APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday February 22, 2016
 

Quote of the day:

"And I hope that we are succeeding in educating our soldiers to be more tolerant and better accept the other.”
-- IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi said he was more worried about the cohesion of Israeli society than he was about terror threats and that the country needed "to broaden the common denominator and not disqualify anyone for any reason, but to accept everyone as he is."

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links)

Israel Hayom

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News Summary:
A Shin Bet ‘combat agent’ was killed by friendly fire near the Gaza Border during a secret mission, a Palestinian man was severely injured when two young armed Palestinians were killed by Israeli Police next to Jerusalem’s Old City and visiting US Vice President Joe Biden told the Israel leadership that Palestinian violence cannot be stopped by force alone and told the Palestinian leadership that it, too, must condemn the Palestinian violence making top stories in today's Hebrew newspapers. Also in the news, France dropped its promise to accept a Palestinian state if peace talks failed and blamed Palestinian violence and French Muslim youth radicalization on the lack of a peace process. 
 
The Shin Bet Chief, Yoram Cohen, revealed that Shin Bet 'combat' agent Amir Mimuni, 29, was killed by his colleague, who mistakenly identified him as a Palestinian combatant, when they were near [or possibly at – OH] the Gaza Border. At first it was thought that he was hit by Hamas gunfire. The Shin Bet did not reveal the details of their mission, but in his eulogy to Mimuni, Cohen hinted at the type of undercover work that the Shin Bet 'combat' agents there were involved in. “These missions are carried out every day, in every place where the Shin Bet has responsibility,” Cohen said. [Note: The Shin Bet operates mainly in the Arab populations in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. – OH]. “They are defined by their intensity, by their great complexity, sometimes by their opacity, secrecy, with an understanding of ‘Defend, but don’t be seen,’ in difficult conditions, in a hostile environment rife with risks. Few are able to withstand the amount of tension and the level of performance demanded over time.” (Ynet Hebrew) Yedioth ran a photo of the “Shin Bet combat agents” carrying Mimuni’s casket. Their faces were blurred, but they all had dark, shortly cropped hair and appeared to have dark beards. Haaretz published a photo of Mimuni, who also wore a beard and appeared Arab. [It is likely they were involved in an undercover operation to take place inside the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli media raised no questions about the mission. - OH] Mimuni's father said that his son never told him about his work, but said that "When we make arrests, we are humane. It's not like what they write about in the media."

In a separate attack early Wednesday morning, an E. Jerusalem Palestinian man sitting in his car was seriously wounded when police opened fire on two armed Palestinians driving a car next to the Old City. [Oddly, Yedioth wrote that the resident of Beit Hanina was shot in the head “during a firefight, “ although the police spokesperson told Haaretz that the armed Palestinians were shot before they opened fire. – OH] The two armed Palestinians, aged 19 and 21, from E. Jerusalem, had reportedly first opened fire at a bus in the Jerusalem suburb of Ramot. The bus was undamaged. Then they drove towards the Old City, where a policeman identified their car and shot at them as they raised their guns. They also reportedly tried to escape the car.
 
Elsewhere in the West Bank, IDF soldiers shot dead a 16-year-old who attempted to stab them outside Zawiya village that was blockaded after another Palestinian from there stabbed an Israeli the day before. A local Palestinian official said another Palestinian was shot and wounded in the incident at Zawiya checkpoint, as well. And, a Palestinian woman with a knife was detained inside Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank.
 
The responses to the violence by Palestinian factions were of understanding, and in some cases support. The DFLP said the wave of attacks was a "natural reaction to the ongoing crimes Israeli forces commit against the Palestinian people…”
 
The Israeli government is now looking into passing a law that would allow deportation of family members of Palestinian attackers. Interestingly, Yesh Atid Chairman, MK Yair Lapid, and MK Yaakov Pery support the bill, but the Attorney General has said it is illegal according to international law. Maariv’s Ben Caspit reported that the political echelon is discussing a ‘softened version’ of the bill, in which the families of Palestinian attackers would be ‘exiled’ into a different part of the West Bank and their ability to travel would be limited. In the meantime, the military has responded to the violence with various measures, including making more arrests, repairing holes in the separation barrier, finding Palestinians working and living in Israel without permits, and demolishing homes of attackers. However, the two attackers yesterday were from the E. Jerusalem village of Kufr Aqab, whose residents can travel anywhere in the country.
 
Later in the day, a group of former police commanders and IDF generals and former minister Haim Ramon, who are members of the ‘Movement to Save Jewish Jerusalem,’ made a bus tour around E. Jerusalem to promote their plan to unilaterally withdraw from most of the capital’s Palestinian neighborhoods and build a new wall cutting them off from the city. PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat told Haaretz+, “This is not a ‘separation’ plan, it’s an annexation plan. It would effectively separate people from their families, property, hospitals, schools, jobs and holy places…There can be no two-state solution without East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine on the 1967 border.”
 
The right-wing attacked the right-wing government. Far right-wing MK Avigdor Lieberman slammed the government’s conduct in light of the escalating violence, Yedioth reported. He visited the violence hotspot, ‘the Jerusalem Old City Damascus Gate, where he called for declaring a state of emergency and said, “Netanyahu and Yaalon are bad for the security of Israel,” Lieberman said. “The prime minister and the defense minister have succeeded in bringing Jerusalem back decades to the period of 1967.”  (Maariv) Coalition member, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) said, “It’s time to stop giving prizes to terror.” (Yedioth)
 
And in the midst of all of this, US Vice President Joe Biden met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Binaymin Netanyahu, Biden condemned Palestinian violence and condemned those who did not condemn it – in a reference to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Biden also urged Netanyahu to sign a military aid deal with the US while President Barack Obama was still in office. In a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Biden said Israel could not resolve the latest wave of violence "just by physical force."
 
And after a 2-hour closed meeting with Abbas, the US did not release any statement. However, in a statement issued from his office, Abbas said the key to security and stability in the region – and beating Daesh - was a Palestinian state.
Abbas also expressed his condolences to the family of the US citizen killed in the Tuesday attack in Jaffa and added that  more than 200 Palestinians were killed in the past five months.

France agreed with Abbas, Maariv reported. A French diplomatic source said that “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a gunpowder keg that feeds the radicalism of Daesh (ISIS). There is a connection between the radicalization of French youth and the Palestinian Israeli conflict.” Maariv’s Europe correspondent noted that also French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the annual dinner of the Jewish organizations that France will continue in its peace initiative out of “solidarity with Israel and concern for its security.” Maariv also reported that France’s Foreign Ministry led by Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault blamed the wave of Palestinian violence on the lack of a diplomatic horizon. Moreover, it said in a statement that France is launching efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by this summer, while ruling out "automatic" recognition of Palestinian statehood. This contradicts the previous French foreign minister, who said that France would automatically recognize a Palestinian state if peace talks were to fail.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

A Palestinian 'Village' Whose Residents Can't Leave
This Arabic-language novel accurately portrays rural, Palestinian society in Israel as locked in a circle of self-pity and messianic anticipation of a miracle. (Janan Bsoul, Haaretz+)
The wedding must go on: Outdoor wedding halls whose businesses were affected due to the wave of terror are returning to normal
The wedding halls in Gush Etzion (settlement bloc in the West Bank), whose incomes have been hit hard, say there is a slow return to normal and more and more couples are deciding to get married there, despite the fear of the guests: "The amount of work we have is a measure of whether the situation has normalized." (Karni Eldad, Maariv)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Israel’s unlikely place in a rapidly changing Middle East (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Stories about friction between Israel and some of its neighbors have grabbed headlines, but the story behind the scenes is very different. 
We are withdrawn inside ourselves: We need to actually stimulate debate and discussion within Israeli society (Shmuel Rosner, Maariv) The tendency of the Israelis fortify themselves into their protective bubble, surrounded by people who think like them and act like them, refutes the claim that debate is conducted within our society. 
Pew poll reveals the pathology of Israeli Jews (Ravit Hecht, Haaretz+) Sixty-five percent claim remembering the Holocaust is essential to their Jewish identity, suggesting victimhood is embedded in the national character.
Yes, shoot (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Palestinian terrorists should be shot until they no longer pose a threat, and Israel should take steps against the potential terrorists who are in Israel illegally. 
Israelis Must Draw the Obvious Conclusions About Netanyahu (Haaretz Editorial) The diplomatic failure of the prime minister and his ministers is especially outrageous when compared to the sobriety of the security establishment. 
The protective wall is cracked: Prime Minister is more concerned about Lapid than about Herzog (Avraham Tirosh, Maariv) Lapid will not be able to replace Netanyahu alone. For this to happen a group of several personalities and parties must get together. But will they be able to put aside their egos?
The Dream of a Single Nation in Israel Is Possible (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) On Tuesday, while blood flowed in the streets outside, singer Ziv Yehezkel proved that the dream is still possible.
An intifada of the mind (Ron Ben-Yishai, Ynet) In the face of spontaneous terrorism, Israel has no intelligence, deterrence, or military targets; the government has no diplomatic or military means to end this intifada.
President Trump Is Going to Build a Casino in Gaza - and It Will Be Fabulous (Asher Schechter, Haaretz+) Imagining a Trumpian solution to Israeli-Palestinian escalation: 'They need to start throwing dice instead of knives.' 
The good half: the results of the survey about the (support for) expulsion of the Muslims (from Israel) are not so terrible (Lilach Segen, Maariv) Instead of being shocked from the percentage of Jews who want to expel Arabs, let's look on the bright side: After decades of violence, 46% of Israelis still believe in coexistence. 
The End of the Road for Progressive Jews and Israel? (Rabbi Michael Lerner, Haaretz+) When Rabbi David Gordis eulogized Israel as 'a noble experiment, but a failure' he was right about the distance between the Jewish state and progressive Jewish values – but gave up on changing it. 
Welcome to our reality, Mr Vice President (Boaz Bismuth, Israel Hayom) While Biden and Peres were busy discussing peace, a terrorist in Jaffa was seeing every open car window as an opportunity to stab a Jew.
On Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton Is the Only Republican Left Standing (Alexander Griffing, Haaretz+) Clinton’s the only candidate left who holds faith with the platform that’s guided the U.S. since WWII: classic liberal interventionism, more familiar as the globocop policy that fueled both Bush presidencies. 
Israel is not alone (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) Israel is far from isolated internationally, and the local Left plays into the hands of pro-BDS elements by attacking the government.
A landmark: Tagging lobbyists (in the Knesset) is not necessarily a blow to democracy (Amos Gilboa, Maariv) Whenever someone wants to show how much our society has deteriorated, it compares the tag [that the Justice Minister proposed legislation that would require left-wing lobbyists to wear in Knesset – OH] to the yellow Star of David patch [from the Holocaust]. But also in the consensus, lobbyists are marked, and no one would argue that this harms the system of government.
A heartfelt apology from Benny Ziffer: 'I reached a height of monstrosity' (Benny Ziffer, Haaretz+) In a penitent farewell offering, Haaretz's controversial columnist explains how he allowed his role of 'amusing devil' to take control of his life - and his conscience.
No method to the madness (Dr. Reuven Berko, Israel Hayom) Balad and Hadash MKs' support of Hezbollah demonstrates they are not acting in the Palestinian people's best interest.
 
 

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