice has across-the-board support.
When Assad Is the Alternative to Assad (Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz+) The talks in Vienna failed to bring good news for the millions of displaced Syrians, but did confirm Iran’s place at the table.
 

The Student Sent to Help Kill the Mufti
In 1948, Ya’akov Shafrir was sent to take pictures of the path leading to the home of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, a reconnaissance mission for a potential assassination attempt. The incident still haunts him, nearly 70 years on. (Interviewed by Ofer Aderet in Haaretz+)
Just before commencing the operation, he met with a 25-year-old female university student, Hana Zuta, and she decided to join. When they got to the site, though, the two were shot at by snipers. One of the bullets hit and killed Hana. Two years ago, when his health declined, he decided the time had come to speak out. He contacted Hana’s younger sister, who rushed to his house to hear the story. “She said Hana would not have survived the war for long, because she was always looking to take part in the most dangerous operations and did the most extreme things,” he recalls. On a page devoted to Zuta on a Defense Ministry memorial website, there is no mention of the fact that she lost her life because of a plan to assassinate the mufti. There are other recorded accounts of attempts to assassinate the pro-Nazi mufti, both in the country and abroad.

Ultimately, Shafrir (who later changed his surname to Shapira) was transformed from an ardent Zionist who took part in a plan to kill a Muslim leader to a pessimistic leftist.
“From the beginning, Zionism was a colonialist and racist movement,” he states. “After all, we didn’t come here to an empty country. If I had known the truth, I wouldn’t have come,” he admits, adding, “The only group who can save the Zionist enterprise is the Palestinians. Only an alliance with them can save the situation. We will right an injustice and return the country to the Palestinians. There’s no alternative.”
  
'A failed defense attorney, outrageous proceedings and a prisoner turned into a political bargaining chip'
Eliot Lauer, a renowned American lawyer and a religious Jew, who has been representing Jonathan Pollard voluntarily for the past 15 years, analyzes the reasons for the Israeli spy's long imprisonment. In a special and exclusive interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, two weeks before Pollard's release from the North Carolina prison, his attorney reveals some of the drama that took place behind the scenes and explains what has to happen in order for Pollard to fulfill his dream and make aliyah. (Interviewed by Ronen Bergman and Noam Barkan in Yedioth/Ynet)
 
Battle legacy: Eliyahu ‘Ra’anana’ Sela, a warrior and a commander in the Palmach who helped conquer parts of Jerusalem blames the present violence on Israel not solving the situation of the Arabs in Jerusalem.
Eliyahu ‘Ra’anana’ Sela, who was operations officer of the Harel Brigade, fought important battles, including conquering San Simon Monastery in Jerusalem, one of the hardest battles in Jerusalem, and which led to the defeat of the southern part of the city. But he was not a commander to say “We conquered San Simon,” the interviewer noted. “It’s not my character,” said Eliyahu. Despite his successes, he rejected a military career. (Interviewed by Yaakov Bar-On in Maariv)
On Jerusalem today he says:
“In practice, in the 48 years that passed since the Six Day War we were not able to create conditions for the reunification of Jerusalem. They forgot that there was a Harel Brigade, and if it weren’t for the Brigades fighting in the War of Independence there would have been nothing to fight for in the Six Day War. There is now a malicious intent to change the face of history, when they ignore the fact that Jerusalem is Jewish today thanks the War of Independence, because it wasn’t at part of the Partition Plan (according to which, Jerusalem was supposed to be an international enclave – Y.B.).”
And the attacks in recent days?
"They show that since the Six Day War, practically nothing was done to solve the problem of Jerusalem. Should the Arabs be expelled, or maybe there should be a different arrangement? But it is not conceivable that this interim status continues endlessly. What did we fight for in the War of Independence, if not so that the 100,000 Jewish residents of the city, a sixth of the Jewish population in the land at the time, not be slaughtered? It was clear to us that there was no reason to retreat.”
On the looting of Arab homes and businesses: Although many recounted the heroism demonstrated in the battle at San Simon, it is impossible not to ask Sela to discuss the stories that go around since then about the looting. "We, the Palmach fighters, we were a very small part of the looting in Jerusalem.  [However,] not all our friends were blameless. Ask Jerusalemites what they did there, while they were unstoppable during the act (of looting). Looting kills the spirit of the soldiers, as well as the attempts of a small part of them to avoid fighting in the battles.”
 
Departures Arrivals: 'In Turkey, I Raised My Son as if He Were Israeli'
Inci grew up in a strict Jewish community, but forged her own path. (Haaretz+)
 
 

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