APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday December 15, 2015  
 

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

• 14 wounded in car-ramming attack in Jerusalem; infant in critical condition
• Security establishment identifying attempts to organize terror cells // Amos Harel
• Religions Ministry advancing TV broadcast productions with organization to make Jews religious
• Out of dozens of guides for new immigrants in Education Ministry, only the Ethiopians are contractors
• Violence against refugees in Germany increasing
• Accidents in construction sector: Every supervisor is responsible for 700 sites
• (E. Jerusalem residents) Forgotten Behind // Moshe Arens
• (Artist) Danny Caravan shoots in all directions: “I eat the garbage of all the architects”

• Terrorist vs. Infant - 11 wounded in car-ramming attack in central Jerusalem
• White in the eyes (snow on Mt. Hermon)

• Fear: The infant injured in the attack will lose his leg – Wave of terror continues, horror in the streets of the capital
• The gas saga: Waiting for Netanyahu
• Undiplomatic relations – In the shadow of the crisis with Moscow, Turkish President signals his desire to unfreeze the attention with Israel
• Dispute between Finance Minister and Governor of Bank of Israel over conclusions of Strom Committee
• Former senior employee in Prime Minister’s Office investigated over suspicion of fraud

• “My son will smile again” – Terrorist ran over and was eliminated; 14 injured; infant in critical condition, fear for his leg
• Poll: Some 2/3 of Palestinians support attacks
• Even an infant is a ‘worthy target’? // Haim Shine
• Limitations on Pollard will be examined
• We will open a campaign to improve the image of the Knesset, because it is the democratic home of us all // Speaker Yuli Edelstein
• Boaz Bismuth, special correspondent to Las Vegas, on the dramatic debate last night between Republican candidates

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News Summary:
Fourteen people injured in a car-ramming attack by a Palestinian in Jerusalem, Turkish President Tayep Erdogan makes appeals to Israel and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is bitterly attacked by an Israeli TV station over his presence at the Haaretz Conference in New York making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.
 
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered the fortification of Jerusalem bus stops after Abdul Muhsen Hasuna, 20, a Palestinian from Beit Hanina in E. Jerusalem rammed into a bus station, injuring 14 people, including an 18-month-old toddler, who lost his leg. Hasuna was shot dead. The measure came shortly after IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot mobilized two reservist battalions to the West Bank.

Referring to the last three months of violence as a "justified popular uprising," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that young Palestinian demonstrators were "driven by despair (at the fact) that a two-state solution is not coming." Abbas reiterated his conditions for returning to peace talks and Palestinian Authority officials told Haaretz+ spoke of the widening gap between the PA and the people on the street. This was emphasized in a Palestinian poll, which found that a majority of Palestinians now prefer Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh over Abbas (51% - 41%) and the use of knives (67%), but not by school girls in what they consider a “popular uprising.” Ironically, 47% believed that the Palestinians shot by Israelis recently had not stabbed or were not attempting to stab Israelis, even though they support such behavior. Researchers found that the "Oslo generation" of Palestinian youths, ages 18-22, are the most supportive of an armed intifada and the least supportive of a two-state solution. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry “blew off steam” in an interview with the New Yorker, in which he says the Israeli government is clueless about how it wants to deal with the Palestinian conflict. Kerry’s aides told the magazine that Netanyahu intentionally stifles even the 'inconsequential negotiations.'
 
The Hebrew papers noted that the Israeli government was in no hurry to respond to Turkish President Tayep Erdogan’s overtures to Israel, knowing that he is in a tight space diplomatically speaking with Russia. Yedioth’s diplomatic affairs correspondent Itamar Eichner wrote that “Officials in Jerusalem won't officially admit it, but they do enjoy watching Erdogan and the Turks sweat.”  Erdogan suggested Israel and Turkey unfreeze relations if Israel would just end the Gaza siege, to which officials in Jerusalem told Yedioth he should stop talking nonsense about the Gaza siege. However, Israel’s Foreign Ministry director did say that Israel seeks stable relations with Turkey, Haaretz+ reported. Possibly not by coincidence, history was made in the Turkish Republic: A public Menorah lighting ceremony was held in an Istanbul square that was sponsored by the government, Yedioth/Ynet Hebrew reported. The Jewish community, which numbers 26,000, celebrated the event, which was attended by senior representatives of the state and Muslim clerics. Erdogan issued a statement: "Happy holiday." (Ynet Hebrew)
 
The angry debate over the Breaking the Silence organization has reached new climaxes – now involving cursing Israel’s President. The situation erupted after it was published Sunday that an IDF officer in reserves was detained in Britain over war crimes allegations. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon reacted by lashing out against the Israeli human rights organization, Breaking the Silence, which collects and publishes testimonies from soldiers about human rights violations by soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza, calling it a ‘malicious’ group that tarnishes the IDF. Yaalon also banned Breaking the Silence from speaking before IDF troops. Breaking the Silence responded saying, "(Yaalon) had no problem sending us to sacrifice our lives in order to guard illegal outposts, but he is not ready to deal with us going back home and telling about orders and missions that he sent us on in order to preserve the messianic settlement enterprise.” The group promised that “Despite the attacks and threats, we will continue to break the silence to defend Israel against the destructive policies of the right-wing government, of which Moshe (Boogie) Ya'alon is a member.” (Maariv) Breaking the Silence also responded to Yaalon’s tweets against the NGO, saying that the defense minister "appointed himself minister of silencing and fear-mongering as he joined the path of incitement conducted by extremist right-wing organizations in recent months against democracy in Israel and anyone who dares call for an end to the occupation and settlement factory.” Then, the far right-wing Israeli organization, Im Tirtzu, accused Israeli human rights organizations of sabotaging Israel ‘from within.’  Meanwhile, right-wing pressure was put on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin not to speak at the Haaretz Conference in New York Sunday, where Breaking the Silence was also on one of the dozens of panels. Then yesterday, Rivlin’s address to the Haaretz Conference, Israel’s Channel 20, the ‘Heritage Channel,’ blasted Rivlin on Facebook, saying he lost all shame. “It is time to say the institution of the presidency has lost its shame. Even if the presidency would boycott channel 20, even if Channel 20 pays the price for bucking heads with the most admired President in Israel's history, it's time to speak the truth and say out loud: Rivlin is busy representing himself and not the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel trusts the IDF and believes that they are risking their lives for us day and night, and believes that the role of the president is to support them. The presence of President Rivlin today at the conference alongside the vile organization Breaking the Silence is crossing a red line and is a disgrace to the presidency. It is Rivlin’s right as a private person to act as he wants, but as president he should not spit in the faces of the soldiers. It is shameful. It is sad." (Maariv) The post elicited a stormy debate, with some slamming the Channel and others making insidious remarks about the President. “I’m dying to shit on his face, and after (age) 120 he will die on his tombstone, son of a bitch, even God does not love him, his parents helped Hitler in the Holocaust against the Jews." "Ahh, to all the leftists here, I forgot to mention to you the main thing is that Rabin is dead." "He is not our President." Infuriated, opposition leader and Zionist Camp chief, MK Isaac Herzog said: “This is an insane incitement campaign, (the police) should carry out arrests...Channel 20 has lost all shame," he slammed. "The station's editors have been savagely attacking since this morning Israel's citizen number one, lashing out at one of the symbols of our most important sovereignty, daring, with unclear insolence, to challenge his love of Israel as if they invented Zionism." (Maariv) And on Monday evening, four MKs were removed from a stormy plenary Knesset session over the subject of Breaking the Silence. Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On defended the organization and accused Defense Minister Ya'alon of joining a campaign of "McCarthyism" and "bounty hunting." "These people are heroes, they aren't traitors," she said.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Sayed Kashua Is Israel's Louis C.K.
In ‘The Screenwriter,’ the Arab-Israeli writer moves away from the parody of ‘Arab Labor’ to comedy that has shed its comic attributes, remaining with life as it is. (Niv Hadas, Haaretz+) 
Blood brothers: The rabbi and the former Hezbollah activist
Rabbi Avaraham Sinai, who was born in a Shi'ite village as Ibrahim Yassin and was imprisoned for spying for Israel, couldn’t believe his eyes when he first met Safed's chief rabbi - the man who had appeared in his dream 15 years earlier while in Lebanese jail. (Tal Barkay, Ynet)
The Champion Fencer Representing Israel in the Miss Universe Pageant
Avigail Alfatov, a.k.a Miss Israel, serves in the Air Force, eats pizza upside down and expects to make Israel's Olympic fencing team in 2020. (JTA, Haaretz) 
The Laughs Are Strictly Regulated, but Iran's Fledgling Satire Still Tries to Push the Limits
Music and satire disappeared from Iranian television when Ahmadinejad was president. Even during Rohani’s tenure many artists are paying the price for criticizing the government. (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:

Jerusalem Car-ramming Attack Shows Israel Still Cannot Thwart Lone Assailants (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Most attempted attacks shatter against security personnel deployed in West Bank, Jerusalem and along Green Line, but as the car-ramming in Jerusalem that left 14 wounded has shown, hermetic protection is very hard to provide. 
Weapons of the Weak: Looking at the history of Palestinian terrorism shows our security situation today is better (Amos Gilboa, Maariv) It’s understood that terrorism is a constant threat to the civilian population and the economy, but our security situation is now much better than it was here in the past. To understand this one must distinguish between two historical periods: the first period from 1920 to statehood in 1948, when the Jewish community was small and weak against the Palestinians, and Palestinian terrorism was a real threat to the Jewish settlement defender and the second period, which is from the founding of the state, and especially since 1967. In this period, we are strong, and the Palestinians are weak in all respects. Palestinian terrorism is not a significant threat to the State of Israel. It became essentially the weapon of the weak. A knife, a gun, a suicide bomber who carries explosives, rockets and missiles. Terrorism had its ups and downs, and so far in the current period, within the historical continuum, it is the weakest of the weak. 
France’s anti-Le Pen Vote Wasn’t Strategic, It Was a Vote for Values (Nitzan Horowitz, Haaretz+) The country’s democratic camp is large and has just proved it. Too bad Israel’s democratic right is forgetting about about human rights. 
Wave of terror is not about to end (Eitan Haber, Yedioth/Ynet) This is where we have chosen to live, and we are going live with terror for many years to come - that is, if we don’t die first from a heart attack, in a suicide bombing or after being stabbed by a 14-year-old girl from East Jerusalem. 
Do Gas Exports Make Good Neighbors? (Sami Peretz, Haaretz+) The development of Leviathan, Israel’s largest reserve, depends in large measure on the ability to export gas to Egypt. So we are told. 
Failure of the concept: the Bush and Netanyahu doctrine did not convince the right-wing of American and Israeli of their mistake (Uri Savir, Maariv) Their discriminatory ideology is built on a racist and patronizing attitude towards every thing that is different, and towards minorities, both in America and in Israel. The US Republican and Israeli Likud perception of a “preventative war” was manifested in the context of the American war in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. American leadership (under President George W. Bush), as well as Netanyahu promised that the war would be a crushing blow to Arab terrorism, and bring a "pro-Western" regime to power in Baghdad. Today, Iraq is crumbled, al Qaeda spawned Daesh and growing international terrorism…It’s no wonder Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu did not find a common language; And no wonder Israel is isolated in the world.
Something bad is happening to the President: Rivlin is increasingly becoming disconnected (Kalman Libskind, Maariv) The gap between the positions he  expressed in the past and those he expressed today is growing. His appearance at the Haaretz conference in New York was the culmination of this trend.
Hamas is funding Islamic State in Sinai (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) Hamas' military wing in Gaza is paying tens of thousands of dollars each month to Islamic State's Sinai branch, in exchange for the group's help with smuggling weapons into the Strip.
No One Cares About Israel's Marginalized Construction Workers (Hadas Tagari, Haaretz+)  Israeli construction workers are injured or die at a rate seven times higher than construction workers in Britain. How does such a failure keep happening without any public reaction? It’s hard not to suspect that the reason stems from the fact that most people hurt in these accidents are Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinian residents of the territories, labor migrants and asylum seekers. 
The solution is slipping away (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) Considering the current climate of regional chaos, does it make sense to establish yet another dysfunctional Arab state on Israel's doorstep?
Erdogan's stress: He fell out with each everyone and isolated his country (Yossi Melman, Maariv) The Turkish President's attempt to appease Israel, according to which "the whole region will benefit from the normalization of relations," encountered a chilly response (from Israel), which is meant to take advantage of the Turkey’s foreign relations problem with its northern neighbor. 
Time to draw a clear line (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Law enforcement officers cannot be made to question their actions when dealing with terrorists. They need clear guidelines.
Fuzzy Math Exaggerates Israel's Working-poor Problem (Nehemia Shtrasler, Haaretz+) Government researchers ignore factors like public housing and reduced property tax. Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews are not mired in poverty.
 
 

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