APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday April 14, 2016
 

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

• Netanyahu and Yaalon approved advancing construction in isolated settlements
• Israel in message to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority: Status quo at Temple Mount will be preserved
• Police recommend putting three mayors on trial (for corruption)
• Netanyahu to ask government to approve political appointment that was rejected twice
• Brother of (Interior Minister) Deri interrogated for two days over assets he bought from Deri
• Israel Air Force offers hundreds of pilots to shorten their service by two years
• Night meetings at home and touching the actresses: Testimonies reveal the work method of the artistic director of the Khan Theater
• Privatization needed (for religious affairs) // Haaretz Editorial
• Waiting for Boogie (Yaalon) // Ari Shavit
• ­­­The movie about the Gazan singer that every Israeli must see

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Severe report: Children of Israel the poorest in the West
• Deri affair: Brother questioned by police
• Three mayors – on the way to being put on trial
• Shameful – What did the female students of the ‘Beit Yaakov’ religious high school receive for Passover? A rag with the multiplication table printed on it and the order: Use it to clean your house and at the same time practice. Netanya Municipality: We will probe

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

• Raising the alert level – IDF preparing for escalation during Passover holiday; Senior military source: “The holidays create more opportunities for attacks”; Hundreds of housing units in settlements approved; Rivlin: “The country is burning from incitement”
• Today: Decisive hearing in the affair of the Shooting Soldier; Senior military source: “In my investigation, there was no mention was made of an explosives belt”
• “(Former minister ‘Gandi’) raped me” – Tonight, the “Fact” TV show's investigation into Rehbaam Zeevi
• Hebrew Language Academy has created words for ‘shaming’ and ‘bunker’
• Ramat Gan Mayor Zinger in trouble for alleged corruption

Israel Hayom

• Information from Israel in the service of BDS
• “(Hamas military leader) Deif does what he wants in the Gaza Strip”
• Recommendation: Indict (3) mayors
• Brother of Deri questioned under warning
• Hebrew, speak Hebrew: Stop the “shaming”, from now on “biyush”
• High Court rejected the petition and ruled: The Prime Minister has the authority to head a number of ministries

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News Summary:
Israel is on security alert for violence in the West Bank during the Passover holiday, but expects no wars with Gaza in the south, the latest on alleged corruption by Israel’s Interior Minister and three mayors were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Meanwhile, more settlement housing approved, a raging hearing took place in the Knesset on the separation of Jews and Arabs in the hospital maternity wards, and Israel Hayom ran a strange story about the obvious.

After Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said it Tuesday, the IDF told Israeli military reporters the same thing in a briefing yesterday: it is preparing for a possible escalation of violence in the West Bank and E. Jerusalem and specifically on the Temple Mount during the Passover holiday. (Ynet noted that, unlike the Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu, Ya’alon gave the Palestinian security forces and Palestinian parents some of the credit for the reduction of the number of attacks.) 

Meanwhile, “despite the international criticism” (Maariv), Netanyahu and Yaalon approved over 200 new housing units in settlements and outposts, the papers reported. In Har Brakha settlement, where many Likud members live, 54 new housing units were approved and others were approved in Revana, Tekoa, Ganei Modiin, Nokdim and Givat Ze’ev.
 
**People shared terrible testimonies of racism in Israeli hospital maternity wards in a hearing Wednesday held on the subject at the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women, Maariv and Yedioth reported. Dr. Lina Qassem, of Physicians for Human Rights, said that situation was worst at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital [a religious hospital in Jerusalem – OH], where she heard the nurses say to a midwife who brought a just born Arab baby to the nursery: "What did you bring, another terrorist?” The Knesset hearing was held following the uproar caused by remarks by MK Betsalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) following the report by Army Radio on the illegal separation made by hospital staff. Some MKs expressed satisfaction at Smotrich’s public statements. "We thank Smotrich for exposing the true face of racism,” said Arab MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) at the hearing. “Smotrich and his wife apparently did not read Jewish history. It is recommended that they go back a few decades, so that he knows where those words came from, because in German it sounds more authentic." A Jewish MK agreed. “We must thank Smotrich and his wife Revital for the terrible racist remarks which they for which the issue was brought to the agenda,” said MK Revital Sweid (Zionist Camp). “From now on, there will no longer be an unwritten policy, and now we will all pay attention to that." Sweid pointed an accusing finger at the government, saying, "It starts when you say 'Arabs are flocking to the polls.’ …There is a written policy, which is equitable, and there is unwritten racism. The society is ill, and the society is ill because the head of it is ill.” Sweid talked about her personal experiences while she was hospitalized: “I was in the Department of Orthopedics and laid next to a female Arab patient. It was so natural. And the orthopedic surgeon who operated on me at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba was an Arab, and I didn’t even think twice about it. Indeed, when I gave birth, there was no Arab woman in my room in the maternity ward and maybe this really is an unwritten policy.” A former Ethiopian-Israeli MK testified that the racism is also among Jewish Israelis: She told how the two Ashkenazi mothers who were in the maternity ward room with her, "suddenly disappeared, only because of my skin color. I cried so hard. I thought it was only depending on them. But now I suddenly discover that it's a policy of the health system," said Pnina Timno-Shata.
 
Israel Hayom’s front page story was a non-story. Israel Hayom ‘reported’ that an organization that has existed since 2007 and was founded as a research project of the Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP) – a feminist, Palestinian-Jewish organization devoted to the struggle against the occupation – has “effectively become an invaluable resource for the BDS movement and anyone seeking to impose economic sanctions on Israeli businesses.” The main purpose of www.whoprofits.org is to identify and compile a list of the companies that are commercially complicit in the occupation. Anyone can choose to use that information as they like. The newspaper’s premise is similar to saying that newspapers are responsible for harming US-Israel relations because they make public Israel’s approval of settlement construction.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Growing concern in Israel: "Obama won’t end his term in office without a sweet revenge"
Jerusalem officials are preparing for the possibility that the president of the United States, just before the completion of his term, will turn to the UN Security Council with a draft resolution, which is based on the idea of two states for two peoples. Is this scenario realistic? Depends on who you ask. (Dana Somberg, Maariv)
Jerusalem's first female bomb disposal expert follows father's footsteps
Alex Pekerman is one of only two female police explosive disposal specialists in the country. Despite the fact her profession is male-dominated, she says she receives no special treatment from her colleagues: 'They treat me like I'm one of the guys.' (Roi Yanovsky, Yedioth/Ynet)
WATCH: Arab women speak out over labor exploitation
Four years ago, the State of Israel introduced a plan to increase the percentage of working Arab women in order to lift them out of poverty. But did that plan actually work? (Social TV, +972mag) 
Gaza's architectural heritage fades, but one man resists
Professor Atef Salama restores 430-year-old Levantine palace in Gaza; 'A house like this has lived for 1,000 years, unlike new apartments - just cardboard boxes,' he says. (AFP, Ynet)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Yes, Goldman Sachs Funds Hebron's Settlers. And Charles Schwab Is Funding BDS (Naftali Balanson, Haaretz+) Just as Goldman Sachs’s charitable fund gives to Hebron's settlers, Charles Schwab’s donates to the anti-Zionist, pro-BDS JVP. Partisan private funding is everywhere in the Arab-Israeli conflict – and it’s legal and legitimate. 
Deadly negative: The really important statement by Zouheir Bahloul that you didn’t hear about (Lilach Sigan, Maariv) You can call MK Bahlul hypocritical and accuse him of insensitivity. Perhaps he really made a mistake (when he said that Palestinians who attack Israeli soldiers are not terrorists). But it’s a pity that no one bothers to engage in the other surprising things he said, that don’t include a flammable analysis that will ignite the relations (between Jews and Arabs in Israel). Who said the following sentence and when? "The Palestinians need to understand that Israel is a Jewish state, so why not show sensitivity to the Jewish public, which I need as an Arab, so they won’t exclude us and won’t hate us?" The speaker was MK Zuheir Bahloul and it was only two months ago. The comments were made in response to Balad MKs who met with the families of terrorists, but chances are you did not hear about those statements. They were published in Israel Hayom and they so did not impress anyone that they were only re-quoted in the ultra-Orthodox ‘Hedrei Hederim’ news website and on the Knesset website. It’s a little hard to define it as the talk of the day, while Bahlul's statement on the ‘Palestinian assailant’ vs. ‘terrorist; is echoing for a week and has been quoted hundreds of times.
Is Bernie Sanders Right About Israel Using Disproportionate Force in Gaza? (Asher Schechter, Haaretz+) Sanders and Clinton have been quarreling over the facts of 2014’s Gaza war. Whose version of events do the numbers support? 
There is reason to worry about the comments made by Bernie Sanders on Israel, but it is different from what you think (Shmuel Rosner, Maariv) The Democratic candidate's criticism reflects an ideological perspective, but it also has a political dimension. If he believes that an attack on Israel would serve him politically, Jerusalem needs to fear. 
The Political Dilemma Facing Israel's Defense Minister (Ari Shavit, Haaretz+) The new strategic danger Ya’alon sees is the danger from within. The populistic right-wing’s anarchistic attack on the state, the army and state institutions has become the central threat to Israeli sovereignty.
Loyalty tests on the shores of Egypt (Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, Israel Hayom) Why should the Jewish people be collectively responsible for helping a population that offers very little in return?
Why Jews Should Act on the Story of the Good Samaritan (Peter Beinart, Haaretz+) For millennia, philosophers have noted we grow more content when we stop obsessing about ourselves. But it took giving money to the homeless for me to experience that truth for myself.
No need to panic over S-300 deal (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) The S-300 missile deal between Iran and Russia is more symbolic than an actual threat; Moscow has yet to transfer the missiles, but Israel should do everything it can to ensure its security in an increasingly militarized Middle East.
A Pope, an Archbishop and a Bunch of Rabbis Talk About Love (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) Fears of provoking schisms and splits will always trump clerical efforts to assist believers in expressing their sexuality. 
Learn from the past: put an end to the incitement against the Defense Minister (Avraham Tirosh, Maariv) Even if the intention in disseminating the images (of Yaalon in the crosshairs) that incite against Ya'alon was to remove him from the Likud and nothing else, there always could be someone from the fringes who may interpret the photograph wrong.
Delayed justice for the only senior IDF officer who behaved like a soldier in the Lebanon war (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Udi Adam's comes to his new job as Defense Ministry director-general not only with burns from the war in Lebanon, but with valuable experience amassed in other roles.
Israel’s Opposition Leader Herzog Is Guilty: Of a Complete Absence of Leadership (Gershom Gorenberg, Haaretz+) It’s time for an Israeli leader of the opposition who actually understands that people voted for Labor to get rid of Netanyahu and all he stands for – not to mimic his policies nor crawl into bed with his coalition. 
Israel Must Repair a Religious Travesty (Haaretz Editorial) The Chief Rabbinate cannot complain about its loss of status when its senior representatives are prepared to undermine such principles as humanity and fairness in the name of a distorted conservative worldview.

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