APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday November 22, 2015 
 

Quote of the day:

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Breaking News:
In separate incidents, two Palestinians were killed in two alleged attempts to stab Israelis this morning

Ynet reported that this morning, the former head of the Samaria regional council, Gershon Mesika, hit a Palestinan girl with his car to thwart a stabbing attack at the Huwwara checkpoint southern entrance to Nablus in the West Bank. Mesika said he saw a female Palestinian running after a girl with a knife so he hit her with his car, after which a soldier shot her dead. “I hit her (with the car). She was lying down, she still made some palpitations and then a soldier came and completed the work,” Mesika told Ynet Hebrew in a recorded interview [which describes an extrajudicial killing - OH]. The 16-year-old girl was later identified as Ashraqat Taha Ahmad Qatanani, from Nablus.
 
Shortly after that, a Palestinian taxi driver was shot dead after he allegedly tried to stab an Israeli. First the driver hit an Israeli car near the Kfar Adumim intersection and then circled around and got out of his car and ran with a knife towards the Israeli driver, who had gotten out of his car. The Israeli driver told Ynet Hebrew in a recorded interview that he quickly got back into his car while one of his passenger’s, who was armed, shot dead the Palestinian driver, Shadi Hassib, 32, from al-Bireh near Ramallah. The Israeli driver received a ‘light dry wound’ to his hands. (More from Israel Hayom)

Front Page:

Haaretz

• Terrorist stabbed four in Kiryat Gat and was caught after hours of searching
• Jonathan Pollard released after 30 years in jail
• Mirror reflection of Israel // Chemi Shalev
• Highest alert in Brussels from fear of attack; 20 killed in terror attack in Mali, among them an Israeli
• Foreign Ministry opposes bill that would limit arms export to forced that violate human rights 
• Leading academic organization voted in favor of boycotting Israel
• Rabbinic court cancelled conversion of women after 30 years – and prevented her daughter from registering as married
• Acacia trees stopped growing due to oil spillage
• Protection (mafia-style) in Knesset
• Preserve the Shamgar legacy
• Lobbyist and former consultant to Sara Netanyahu candidate for chairman of Channel 10

• Terrorist in the yard
• Brussels: Highest alert out of fear for chemical attack
• The German boycott – KaDeWe supermarkets
• Germany is blind // Ben-Dror Yemini
• At home, after 30 years (Jonathan Pollard)
• The conspiracy: Chemical attack in Europe

• Kiryat Gat: Terrorist stabbed four and was caught in a yard
• Berlin: Biggest supermarket in Europe removed all settlement products from shelves
• After 30 years: Pollard walked in streets of New York
• Released, but not free // Udi Segal
• Jewish Americans aren’t so excited (about Pollard’s release) // Shlomo Shamir

• Pollard is free
• After hours-long hunt: terrorist in Kiryat Gat was caught
• Global terror: He wanted to bring hope – and was murdered (in Mali)
• Brussels under siege – fear of chemical terror attack

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News Summary:
An 18-year-old Palestinian stabbed four people in Kiryat Gat Saturday, Israeli-American spy Jonathan Pollard was released from jail on Friday, the largest supermarket in Europe removed settlement products from its shelves this weekend, Brussels is on highest alert over warnings of a chemical attack, and an Israeli was one of 20 people killed by Islamic militants in an attack on a hotel in Mali making a lot of big news in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Also in the news, South African president, present and past spoke about ending the Israeli conflict.
 
It has been a violent weekend in these parts. After hours of searching Saturday night, police found the Palestinian attacker in Kiryat Gat, Shaker al-Tarda from the West Bank village of Yatta, who stabbed and injured four people including a 13-year-old girl. Meanwhile, a mob in the city beat and stabbed a Bedouin man they mistakenly believed was the attacker. The man said from hospital he's not angry at his attackers. On Saturday, Israeli troops detained a young Palestinian woman near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, who allegedly carried a knife in her bag with the intention of stabbing them. [Worthy of noting, the troops did not shoot her, despite their suspicions of her, and were able to detain her without harming her. - OH] (Also Maariv and Maan) In clashes that regularly take place on Fridays across the West Bank and on the border with Gaza, in places where Palestinians protest Israeli settlement expansion and the military occupation, Israeli forces shot and injured 156 Palestinians. Israel is taking measures to restrict Palestinian movement in the southern West Bank area of Gush Etzion, Ynet and Maan reported. At present, nearly 400 Palestinian children between the ages of 11 and 17 and  40 Palestinian women are being held in Israeli jails.

Europe's largest department store, KaDeWe, has removed Israeli settlement products from its shelves (although Haaretz English left out the word 'settlement' in its title), as boycotts are on the rise. The American Anthropological Association passed a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions in a landslide vote. (Also Haaretz+) And an ADL report showed a 30% rise in anti-Israeli activity on U.S. campuses. Nevertheless, the British Institute of Travel and Tourism is holding its annual conference in Israel.

Israel welcomed the release of American spy for Israel, Jonathan Pollard, and Pollard’s lawyers appealed the 'onerous and oppressive' conditions of his parole.
 
Meanwhile, two South African leaders had interesting things to say about Israel, its enemies and ending the conflict. The former president who brought about the end to Apartheid, Frederik Willem De Klerk, told Maariv's Dana Somberg that it's hard to speak with your enemy, but in the end you know that more people will die and you will still have to do it. (See more in 'Interviews' below.) Present South African President Jacob Zuma told his country's Parliament last Thursday that the reason the ruling African National Congress had hosted Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal last month, was because Hamas was a rational organization that  'evolved' and today accepts the existence of Israel.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

What is Israel's attorney general doing in Rwanda and Kenya?
No comment on asylum seekers after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, the person who gave legal approval for ‘voluntary departure’ policy, visits Africa. (Ilan Lior, Haaretz+) 
The new life of Tali Fahima
She moved to a pastoral moshav in the Upper Galilee, searching for quiet, isolating herself and raising, a single-mom, her small son. Tali Fahima is starting a new page, but her presence has sparked a storm in the moshav, which is split between those who oppose her and even fear her presence and between those who believe she needs to be left to herself. (Eti Abramov, Yedioth’s ’24 Hours’ supplement)
ISIS in Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Very few Israeli Arabs or Palestinians have joined the Islamic State, which poses no immediate threat to Israel despite the fighting on the other side of the Golan. (Daniella Peled, Haaretz) 
How ISIS fights: Terror, insurgency and slick propaganda
The group deftly defends its power base with the help of former Iraqi army officers, good tribal ties and prudent tactical retreats. (Daniella Peled, Haaretz)
Losing Ezra, friends describe the teen with a bright smile and love to give
American seminary student Ezra Schwartz was volunteering in Israel as part of his gap year when he was killed in a West Bank terror attack. (Dina Kraft, Haaretz+) 
Is Dennis Ross Partly to Blame for the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
Former diplomat Dennis Ross ignores, in his new book, the fact that the more Israel moves away from being democratic and Jewish, the less successful U.S. policy is – by its own definition. He was part of the problem. (Akiva Eldar, Haaretz+)
Avraham Burg, 'A Protestant Jew,' Presents an Alternative to Today's religious-Zionism
Burg tells his personal story, and through it the Israeli story. His father’s ‘Yekke’-style Judaism turns out to be a hidden treasure universal values. (Yaad Biran, Haaretz+)
 
Commentary/Analysis:

When the IDF doesn't pursue justice, the cycle of death continues (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) The High Court has instructed the IDF to try two soldiers who were involved in an incident three years ago in which a teenager was killed in the West Bank. Last Friday, soldiers killed a young man from the same village under strikingly similar circumstances. 
ISIS and the Palestinians are not the same thing (Yariv Oppenheimer, Yedioth/Ynet) The Paris attacks cannot justify for a minute our ongoing control of the Palestinians and do not make the vision of a bi-national state any better for Israel.
In Jail or Out, the Campaign for Prisoner of Zion Pollard Is Never-ending (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The Israeli spy as Jewish martyr narrative reached full fruition under Obama, down to the GPS ankle-bracelet he now needs to wear.
Is product labeling really an anti-Semitic move? (Yaron London, Yedioth/Ynet) Israel is being punished not because it has committed the most serious sins, but because it can be punished - while world powers are immune. 
Jews of France, There Is Nothing for You in Israel (Rogel Alpher, Haaretz+) Fleeing to Israel is to escape from the arms of Muslim fascism into the arms of Jewish fascism. 
De Klerk, Rabin: Real leaders (Doron Elhanani, Yedioth/Ynet) True leadership requires that politics be put aside for a greater good; Netanyahu knows it, but isn't prepared to make personal sacrifices. 
So These Are Israel's New Heroes? (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) Israel's recent military operations in Palestinian hospitals are a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention, and make you wonder how low the country can sink. 
Who needs facts? We have Israel as a scapegoat (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) It was only a matter of time before someone would blame Jewish state for terror attacks in Paris as Jimmy Carter blamed Israel for Charlie Hebdo. 
Germany and the Jews, Israel and the Palestinians. One Must Compare (Ilana Hammerman, Haaretz+) We live in a society that cultivates the feeling, from kindergarten to old age, that every stranger is an enemy. 
ISIS: The black octopus (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) With large oil reserves, organized government institutions, and partners from Nigeria to China, the Islamic State aims to keep expanding and spreading more terror in the West. 
Global Warming: new twist in the global war on terror (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Paris attacks and the downing of the Russian plane Sinai indicate a possible turning point in Daesh’s operations, which may also affect Israel. And Prime Minister Netanyahu rushing to give another characteristic spin.
Finance Minister Kahlon's ultimatum to Netanyahu: Change the coalition, or we unravel the present one (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Kahlon makes no secret of his desire for a broad coalition, which would ease his lot. His preferred partner is Zionist Union, with its many Knesset seats; and if not, then Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu. 
From Tehran with love: Iran's reaction to the Paris attacks (Emily B. Landau, Yedioth/Ynet) The Islamic republic's messages of support to France are hypocritical: Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and has its own reasons for wanting to see Islamic State toppled. 
The Shaming of America (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) It took decades of violence and terror before Israel was struck by the kind of xenophobia and incitement unleashed in the U.S. by the Paris attacks.
Treat terrorist attacks like war (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Thursday's attacks on Israelis were not only tragedies, they were a disappointment because the terrorists remained alive. 
Make me prime minister or leave me alone (Yossi Sarid, Haaretz+) Desperate times call for desperate measures — and this Kahanist Knesset is desperate indeed.
Illusion of calm shattered (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom) Thursday's terrorist attacks raise concerns that the current wave of terrorism is rising again.
Putin’s Turnabout in Syria Is ISIS’ Nightmare (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Washington and Moscow may still not agree about Assad’s future, but the United States can take credit for significantly expanding the coalition in the war against Islamic State.
The price of the West's hesitation in Syria (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) After the Paris attacks, it's clear that 'containing' ISIS hasn't worked.
The ISIS effect in Hebron (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) Islamic State's satanic success in Paris encourages Palestinians to intensify local terrorism. 
Jerusalem and Babylon Like It or Not, Everything Is About the Jews (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) After two previous terror attacks, Toulouse in 2012 and early this year in Paris, it was suddenly strange this week in the French capital for the Jews not to be on the receiving end.

Former South African president: "Do what Nelson Mandela and I did"
The former president, Frederik Willem De Klerk, who brought the end of the apartheid regime, said that comparisons between South Africa and Israel "disgusted” him, but he was convinced that there was only one way to advance a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. De Klerk was interviewed by phone before he arrived in Israel to speak at the "Fighting Racism Conference" held by the Berl Katznelson Foundation. The conference will award a medal for of democracy and tolerance to President Reuven Rivlin for his public activities. (Interviewed by Dana Somberg in Maariv’s Friday magazine)
“The solution is to sit down to negotiate. We realized that we had to sit with our greatest enemies. I was lucky that Mandela was on the other side (of the table), and that he was convinced that a military revolution and struggle would destroy South Africa. Both sides understood that if we didn’t sit around the negotiating table, hundreds of thousands would die and even after all the destruction and death on both sides we would still have to sit down, so it is better that it happens now."
 
 

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