APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday July 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:
A Brigade Commander testifies against Sgt. Elor Azariya saying his shooting of the incapacitated Palestinian assailant was “unjustified” (his testimony revealed much more) and Israel and the US successfully tested the integration of their missile defense systems making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. And, in Rwanda, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave his usual spiel.
 
Former Yehuda Brigade commander, Col. Yariv Ben-Ezra told the military court that the wounded assailant posed no danger when Sgt. Elor Azaria shot him in the head and killed him. Azariya claims that he acted out of fear that the assailant had a bomb and that he had moved his hand. Interestingly, Ben-Ezra said that it was a Hebron settler that reported on the ‘problematic’ shooting.  Ben-Ezra also revealed that the IDF learned something from the incident when the soldiers killed a young Palestinian woman, Hadeel al-Hashlamoun, and left her bleeding to death for a long time. “(She) became a legend (on the Palestinian street). We noticed that the long time that her body remained at the scene, while being filmed and photographed, created an entire wave of revenge and solidarity attacks—not just in Hebron, but all over the West Bank," Ben-Ezra said. "From one incident to the next, we got a better understanding, and in light of the lessons we learned and the investigations we conducted, we realized that as soon as there is an attack in a crowded urban area, which is flooded with cameras on both sides, we must clear the scene as fast as possible, to prevent revenge and solidarity attacks. That is how we trained the soldiers…all of the brigade commanders knew it: Graphic images coming out of terror attacks lead to serious attacks and an atmosphere of revenge on the Palestinian street." Maariv reported that Col. Ben-Ezra had completed his job as Brigade Commander on Tuesday and had asked to testify on the following day. His new position is so classified that military censorship won’t allow it to be named.
 
Another soldier, a comrade of Azariya, also testified, both seemingly supporting and going against Azariya. (Maariv) “According to what we learned, there is no threat of bomb (belts) in Hebron, no one ever spoke to us about bombs…If the terrorist had a bomb on him I would have been dead and Elor would have saved me.” He turned to Azariya and said ‘Thank you.’ Then he went on to say, “If I had seen the terrorist had a bomb on him and he had tried to set it off I would have shot him. In real time I did not see anything like that. If he had a bomb on him I would not have stood next to him like I did.” Upon leaving the courtroom he hugged Azariya’s father.
 
Netanyahu had some declarations to recycle in his visit to Rwanda, but with a bit of a sharp edge. On settlements he said 1.) "We are familiar with the American position [blaming it for harming peace]. It is not new. It is also not acceptable to us." 2.) Settlements don’t prevent peace, Palestinian incitement does. Netanyahu also said the UN has failed in it's multiple peacekeeping attempts, including in Rwanda. “We cannot, neither one of us, outsource our safety and our security,” he told the Rwandan President.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

The cost of closing the social gap in Israel
The annual cost of a child who drops out of the education system and joins the ranks of at-risk youth could reach nearly $26,000. (Chaim Katzman, Haaretz+)
Uganda's Jews dream of recognition from Israel
The Abayudaya is a small isolated community of Jews living near the border with Kenya; while not part of the Lost Tribes, the group's founder 'discovered the true religion' in the early 20th century, converting himself and sweeping many after him. (AFP, Ynet)
 
Commentary/Analysis: 
I Thought Israeli Soldiers Weren’t Supposed to Shoot Palestinian Girls Anymore (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) But the executions – there’s no other way to describe them – of girls and boys, women and men, keep coming.
The pushes trial: hearings at the trial of Elor Azariya have become a media war (Noam Amir, Maariv) Reporters from around the world have come to see the high values of Israeli, the conduct and hooligan behavior on live broadcast, when in the midst of it all is trapped a modest family that doesn’t understand what anyone wants from it.
*The Elor Azariya Trial – Our National Referendum (Yonatan Yavin, Yedioth) Speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, Col. Yariv Ben-Ezra testified at the trial of the soldier, Elor Azariya, saying the soldier shot (to death an incapacitated Palestinian assailant) without any operational need, and when there was no danger to the security forces in the area….He even answered the hostile provocations of the defense team with composure. Opposite this impressive restraint was the angry outburst of the father of the accused, Charlie Azariya, who demanded “a just trial,’ claimed his son was being “framed,” accused the military court of holding a wrong trial and called the prosecution “corrupt.” He also said that “someone is pulling strings” and that false testimonies were given. “Where is the Prime Minister?” he demanded facing the cameras. And the answer was: looking in Africa. Why did Azariya expect intervention from His Excellency, Mr. Netanyahu, himself? Because Mr. Netanyahu was quick to call him after the (shooting) incident and to express support for his son. The worst possibility is that the seat-warmer of the Prime Minister thought that Azariya acted appropriately. The less worse possibility (or worst, it’s already hard to tell the difference) is that Netanyahu operated on pilot without checking the worrying facts, without understanding that you can support Azariya or support the law, support Azariya or support the moral officers, such as Col. Ben-Ezra and Maj. Tom Naaman, the same company commander who received death threats following his testimony. A clear moral line passes between Charlie Azariya’s emotional hooligan conduct and between the rational conduct of Col. Ben-Ezra and Maj. Naaman. The same tense line exists between the facts and the nationalist gut feelings, and between the populist support Netanyahu and Lieberman gave to the shooter just after the incident and between the weak backup (against “all uniform wearers”) that they gave following the threats heard against Maj. Naaman. And that is the same line that is stretched between the actions of most of the IDF combat soldiers and between the modus operandi of Elor Azariya and the stars of other video clips that embarrass and shame Israel. On either side of this line are two States of Israel, which are enemy states. The state of law and order, in which morality is the highest value – to the point that sometimes painful acts are done to the national backbone – since we are immune enough. And on the other side of the border is the Wild West, where the law is bent when needed, and also when not needed, and in the end also just because it’s so easy, because the law was already bent so many times, until it turned into a faded piece of plastic that sat for months in the sun. It’s possible to declare that the trial of Elor Azariya is a national referendum in which citizens of the state are demanded to choose which side they want to live in, which Israel. But the support that Netanyahu and other senior officials gave, the public and criminal call of an MK [Naftali Bennett – OH] to kill neutralized terrorists, the threats on IDF officers [who spoke against extrajudicial killings – OH], testify already to what we voted for. The question is if there is a way to go back. And maybe it starts with this trial.
**Life (In Israel) Is a Cabaret, Old Chum (David Sarna Galdi, Haaretz+) Comparisons of Israel to 1930s Germany are dismissed as hysterical exaggerations or anti-Semitic attacks, but they are actually the ethical imperative of 'never again.' 
The appropriate Zionist response: settlement was and still is the real answer to terrorism (Nadav Haetzni, Maariv) Like before more than a hundred years ago, we insisted on clinging in between the Arab communities in the Galilee, also today this is the way. Except that the fear of international pressure is causing the government to strangle the soul of Zionism.
The Era of Populism Is Upon Us - Both in Israel and Abroad (Ari Shavit, Haaretz+) The masses in Pittsburgh, Birmingham, Marseilles and Beit Shemesh feel helpless, and this is turning into rage, and the rage is leading to the adoption of vile opinions and irrational political positions.
Netanyahu's trip is worth every penny (Yoaz Hendel, Yedioth/Ynet) Symbols are what tie a nation together, a projection of power and strength. Therefore, despite the high price tag of Netanyahu's trip to Africa, it is all worth it to help Israel come back to the strong nation-state it used to be.
Leftist Israeli MKs Want a Two-state Referendum. They Should Learn From U.K.’s Mistake (Gershom Gorenberg, Haaretz+) The Zionist Union's fantasy of a vote on the two-state solution is a foolish bid to win an election without showing leadership.
Direct hit: Is Hamas examining the seriousness of Lieberman’s intentions? (Ran Adelist, Maariv) Despite the defense minister's statements prior to his appointment about eliminating Hamas leadership, in the meantime it is all talk. I wonder if the rocket on Sderot community center was an attempt to examine how serious Lieberman is.
For Jews and Arabs, Israel’s School System Remains Separate and Unequal (Or Kashti, Haaretz+) The cutting of funding for Arab teachers’ colleges is only the latest sign.

 

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