APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday June 07, 2016

Quote of the day #1:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
 As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu headed for Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, he and French tycoon Arnaud Mimran changed their stories – which still don’t match - about the latter’s contribution to the former, also Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Education Minister Naftali Bennett to lay off the criticism of Netanyahu, and Channel 10 News revealed that Israel Police Commissioner Ronnie Alsheikh said Netanyahu promised to appoint him head of Shin Bet if he first served as Police Commissioner making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

Arnaud Mimran, who Yedioth profiled today as a “playboy, serial gambler and billionaire,” told Channel 10 News yesterday that he didn’t donate 1 million Euros to Netanyahu for his 2008 election campaign, as he had testified in a French court where he’s on trial for the ‘sting of the century,’ but rather donated 1 million French francs in 2001, which is equivalent to $170,000, and which was not for an election campaign. He said he couldn’t remember if he deposited the money in Euros or francs. Netanyahu’s office said that Netanyahu only received a $40,000 donation from Mimran in 2001, when he was a private citizen and that the claim of one million Euros was a lie. Earlier, Netanyahu's office said he never received any money from Mimran. Zionist Camp MK Erel Margalit called on Netanyahu to suspend himself, Maariv reported. “The moral filth is serious and even more serious is the silence of the lambs from the right-wing and the left-wing of those who receive jobs presently and those who are chasing future jobs. Enough of the corruption and enough of the no-less dangerous silence,” he said.  
 
Netanyahu is to meet with Vladimir Putin today to discuss implementing military coordination and economic and trade cooperation and the strengthening of cultural ties. Maariv’s political correspondent Dana Somberg wondered whether a peace initiative would come from Russia. (See Features.)

*Meanwhile, Lieberman gave a message to Bennett, advising him to "calm down,” after Bennett had threatened to leave the coalition if Netanyahu and Lieberman seriously considered peace initiatives that would lead to a Palestinian state, as the two had earlier stated. “We have less need for declarations right now. We need coordinated, combined and quiet efforts." Although Opposition leader, MK Isaac Herzog, said Saturday that he would consider joining the coalition if Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi party were removed, Zionist Camp MK Itzik Shmuli, said “No one is going to fall off their feet by Netanyahu's peace comments,” and that Netanyahu’s lack of action on the diplomatic front was the main barrier to joining the government.
 
In the midst of all this, Channel 10 News revealed that Police Commissioner Ronnie Alsheikh said in a private conversation that Netanyahu promised him that he would appoint him to the prestigious post of head of the Shin Bet, if Alsheikh first served as Police Commissioner, a job he began in December. Maariv noted, “This seemingly creates an interest for Alsheikh that Netanyahu continue to serve as Prime Minister.”  Police Commissioner Alsheikh said in response to the report: "If anyone sees himself as obligated to any offer that was said, either with authority or without – the Police Commissioner frees him from any obligation. The Police Commisioner is focused on his mission. It is not a temporary station.” 
 
**Today Maariv ran a news article on the start of Ramadan and a feature in it’s daily magazine supplement. Ynet also ran an article, noting that despite the millions of Israeli citizens celebrating Ramadan, the Israeli government does not treat Ramadan as an official holiday, and that hot weather this year requires public and private sector employers to exercise greater sympathy with fasting Muslim employees.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

How did Israel become the undisputed empire of birdwatching?
Second place at the biggest and most prestigious birding competition in the world really did not satisfy the Israeli team. Until the next victory, they make do with 540 species in Israel: "If someone sees a bird I haven’t seen, I fly there immediately." (Eyal Levy, Maariv)
With flowers and Ju Jitsu, Jews and Arabs reclaim a troubled holiday in Jerusalem
'Every year, people from the outside come and ruin our city, leave, and we remain here to pick up the pieces.' (Elhanan Miller, Haaretz+) 
"The conflict needs to be broken down into small, everyday actions": a mixed running group in Jerusalem
At “Running Without Borders," boys, girls, women and men, meet and apart from participating in marathons and races in Milan and Berlin, they talk while in motion about the security situation and about life itself. At the head of the initiative stands Yisrael Hess, 36, who has a background in online marketing. "I am a Jerusalemite who has been running through the city for years. During Operation Protective Shield (summer 2014 Gaza war) the streets were full of tension and racist shouts were made against Arabs from everywhere. I would run down the street and run into marches of Jewish youth waving signs saying, ‘Death to the Arabs.’ It shocked me. I felt I must act. " (Dr. Revital Amiran, Maariv) 
Six Day Miracle
To mark 49 years since the start of the Six Day War, the Ministry of Defense released testimonies given by IDF major generals who served in it. From gaining strategic depth in the north and south to taking back the holiest sites in Judaism from Jordanian control, the generals who led the battles describe how this war was won against all odds. (Michal Margalit and Gilad Morag, Ynet) 
The Palestinian Queen: Is Jordan’s Rania Marie Antoinette With a Social Conscience’?
Despite her deferential reception in the West, Jordanians are split in their assessment of their first lady. (Aaron Magid, Haaretz+)
The third rib: Does Netanyahu's movement closer to Moscow indicate a change in policy? (Dana Somberg, Maariv) Interests or values: what are the chances that a meeting between Netanyahu and Putin will create an opening for a peace negotiations, specifically mediated by Russia, the ally of Iran and Hezbollah? Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Moscow and now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel-Aviv University, believes that there is a likely scenario whereby Putin will broker a regional summit to be a substitute for the French peace initiative. "I would not be surprised if such a proposal were made at their meeting," Magen said. "This is not a love story between Netanyahu and Putin, but common interests. There are also many hints beyond Netanyahu’s messages. There is also the fact that several days before the meeting between Netanyahu and Putin in April, Abu Mazen visited Russia. Putin did not send a representative to the Paris conference, which also says a lot. Russia wants to be an influential regional player.” 
 
Commentary/Analysis:
If Netanyahu Is Serious About Peace He Should Follow Bennett's Advice and Say It in Hebrew (Haaretz Editorial) If Netanyahu's new-found rhetoric for peace isn't just another political move to shake the wolves off his trail, he should present his plan in Hebrew for the public to see and believe. 
Good diagnosis, bad treatment (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) Dennis Ross and David Makovsky may correctly diagnose Israel's diplomatic problems, but their offered solutions are decidedly wrong-headed. The real question Israel is facing now is its willingness, or lack thereof, to avoid turning into an apartheid state in the future. 
Summing Up the Glories of the Israeli Occupation as We Enter Its 50th Year (Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz+) This is what remains: hatred. And for that we thank everyone who was in favor of going into that war and who postponed the end. Now is the life after death, like vampires. 
A flood of Gallic gall in Paris (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) The recent conference on France's peace initiative achieved little other than more incentive for the Palestinians to keep digging in their heels. 
Eek! It’s the BDS Mouse, Get Me My Uzi (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) The BDS movement remains noisy but tiny. Yet many in Israel seemed determined to create threats and then rally the troops to fight them. 
Receiving Public Funds Doesn't Make Us 'Collaborators' at the Umm al-Fahm Gallery (Edna Fast, Haaretz+) The curator and director of Berzeit's new museum obviously didn't bother to check what goes on at the Umm al-Fahm gallery. We all have national identity issues. 
Sorry Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, but Only Israel Will Save Itself From Itself (Alit Karp, Haaretz+) When we are able stand on our own two feet and not on the feet of America, then perhaps we will be able to climb out of the mud we've created.
We’ve been there: Despite hopes, Gaby Ashkenazi does not bring a new message (Gideon Reicher, Maariv) How much we waited for him to say something. Where would he turn? What party would he join? Is he a centrist man? Or maybe he leans a bit to the right, or even to the left? No one knew. Many expected from Ashkenazi in these crazed days that he would take the wheel into his hands and stand at the head of a party that would navigate the ship of the state from that is bouncing on the waves. And here, we heard for the first time for a long time on relevant political subjects. The disappointment was great. We expected fresh tidings, depth of vision and for great distances, and suddenly we heard the booming voice of Ashkenazi at the annual conference of the "Jerusalem Post" in New York. But the recent statements of former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi show it was in vain. Ashkenazi went on stage and said that: "We must be prepared for the possibility of entering Gaza ... we cannot assume that we won’t do that, and it is wrong to state that the only option is to talk to them. They should accept our existence in the region…” You can cynically say that it is a breath of fresh air, a statement has we haven’t been exposed to yet, an original solution. But seriously, the IDF, which visited and held the Gaza Strip once, twice, three times, and only recently left behind our victims and theirs and waves of destruction, was invited by Ashkenazi to once again perform this traditional operation, which has never born fruit. Why?... Is there a gesture to court the new coalition that includes MK Avigdor Lieberman?...The time has come for the people to hear fresh tidings. Not the battered routine tested in the past and which were found empty. We look forward to more original statements, innovative, those born after fresh thought and deliberation. We are still waiting. 
Why Netanyahu the Ostrich Is Losing Sleep Over the Tunnels He Almost Didn't Destroy (Nehemia Shtrasler, Haaretz+) Though fully aware of tunnels stretching from Gaza into Israel, Netanyahu buried his head in the sand and tried to finish Operation Protective Edge before it began - a policy that is now the target of the comptroller's criticism. 
Racism, Sexism and Settler Messianism Rule Orthodoxy. We Need to Change It, Now (Rabbi Daniel Landes, Haaretz+) Israel's Orthodox rabbis are failing Judaism and Israel. We need men and women rabbis who will push back from extremism and segregation, and who will uphold universal human rights. 
Politics May Make or Break Fight Against ISIS in Iraq and Syria (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) In Iraq, the military has to navigate between the Iran-backed Shi'ite militias and Kurdish forces in the north. In Syria, the military must persuade Sunni tribes near Raqqa, many of whom hate Assad, to act against ISIS.
 

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