APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday September 6, 2017
 

Quote of the day:
“She is a judge who falls in the center of the scale between judicial activism and legal restraint. She is very rooted in the political-social experience and aware of the uproar that continuously surrounds the High Court. She is very aware of the value of the separation of powers, the need for the government to rule and the Knesset to be sovereign. But she will always fight for the rights of the little guy if those institutions harm him. She is considered a judge who is sensitive to the rights of accused and arrested…”
—Israeli judicial sources share with Yedioth the characteristics of the new High Court Chief Justice, Esther Hayut, and also note that she is very security-minded.*

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Israeli Hollywood producer, Arnon Milchan, who gave testimony in 2016 that he provided the Netanyahu couple with expensive presents, turned into a suspect in the case over allegations that the gifts the Netanyahu’s received were illicit, and was questioned under warning over suspicion that he bribed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,(police investigators had complained that it would be hard to indict Netanyahu on accepting bribes if the individual responsible for bribing him was not made an official suspect), former Israeli Navy SEALS commander, Shai Brosh, was named as one of the suspects detained in the submarines corruption affair, (while Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit opposed a High Court petition seeking to question Netanyahu in the submarine affair, saying it harmed the investigation and was unjustified) and President Reuven Rivlin is in Germany to inaugurate the Munich Olympics massacre memorial on the 45th anniversary of the murders of 11 Israeli athletes there, making top stories in today's Hebrew newspapers.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month so that Trump can advance his peace initiative.
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:
Israel's Take on Burning Man: Where Radical Behavior Is Discouraged and Arabs Are Turned Away
The security briefing at the entrance to the compound that was designated for sexual activity eliminated whatever desire was left. At some point you realize what the veterans already know: Nothing is happening. (Omer Shubert, Haaretz+)
Three years after the war: Gaza youth speak out
There is a whole generation of Palestinians in Gaza that grew up knowing nothing but war and siege, and have never seen the world beyond Gaza’s deadly borders. These are the voices of some of these young Gazans, who kindly shared their tragic personal stories, hoping that the world would heed their calls for freedom and for justice. (Collected by Ramzy Baroud, Maan)
The dramatic plans for assassination and the mishaps along the way: the Nazis who fled the Mossad
The pieces of hard-won information, the unexpected challenges, and the war criminals who managed to escape and were never punished. The second part of the series on the hunt by the secret organization. (Yossi Melman, Maariv)
Jewish and Arab Students Cross Cultural Boundaries at Model Bilingual Jerusalem School
Leaders of the Hand in Hand school, among the highest-ranked in Israel, talk about contending with differences and the atmosphere during times of tension: 'We’re an incubator, but we’re not a bubble.’ (Lior Dattel, Haaretz)

Commentary/Analysis:
Condemnations of Israeli Occupation Aren’t Enough (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Europeans, your denunciations are seen by Israel as lacking urgency. You must implement painful sanctions.
I hope that the coordinator for prisoners and missing persons who resigned realized that his real job was to stall for time (Ran Adelist, Maariv) In the recordings broadcast on Army Radio, LIor Lotan says that Israel should have acted much more aggressively. But it is likely that he exhausted his role as the man who leads the families of missing soldiers, Shaul and Goldin, by the nose.
Russia's Moves on Hezbollah Expose How Trump's Mideast Policy Endangers Israel (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) For the first time, an American president has pushed Israel into a situation where it must divide its strategic planning between two rival powers.
There is someone to talk to: What can the prime minister say in his defense? (Udi Segal, Maariv) Netanyahu is right. The media does not flatter him as much as he wants - it's not its job. Either Netanyahu cannot, despite being "Mr. Communications,” think of a single story that really interests the citizens of Israel, or in the field of media, as in other areas, he is mainly concerned with putting out fires, braking, defending and trying to take responsibility only for achievements - even if they weren’t his.
Bedouin Education, Israel's Shame (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Today’s Bedouin high school grads will become another lost generation, at best making a living from menial jobs.
Israel's Supreme Court Should Ignore All the 'Noise' (Haaretz Editorial) Since politicians will presumably continue to level besides-the-point criticism either way out of narrow, cynical considerations, the court and its incoming president would be wise to disregard it.
Despite recent setbacks, Hezbollah's future is still bright (Yoav Zitun, Ynet) While losing both men and money in the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah and its beleaguered leader Hassan Nasrallah seem to be tiptoeing towards becoming the Middle East's second strongest army, after the IDF. Its cooperation with Iran, and Russia, has made it part of a growing Shiite axis in the region.
Call Out Jewish Voice for Peace for What They Are: Anti-Peace Extremists (Jonathan S. Tobin, Haaretz+) JVP aren’t just another strand of anti-occupation activism. Strewn with rejectionism and anti-Semitic slurs, their recent campaigns must stir allies on the Jewish left to realize: Not only Trump and Netanyahu threaten their vision of Israel.
It is time to uproot Army Radio from the post-Zionist experience in its various shades (Nadav Haetzni, Maariv) The embrace that the radio station provides to refuseniks and draft dodgers is nothing less than absurd. In a country where the percentage of conscription is low, the continuation of the current line is simply suicidal.
Arab MKs Have Learned a Lesson From Netanyahu (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) Leaders of the Joint List, who are not silent for one minute when it comes to the government’s injustices, have adopted its tactics. Justice is being subverted.
A textbook case (David Bedein, Israel Hayom) A U.S. official accused the Center for Near East Policy Research of fabricating evidence that Palestinian textbooks promote anti-Jewish hostility. But the evidence is clear.
'Zionists' and 'Patriots': A New Dictionary of Spoken Hebrew, Courtesy of Benjamin Netanyahu (Uzi Baram, Haaretz+) The updated definitions of words created by the Israeli prime minister and his justice minister are now becoming common currency.
Don't forget Iran (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) With North Korea occupying the headlines, world powers don't seem to notice that Iran is getting closer to obtaining nuclear weapons.
Israeli Army Can Defeat Hezbollah in Massive Drill, but Reality Is More Complicated (Amos Harel, Haaretz) Military says it will no longer settle for deterring Hezbollah, which replaced Syria as No. 1 threat on Israel's borders. But the directives it gets are never that explicit.
 

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