News Nosh 12.02.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday September 09, 2016 

You Must Be Kidding: 
"Anyone who's claiming that there's an intifada of arsonists shouldn't try to prove it by arresting innocent people." 
--Jawad Qatush’s lawyer said after Qatush was released from five days of detention. Police detained him for five days on suspicions of arson when he burned his trash.*


Front Page:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • Expose - Iran is partner in company that is selling submarines to Israel
  • The Sara file: She was questioned for 11 hours into the night
  • Storm at State Prosecutor’s Office - Very senior attorney suspected of sex crimes
  • The former senior official suspected of sexual harassment: Gil Shefer – The foreign singer, the alcohol and five men in an apartment
  • Storm in the Knesset: MK from Habayit Hayehudi denies sexual harassment accusations
  • ‘The Shadow’ and I – The bereaved son tries to close accounts with [far right-wing rapper] ‘The Shadow,’ who attacked his father who was killed in a terror attack
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links only)
  • Sources in the religious Zionist community: “Don’t cover up the sex scandals in the religious sector” [Photos of three senior religious officials presently suspected of sex crimes: Gil Shefer, Ofer Buchris and the Habayit Hayehudi MK]
  • Heat strike – The fires, droughts, winds and storms: Global heating is not just a rise in temperatures. The weather has gone crazy and we need to prepare before the next ecological disaster
  • The arson problem // Kalman Libeskind
  • The conspiracy in flames // Lior Ackerman
  • Hours in the interrogation room [photo of Sara Netanyahu]
  • Restraining order: What happened to the Israeli dream of a Spanish passport?
  • Hearing exam: This is how the muezzin is heard in the villas of Caesaria
  • The novelist: 50 years since Shai Agnon won the Pulitzer Prize for literature
  • No choice: Shlomo Bar, (lead musician of ‘The Natural Choice,’) turns to the masses via Headstart
Israel Hayom
  • “Buchris didn’t have the magnanimity to apologize” – the rage of the  soldier who accused him of rape; The Brig. Gen. signed the plea bargain and released a letter saying: “I take responsibility for my actions”
  • The former senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office suspected of sexual assault and locking up a woman: Gil Shefer
  • Claims: “MK from Habayit Hayehudi sexually harassed”
  • Prime Minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, was summoned to complete police investigation
  • Suspicion: Senior attorney at State Prosecutor’s Office committed sex crimes on someone under his authority
  • Report: “Trump will appoint General Mattis as Secretary of Defense”
  • The safe of secrets was opened: Bank Hapoalim comes out battered from the (sexual harassment) affair of (manager) Zion Keinan


News Summary:
The police questioning of the Prime Minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, for 11 hours regarding suspicions of misuse of funds at the Prime Minister’s Residence, the sex crimes and allegations of sex crimes by senior officials in politics (Gil Shefer former Prime Minister’s Office bureau chief
and an unnamed Habayit Hayehudi MK), the judiciary (renowned and yet unnamed attorney in State Prosecutor's Office, and the military (Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris) were the top stories in the Friday Hebrew newspapers along with the stormy weather so soon after the dry weather of last week's fires.
 
Also in the Hebrew news, US President Barack Obama is leaning against last-minute action to put pressure on Israel at the UN, a Palestinian man was detained for five days for suspected arson just because he burned his trash. More on arrests of suspected arsonists – and their release here. And Yedioth reported that an Iranian company holds 4.5 percent of shares in the German company at the heart of the submarine acquisition affair in which there are suspicions of conflict of interests by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.