APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday February 29, 2016
 

Quote of the day:

“When we work here (in Sodastream), (Israeli) people change their views about Palestinians. Suddenly they say that not all Palestinians are terrorists. They see us as people.”
--Nabil Bisharat, 41, from Ramallah, can no longer get to his job at SodaStream because the company relocated and he hasn't gotten a permit to enter Israel.

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Front Page:

Haaretz

• Settlers invaded into 600 dunams of privately-owned Palestinian land in the Bekaa (Jordan valley)
• Netanyahu confidant received 500,000 shekels from organization of Wertheim that has zero activity
• Progress in discussions with Jordan over installation of video cameras on Temple Mount
• After 21 years in jail it turned out: DNA of the man convicted of murder did not match the findings at the site
• Clinton won in South Carolina, Le Penn, the father, and former head of Ku Klux Klan support Trump
• Train tunnel will divide the two sides of Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel-Aviv, parks will be closed for years
• The advisor who disappeared // Raviv Drucker
• The money cameras of the Police - Jerusalem
• The author of “Wicked” (now translated to Hebrew) explains why we are the witch

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Gasoline: Cheapest since 2009
• (Palestinian) Family turned in the terrorist with the ax
• (Real Estate entrepreneur) Inbal Or is on the way to the interrogation room
• Suspicion: The husband sexually harassed the surrogate mother

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

• “The terrorist was turned in out of fear of his home being demolished”
• The crisis on the way? Senior members of German government say: Netanyahu skewed Merkel’s statements regarding a two-state solution
• Warming of Jerusalem-Cairo relations; Israeli ambassador in Egypt to Channel 10 News: “I met a few times with President A-Sisi”
• (Inbal) Or in the interrogation room
• Open file – Following new DNA findings, demand to hold retrial for Ovadia Shalom, who was convicted of murder 22 years ago
• Super Tuesday: All the updates ahead of the primaries

Israel Hayom

• Brutality without limits – Video of ax attack; Manhunt ended: The terrorist who attacked Tzvika Cohen in the ax attack was caught
• The high school students’ protest: “3 matriculation exams in a week is too much”
• (Inbal Or) In the interrogation room
• Ahead of Super Tuesday: Boaz Bismuth reports from Texas
• The arrest of two suspects in the murder of Hili Sobol was extended: “More than one murder instrument was found”
• Lowest in 7 years: Gasoline will drop 19 agorot to 5.54 shekels a liter

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News Summary:
The family of the Palestinian suspect in the ax attack turns him in, an Egyptian MP has become a persona non grata after hosting the Israeli ambassador and the latest news on US primaries ahead of ‘Super Tuesday’ were top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Also, senior German officials accused Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of distorting German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statements of support for the two-state solution and a small group of BDS supporters protested the visit of former president Shimon Peres in South Africa, Israel Hayom has interesting details on the negotiations between Israel and the US over the giant annual aid package and Yedioth interviewed Palestinian workers of Sodastream as part of their anti-BDS series. And the latest on Palestinian-Israeli violence.

The papers reported that either the uncle or the father of Saadi Ali Abu Hamed, turned him in for axing a security guard at the Maaleh Adumim settlement shopping mall. Abu Hamed, 21, is from Azariyeh, a Palestinian village between E. Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim. He worked in the mall and knew the security guard, Tzvika Cohen, who is still in critical condition. Abu Hamed reportedly tied himself to the attack in initial questioning. Like so many other young Palestinian attackers, he has no security record and is not affiliated with any armed organization. Police say that the family member who called to turn him in did so because they feared their house would be demolished and because of the immense pressure security forces put on the area with roadblocks and random security checks. At the cabinet meeting yesterday, Israeli ministers demanded that Palestinian attackers be deported to Gaza or Syria. But the new Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, opposed such a move, saying the world will accuse Israel of war crimes.
 
An Egyptian lawmaker threw a shoe at fellow MP Tawfik Okasha – a show of disdain and disgrace - and 100 others demanded Okasha’s actions be investigated after he invited the Israeli ambassador for dinner at his home. Channel 10 News reported yesterday that the Israeli ambassador, Haim Koren, said he has met with Egyptian President Al-Fitah Al-Sisi a number of times.  Maariv’s Yasir Ukbi wrote that the warm relations, mainly due to join security interests, are now a exposed secret – which is why Okasha was not afraid to invite Koren for dinner. He also said he asked for a meeting with Netanyahu. (See Alon Ben-David’s analysis in Commentary/Analysis.)
 
Only a small group of BDS supporters awaited Shimon Peres outside the Johannesburg hotel yesterday, holding signs saying: “You have blood on your hands” and “Remember Qana.” (During IDF military operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996, while Peres was prime minister, an IDF shell hit a UN shelter in Qana in Lebanon, killing 106 people). Peres arrived in South Africa for one night only to help fund-raising efforts of the Israel United Appeal and United Communal Fund. Maariv reported that in his speech Peres said, “Israel was established against all odds, when it was surrounded by enemies and around it was wasteland. We turned into a strong moral and just country. A state that advances the values of democracy, human rights, justice and peace-seeking.” 
 
And today, the ‘Suspension Bill’ aimed at suspending Arab MKs with a 90-MK vote, goes for a vote in the Knesset Legislative Committee.

As part of Yedioth’s series of ‘Fighting BDS’ articles, it profiled frustrated Palestinian employees of SodaStream, who haven't been given permits to get to their jobs now located inside Israel. Sodastream is an Israeli company that, due to BDS pressure, recently relocated from a West Bank settlement to inside Israel. Oddly, the article's title presented their plight as a result of BDS, but the Palestinians were quoted as saying they were frustrated with Israel for not giving them permits to enter Israel, when they were not a security threat and just wanted to make a living. “When we work here (in Sodastream), (Israeli) people change their views about Palestinians. Suddenly they say that not all Palestinians are terrorists. They see us as people,” said Nabil Bisharat, 41, a father of seven from Ramallah, who has worked at SodaStream for six years. “We don’t know what to do. The salaries in the West Bank are terrible. My life is in Israel. Before SodaStream, I worked 10 years in a vegetable grocery in Jerusalem. But for construction work they do give permits because that is hard work and so they give it to Arabs,” said Mohammed Jaradat, 63, father of four from Ramallah, who has worked seven years in SodaStream. Some of the workers interviewed talked about their children’s fears. “Every child asks about his father’s work,” said Khalil Kanaan, 34, father of two. “My child, too. He asks where will I go to work now. I tell him that I have work. We lie in order to give them a sense of security. We feel like the children of this factory. Arabs and Jews are like family.” Hindi Ujruf, 38, worries that if she doesn’t get a permit to work in Israel, she won’t find any work. “In the Territories, I don’t have an opportunity to work. It is hard to find any work, especially for a woman. Before SodasStream, I worked as a cook at an orphanage for 800 shekels a month. My husband is unemployed, I’m like a single mom. Here in the factory there are good conditions, and we are like family.”
 
With the exception of Haaretz, the Hebrew media, did not report on the following:
Israeli soldiers shot and critically injured a middle-aged Palestinian dentist, who was in his car parked in his driveway, as well as a Palestinian youth when clashes broke out in al-Khader village near Bethlehem. IDF soldiers reportedly shoting haphazardly. In E. Jerusalem, an Israeli Border Policeman was lightly injured by stone throwers and troops responded, shooting a 19-year-old suspected rioter who was then arrested. And IDF soldiers opened fire and injured two Palestinians allegedly throwing stones at vehicles. In Gaza, Israeli forces shot and injured a man east of Khan Yunis.

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Quick Hits:

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Features:

No beard
The new guidelines make life tough on soldiers with beards, but religious soldiers say it’s a conflict between the IDF and religion: One the one hand, the IDF rules are more severe and on the other hand, rabbis rule that they need to go to jail, just not shave. “When my grandfather moved to Israel, they shaved his beard,” said one of the soldiers. “What have we come to?” (Yifat Ehrlich, Yedioth’s ’24 Hours’ supplement, p. 8)
The Jewish question
Concerned about Trump, reluctant about Sanders, not completely believing Clinton’s declarations: This is how the race for the White House has become particularly challenging for the Jewish voter. (Shlomo Shamir, Maariv Magazine supplement, cover)
UK students battle 'Apartheid Week'
A Yedioth reporter joins Jewish students on UK campuses as they fight against vilification of Israel on 'Apartheid Week' -- one ball of falafel at a time. (Yaniv Halili, Ynet)
Why an Israeli Director Hopes Her Parents Won't Watch 'Mushkie'
Aleeza Chanowitz's 12-minute film debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival with a dedication, and warning, for her parents. (Nirit Anderman, Haaretz+) 
The IDF marginalized him: The Israeli paratrooper who trained the Kurdish resistance
Few have heard of him, and yet in Kurdistan he is a national hero. Brigadier General (ret.) Tzuri Sagi describes how he led the great victories of the Kurdish underground against the Iraqi army. (Dr. Uri Milstein, Maariv)
  
Commentary/Analysis:
Jewish Grief, Arab Grief (Razi Barkai, Haaretz+) Jewish blood is dearer to me than Arab blood, yet a grieving Palestinian mother mourns her loss with the same intensity as a Jewish mother. 
A Senseless Discussion Over 'Who Grieves More,' Israelis or Palestinians (Benny Ziffer, Haaretz+) There's no way of settling this question - but what is clear is that empathy for the suffering of Israelis is foreign to tribal Palestinian society. 
A strategic choice (Dr. Nessia Shemer, Israel Hayom) Given Israel's success against organized terrorism, Palestinians have turned to "lone wolf" attacks – but they don't come out of thin air. 
Palestinian Violence Bread by Incitement? You Mean the Occupation? (Yonatan Mendel, Haaretz+) Did the killer of Shlomit Kriegman, who lives in the Qalandiya refugee camp, need a Twitter account to know that his life was in the dumps? 
We must act against inciters (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) At what point will we start exacting a real price from those who encourage terrorist activities? 
Relations with the mistress (Alon Ben-David, Maariv) In order to make relations public, say the moderate Sunni Arab states, Israel must show that it is trying to advance a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians. As long as there are no negotiations, relations will remain in the dark.
Syrian Cease-fire Holding, Barely, as Israel Watches With Skepticism (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Even if the cease-fire sticks beyond all expectations, it's hard to imagine it turning into a long-term diplomatic agreement. 
IDF preparing to meet Hezbollah's next challenge (Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth/Ynet) In the Third Lebanon War, Hezbollah will have 100,000 rockets at its disposal and special forces seeking to capture border towns; the IDF is preparing with advanced interceptors, border barriers, and deep intelligence. 
Why Import Engineers When Israeli-Arabs Are Capable and Willing? (Haaretz Editorial) As it chooses Thai and Chinese workers over local asylum seekers and Palestinians, the government is planning to flood the high-tech market with foreign engineers despite having well-qualified Israel-Arabs who could take those spots. 
Iranian election results: guarded hopes (Smadar Perry, Yedioth/Ynet) Early results promise Iranian reformists a big victory in Tehran's parliament, but while the youth and the Green Movement want to open up to the West, the conservative establishment does not intend to give up power.
Victory for the moderates will be the victory of the Iranian people (Yossi Menasheroff, Maariv) The election results may indicate that in a continuation of the 2013 presidential elections, the Iranian people are pushing for change inside and they accepted the rules of the game dictated by the Khamenei-led regime. 
Israeli Governments Flaunt 'United Jerusalem' While Doing Nothing for Its Arab Residents (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) If Jerusalem has remained 'divided' it is because the Arab neighborhoods have been neglected for the past 49 years.
 

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