APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday January 09, 2014

Quote of the day:

"The video shows that the army, which is supposed to protect the Palestinians in the West Bank, actually served as backup for violent settlers."
--Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, said in a statement upon releasing video showing soldiers accompanying settlers attacking Palestinians.**

Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Despite court request, state hiding arms export destinations
• 10,000 migrants demonstrated in front of the Knesset, their representatives were not allowed to enter
• Government funding establishment of archaeological park in Jewish settlement in heart of Hebron
• Haaretz study in Arab sector: Rise in percentage of Arabs who want to be included in Palestine
• IDF trying to convince officers to move to south with benefits worth thousands of shekels
• Museums in Israel began to help locating art they possess that Nazis stole from Jews

Yedioth Ahronoth

• Fewer exams, less memorization - Revolution in education, Education Minister: Matriculation exams have turned into the 'golden calf'
• Kahane 3rd generation - Meir Etinger, 22-year-old grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, continues his family's extremist tradition: He was a central activist among the gang of hilltop youth that were caught in Qusra village
• A look from inside - Yedioth reporter infiltrated among the infiltrators
• From Shalit to palit (refugee): Yoel Marshak, who organized demonstrations for release of Gilad, is helping the infiltrators
• The separation wall in Israel Railways - Height: 6 meters, Length: 200 meters, Cost: 1 million shekels. Railway employees demanded and received wall that will separate them from the outside workers

Maariv

• Bennett associates: If government adopts framework agreement that includes returning to '67 borders - we will leave (the coalition) (Hebrew)
• Some 10,000 asylum seekers demonstrated yesterday at the Rose Park in Jerusalem (in front of the Knesset) and demanded the government speak with them (Hebrew)
• Recipe for national suicide // Ben-Dror Yemini  (Hebrew)
• Suspicion: Universities will make it difficult for students who apply to be accepted without a psychometric exam
• Difference of 9 votes: Even after a recount of votes it is unclear who is the winner of the Nazareth elections
• iPhone? Outside the bedroom - New study finds light from smartphones and tablets that we take to the bed  suppress the sleep hormone and make it hard for us to fall asleep

Israel Hayom

•  "The plan for withdrawing from the Beqaa (Valley) is ridiculous" - Senior political sources have sharp criticism for US mediation
• Matriculation reforms and you - all the questions and answers
• The lowlifes on (Yedioth publisher Noni) Moses St. // Gonen Ginat

News Summary:
The top two stories in today's Hebrew papers focused on the dilemma of the African asylum seekers and migrants, often called 'infiltrators,' who are demanding rights and the revolutionary reform in the education system that will eliminate the requirement of psychometric exams for acceptance to university. Meanwhile, unnamed 'senior Israeli politicians' had harsh criticism for US Secretary of State John Kerry, saying his framework proposal was 'ridiculous' and calling him 'out of touch with reality,' Israel Hayom reported. And associates of Economy Minister Nafatali Bennett said his party would leave the coalition if even a draft of the framework proposal is accepted that includes Israel returning to the '67 borders. (NRG Hebrew) And there was more discussion about the far right-wing activists, who got caught by Palestinian villagers, when they entered the village to make a 'price-tag' attack. (See more in Quick Hits.) Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II met in Amman to discuss unifying a Jordanian-Palestinian stance regarding Kerry's initiative.
 

Quick Hits:

• **Settlers attack Palestinians' house while Israeli troops look on, video shows - The soldiers then fired tear gas grenades at students from Urif village, who came out of a school to throw rocks back at the Yitzhar settlers. (Haaretz)
• Settlers torch 2 Palestinian vehicles near Nablus - Settlers torched two Palestinian cars in the Nablus village of Madama on Wednesday in an apparent revenge attack after a group of settlers was held captive by villagers in Jalud [or Qusra-OH] a day earlier. (Maan and NRG Hebrew)
• Palestinian Authority: Qusra residents sent a warning to violent settlers - "They managed on Tuesday to defy groups of settlers who assaulted farmers in the village," said a PA spokesman, noting that the villagers brought water to the detained settlers and gave them tissues to mop up their blood. (Maan)
• Israel's defense minister calls settler attacks 'terrorism' - Moshe Ya'alon calls conduct 'legally and morally illegitimate'; Chairman of Yesha council of settlements also condemns attacks, saying it damages settlement movement. (Haaretz)
• Israel releases 80-year-old woman after 2-day detention - Fathiyya Abu Own, was detained by Israeli forces Monday after she allegedly smuggled a mobile phone to her son, who is an inmate in a Negev prison. (Maan)
• Israeli government funding dig in Palestinian Hebron, near Jewish enclave - Critics on left blast project as cover for expansion of city's Jewish settlement; work to continue for a year, at cost of NIS 7 million. (Haaretz)
• Israel defies World Bank, refuses to let Palestinians use landfill - Demands using site for settlements' garbage too (Haaretz)
• Lieberman's land, population swap proposal is roundly condemned - Foreign minister, countering critics of his idea to transfer some heavily Arab areas of northern Israel to a Palestinian state in any peace agreement: 'The Arabs of Wadi Ara have suddenly become Lovers of Zion.' (Haaretz and Ynet)
• Herzog: "The settlements have become a stumbling block" - Opposition leader Isaac Herzog: "The world does not accept our sovereignty in the territories...Within months the Palestinians could drag us to the International Criminal Court." (NRG Hebrew)
• Canada appoints pro-Israeli lawyer as ambassador - Hoping to solidify ties with Israel, Canada's PM will visit Israel this month for the first time, report says. (Haaretz)
• Hamas frees Fatah prisoners to mend Palestinian ties - Gaza's Hamas government freed seven imprisoned Fatah members Wednesday, as part of efforts to mend relations between the Islamist movement and its West Bank-based Palestinian rival. (Maan)
• Dutch soccer team ditches Israeli to play in UAE - Vitesse submits to Arab boycott of Israelis, leaves defender Dan Mori behind as first team heads to training camp in Abu Dhabi. (Ynet)
• Chile soccer club shirt offends local Jews - Palestino team presents new jersey showing number '1' in shape of Israel and Palestinian territories, implying all land is Palestinian. Chile's Jewish community demands apology. (Ynet)
• Academic group won't consider Israel boycott, but its mere discussion raises hackles - Activists on both sides of the issue say the success of individual boycott efforts is less important than the fact that boycotts are being discussed at all. (JTA, Haaretz)
• Ashrawi: Dutch boycott reminds Israel 'it isn't above the law' - Senior PLO member Hanan Ashrawi said she was glad that European civil society organizations and government institutions began taking practical measures, instead of only making statements. (Maan)
• Israel reveals more than $7 billion in arms sales, but few names - UN lists at least 20 countries that have purchased weapons from Israel, but are missing from the Defense Ministry report. (Haaretz)
• Instead of asylum seekers: Jordanians will work in hotels in Eilat? Following the refugees' general strike, a proposal was drawn up by the hotels to hire temporary workers from Aqaba: "The Shin Bet gave its consent." (Maariv, p. 3/NRG Hebrew)
• Iranian-born soldiers are hot commodity in IDF - From under Ayatalloh's shadow into secretive world of IDF intelligence - Iranian-born Israelis are in demand by top military brass, encouraged to stay in army beyond mandatory service. (Yedioth, p. 14/Ynet)
• Man killed by Israeli strike east of Gaza City - Muhammad Salamah al-Ijlah, 32, "a Palestinian militant was killed by an Israeli drone in Shujaiyeh," said a Gaza Health Ministry spokesman. Israel says it was not responsible. (Maan)
• Israeli forces raid Rimon prison - Palestinian Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe said that a unit from the Israeli prison administration on Wednesday "brutally assaulted" a Palestinian inmate in Rimon prison. (Maan)
• Hamdallah meets with UNRWA as strikes 'devastate' refugee life - Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Wednesday spoke with an official for the UN agency for Palestine refugees about the urgency to reopen UNRWA schools, which have been closed for 36 days due to an ongoing general strike by the agency's Palestinian employees. (Maan)
• Pope's Mideast visit has 'political dimension' - Latin patriarch of Jerusalem says Muslim population holds high expectations from Pope's upcoming visit, hopes visit strengthens ties between Catholic, Orthodox communities. (Agencies, Ynet)
• Lebanese star caught in 'Nasrallah affair' - Son of widely admired Arab Christian singer Fairuz stirs political row in Lebanon when he announces his mother is a fan of Hezbollah's leader. (Yedioth/Ynet)

Commentary/Analysis:'Price tag' attacks can and must be thwarted (Haaretz Editorial) Confrontations between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents are likely to increase as Kerry's peace efforts intensify.
Where are the settler leaders? (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) The rabbis and leaders of the settler movement must condemn "price-tag" acts or risk compromising their movement's legitimacy among the general public.
Netanyahu's secret peace plan: Do nothing (Roy Isacowitz, Haaretz) It's not true that the prime minister has no solution to the so-called Palestinian problem. There's plenty of posturing, sloganeering and self-delusion.
Jordanian option must be reconsidered (Daniel Friedmann, Yedioth/Ynet) Objection to Jordan Valley annexation shows Jordan has not lost interest in West Bank.
Israel is disgracing Jewish ethics (Ravit Hecht, Haaretz) Have we forgotten that we too wandered from place to place with no one willing to take us in?
Zionist right needs Kerry to save it from itself (Ari Shavit, Haaretz) The Zionist right failed to learn from Ariel Sharon that in order to avoid being forced to make a big concession, one must offer a small one.
Netanyahu wants to say 'yes' to Kerry, but without anyone noticing (Barak Ravid, Haaretz) Is it even possible for Netanyahu to accept Kerry's framework agreement without dismantling his coalition?
Jerusalem cannot be sacrificed for peace (Hagai Segal, Ynet) Bill banning talks on capital does not reduce chances of peace - it simply reduces illusions.
Hatred of African migrants is Israel's Stockholm Syndrome (Gideon Levy, Haaretz) Instead of developing a sense of justice based on their traditions, Israeli Jews have developed a strange sense of identity with their abusers of yesteryear.
Let my people stay. In Israel. Even if they're Africans. Or Arabs. (Bradley Burston, Haaretz) The prime minister says the protests and strikes will do no good, we're going to get rid of all of the Africans. But the prime minister works for me. He's my employee. And I say let my people stay.
 

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