APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday November 4, 2015 
 

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

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News Summary:
Today’s papers focused on the anger of the granddaughter of the stabbed elderly woman who Israelis initially ignored to run after her Palestinian attacker, the anger of a High Court justice for “slandering” the court and the EU intention to label settlement products. Barely mentioned in the news was controversial legislation giving a mandatory three-year jail sentence to stone-throwers.
 
Also in the news, the Knesset suspended an Arab lawmaker from running plenums for two weeks and “only” reprimanded the minister with whom he argued. Haaretz+ reported that Israeli Intelligence agencies say Israel’s relations with the Palestinian Authority are damaged, but Maariv writes that Israel’s security establishment insists that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is thwarting Palestinian attacks. And at a conference on security, two reserve generals criticize the military and the political echelons for their conduct regarding Operation Protective Edge.
 
Sagit Bracha Eisenkott said she has been threatened and cursed for telling Army Radio she was horrified by the footage showing people stepping over her stabbed 80-year-old grandmother, instead of tending to her, in order to attack the Palestinian stabber. "Watching the video of my grandmother falling to the ground, and nobody helping her is terrible. It says something about our society. What have we become? People chase after the terrorist, jumping over my grandmother, and for at least a minute and a half no one stops to help her,” she told the radio. She blamed the government for the situation saying, “If we want security we have to talk. We won't be secure if we keep ignoring the situation.” Since her interview, she has received threats and curses, she said. Sagit told Channel 2 News that Israelis need to do some soul searching. MK Yinon Magal, (who Tweeted last month calling for the murder of Palestinian attackers,) made headlines in Yedioth today for sparking a storm for two Tweets: “Do not get confused. Phase 1 is the elimination of the enemy during the war. Only in phase 2 do we treat the injured. Everything is fine. Even if the injured woman waited a few seconds." The media earlier reported that a mob ran after the 19-year-old Palestinian stabber and tried to kill him and the police stopped them from lynching him by locking him in a shop. Magal also upset the Israeli security forces when he Tweeted: “The real heroes these days are not the security forces. The real heroes are the citizens who stop with their bare hands the terrorists who run wild in the streets. Thank you.” [Note: Israel Hayom presented the issue as if it were a question between chasing the stabber or tending to the stabbed. But the reports of a large number of people running after the stabber, yelling, “Terrorist, death to Arabs,” gives the impression that some of them could have tended to her. – OH]  

In very sharp remarks, Deputy Chief Justice Elyakim Rubinstein rejected right-wing denunciations of the High Court for delaying the demolition of terrorists' homes and slammed the right-wing politicians for slandering the Court and taking out their own frustrations on it. He said it showed their 'astounding ignorance.'
 
Barely making the news was the new law that imposes a minimum prison sentence of three years on anyone convicted of throwing rocks or incendiary devices, stabbing or using other dangerous weapons. The law also revokes eligibility for state benefits [such as social security – OH] for those convicted and for their parents. The law will be revisited in three years. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein already expressed his opposition to the minimum sentence, a highly unusual move in the penal code.  He recommended a temporary order for one year. A Haaretz editorial earlier wrote, “The problem with legislating minimum sentences is the arbitrary manner in which the Knesset operates. It does not bother legislating minimum sentences for offenses such as manslaughter, rape or bribery – but it does for stone throwers.” Jamal Zahalka, an Arab opposition MP for the Joint List, denounced the law saying it would only add oil to the fire.

Deputy Speaker of Knesset, Arab MK Ahmad Tibi, was suspended from running the Knesset plenum for two weeks while Immigration Minister Zeev Elkin was “only reprimanded” by the Ethics Committee, wrote Maariv’s Arik Bender. Elkin was reprimanded for accusing Arab parliamentarians — and Tibi in particular — of bearing responsibility for the wave of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces and causing their injuries and deaths. Tibi was suspended by the Ethics Committee for removing Elkin from the plenum without giving him three warnings. Tibi’s associates say the decision to suspend him is indicative of the current atmosphere and that if the situation were reversed, Elkin would not have been suspended. 
 
At a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies, two reserve generals criticized the military and the political echelons over Operation Protective Edge, Maariv reported. Gen. (res.) Yom Tov Samia, former commander of the Southern Command, said he opposed giving out 72 medals of courage to soldiers for an operation whose goals and achievements were not clear. Former Military Intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin, said Israel should not belittle the achievements of Hamas during that operation: "While we broke both its strategic arms - the tunnels and the long-range rockets - Hamas nevertheless had strategic achievements that can not be trifled with. It fought for 50 days against the most powerful army in the Middle East, it closed the Ben Gurion Airport, it made the southern residents leave their homes and made conditions that extended the operation, although it did not achieve them. It could have ended the operation after a week and get the same things, but it did not do that.”
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Palestinian Politics Takes Toll on N.Y.'s Other Israel Film Festival
The last-minute decision by Tarzan and Arab Nasser not to allow their movie to be screened at the annual event again exposes the tensions and dilemmas Jewish and Israeli festivals face whenever the conflict in the Middle East heats up. (Neta Alexander, Haaretz+)
Trouble in the headlines: how the media has become the focus of (Israelis’) rage these days?
Dozens of complaints coming to the Broadcasting Authority of Channel 2 against journalists and presenters, a host of expressions of hate against journalists on social networks and even an attack against a Channel 2 news crew covering a terrorist attack that took place last month in Afula. The masses their hit the reporter, Furat Nassar, his cameraman and his producer, and the three were hospitalized. How did the media these days become the focus of public outrage? (Carmit Sapir-Weitz, Maariv) 
ISIS was not enough for this U.S.-born Israeli army vet – so he went to fight Iran - Israeli-American trains Kurdish forces on the Iraq-Iran border in urban warfare and counterterrorism - and says he’s not afraid to walk around with a kippah. (Judy Maltz, Haaretz+) 

Commentary/Analysis:

A Palestinian, 19, Knifes an 80-year-old Woman: 5 Lessons (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) There are questions that, while simple, have much to teach all of us, like 'How does stabbing a 70-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman free Palestine?'
The Execution of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Israelis mark the killing of Eitam and Naama Henkin as the beginning of the 'wave of riots' of October 2015. For the Palestinians, the killing of Hashlamoun at an army checkpoint in Hebron was the last straw.
The only way to end the violence in Hebron (Director of Breaking the Silence, Yehuda Shaul, Haaretz+) They tell us that terror and violence must be met with force, and if that doesn’t work — then even more force. But the military occupation of Hebron has not achieved security for either its Jewish or Palestinian residents. 
The doublespeak of Shimon Peres (Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom) Orwellian doublespeak is what the Left is all about. And elder Israeli statesman Shimon Peres is masterful at it.
Hashing Out the Joy Over Rabin's Murder (Orian Morris, Haaretz+) We've seen false coexistence between the right and left — between secular Zionism and religious messianism, and between Israeli Jews' two major ethnic groups. 
Fighting boycott through cultural cooperation (British Amb. David Quarrey, Yedioth/Ynet) Achieving lasting peace through a two-state solution will be the best long-term guarantee of Israel's security, says Britain's new ambassador to Israel, but boycotts won't help achieve that goal. 
Israeli Minister's Cat Transfer Plan Is Absurd on So Many Levels (Haaretz Editorial) The Pavlovian, right-wing response is interesting because of from where it derives. Transfer is the answer to every problem, be it Jewish-Palestinian, African refugees and now cats. 
There is no reason to trust Israel's 'zero tolerance' policy (Natasha Roth, +972mag) While the government claims to take a ‘zero tolerance’ stance on terrorism — whether Palestinian or Jewish — the reality on the ground paints a very different picture.  
Restraint is key (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) The rage felt by Israelis over terrorist attacks is understandable, but attempts to lynch terrorists who have been subdued are unacceptable and immoral. 
The failure of campus Zionism (Leora Noor Eisenberg, Israel Hayom) Anti-Israel activities appeal to the emotions of self-righteous and self-indulgent college students, while pro-Israel events tend to preach to the converted. 
Israel's Chilled Corpses and Frozen Thinking (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The terrorists' bodies can’t be handed over to the families because the corpses' chilling cold might ignite a fire that inflames the territories. 
Say goodbye, on our terms (Lior Ackerman, Maariv) Peace and harmony will never be here, but arrangements for peace and quiet can be, and there are many solutions that would enable this without relinquishing our security.
Why the BDS campaign can’t tolerate Israeli moderates (Dan Rabinowitz, Haaretz+) For the BDS campaign’s narrative of Israel as a radically essentialized evil to work, those most amenable to nuance and dialogue – like Israeli academics and my late friend Edward Said - must be the first to be boycotted.
 

'As long as we choose violence Israel will always defeat us'
Mubarak Awad, one of the main organizers of nonviolent resistance during the First Intifada until Israel exiled him, talks about why only nonviolence can defeat the occupation, how Palestinians must convince Israelis that peace is their own interest, and his fears that without a new nonviolent movement more and more Palestinian youths will be drawn to armed resistance. (Interviewed by Waleed Shahid, +972)

Rabbi Rick Jacobs: Reform Jews Committed to Israel Despite 'All the Messiness'
Despite disagreements with Israel's government and Orthodox establishment, head of Reform movement is optimistic about furthering liberal and egalitarian agenda in the Jewish state. A wide-ranging interview ahead of this week's Reform Movement Biennial in Florida. (Interviewed by Allison Kaplan Sommer in Haaretz+)
 
 

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