APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday November 5, 2017
 

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Tens of thousands of Israelis attended a ‘depoliticized' rally in memory of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned and blamed Iranian and Hezbollah intervention in his country’s policies (and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the resignation ‘a wake-up call' about Iranian aggression) and Israel promised to protect a Druze village inside the Syrian Golan Heights after attack there killed nine Druze Syrians - making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

Meanwhile, the papers revealed that at the behest of an advisor of Netanyahu, the CEO of the Israel Postal Authority offered a job to the former employee of the Prime Minister’s Residence who filed a complaint against Sara Netanyahu and, Israel found a legal way to prevent Palestinian Islamic Jihad members from searching for five missing militants buried under the rubble of the tunnel Israel demolished.

*Organizers of the rally in memory of Rabin tried to make it inclusive for right-wing and left-wing, despite the fact that his murder 22 years ago was a political assassination. Settlers participated and right-wing MKs attended, but politicians were not invited to speak. However, Left-wing circles criticized the organizers for ignoring the fact that Rabin was murdered and the incitement that led to it, as well as the absence of messages associated with the peace camp. The ads for the rally were later changed with the addition of the word “murder,” which had previously been omitted. The Peace Now organization said it was asked to move the stand they had set up at the edge of Rabin Square, but refused to do so. The left-wing party Meretz also claimed that organizers had tried to move their stand. Rally organizers explained in response that the stalls had no approval. Even right-wing commentator Ben Caspit of Maariv lamented the depoliticization of the event. (See Commentary/Analysis below.)

The IDF made an unprecedented declaration, after nine Syrians were killed in a suicide attack Friday in the Druze village of Khader on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Druze from the Israeli side of the border were furious because when they ran across the border to help their brethren on the Syrian side, they were stopped by the Israeli army. Moreover, pro-Syrian regime figures accused the IDF of helping rebel forces carry out the suicide attack in Khader. So the IDF declared, “We are ready and willing to assist the people of the village and will prevent Khader from being harmed or occupied out of a sense of commitment to the Druze people."

Following the Ma'ariv report Friday that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said international law required that Israel allow the enemy to rescue and collect its members' bodies, Israel found a way to legally circumvent that, Maariv’s Ben Caspit reported. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had originally instructed the army not to allow the Palestinian rescue crews to operate saying that he would do so only in exchange for progress on the return of Israeli bodies held by Hamas. Mendelblit told the IDF that if there were a security reason for a specific limited amount of time that prevented Hamas and Islamic Jihad members from entering the area of Israel’s self-declared buffer zone inside the security fence of the Gaza Strip, then he would defend the government's position in the High Court of Justice. So the IDF found a specific "security justification” for which the army forbade any foreign elements to enter the area of the parameter and search for bodies there, Caspit reported. But Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused to acquiesce to the Israeli demand to return bodies of POWs, MIAs in return for allowing search efforts for the militants. Islamic Jihad declared the five missing as dead. And senior Hamas member Mahmoud A-Zahar said: “Whether the martyrs are buried in Gaza or near the border, they are buried on our land either way.”
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Gideon Levy Israeli occupation's brutal routine: Nightly raids, boys cuffed for hours and seized jewelry
There's never a dull night in the village of Beit Ummar, where the Israeli army is a regular visitor. (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+)
Fighting Israel's foes in US courts, lawyer had help from Mossad
New book details Shurat Hadin Israeli Law Center head Nitsana Darshan-Leitner's legal battles against terrorism's money masters and her cooperation with the Israeli intelligence agency's finance-tracking unit. Working with Mossad was amazing, she says. (Agencies, Israel Hayom)
The Jew from Benghazi who invented Bissli, the quintessential Israeli snack
Efraim Sa’adon, who was sent to a camp in Libya during WWII, worked for Osem for 40 years after making Aliya in 1949. Only last year did he reveal the 'secret' of how he came up with the salty snack. (Ofer Aderet, Haaretz+)
Letters to the Editor: The Israeli Film 'Foxtrot' and a Racist State (Haaretz)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Time to Lift the Gaza Blockade (Haaretz Editorial) If the transfer of control over the crossings attests to the seriousness of the parties’ intentions about reconciliation, it obliges Israel to revisit its policy in the territories.
The rally in memory of Rabin should be political because it is forbidden to allow the wound to heal (Ben Caspit, Maariv) Every year, one has to admit loudly that a brainwashed Jew shot the prime minister for a political reason, that rabbis had made the Jewish religion a ploy to murder him. In the same breath, it is forbidden to tarnish an entire public - the right-wing did not murder Rabin.
Blaming Rabin for His Assassination (Nehemia Shtrasler, Haaretz+) The calls for 'unity' draw a false equivalence between right and left, as the religious right tightens its grip on Palestinian lands and moves to rebuild the Temple.
The historical lesson from the Balfour Declaration is the power of diplomacy (Udi Segal, Maariv) It took decades, historical circumstances and a tremendous disaster to turn the idea into reality. Mahmoud Abbas has many weaknesses, but he continues with a political fixation of the idea of a state.
A Law, if Passed, Made to Be Broken (Zeev Sternhell, Haaretz+) The bill to save Netanyahu’s skin and silence the police is a threat to democracy.
Fight to the end: The concern aroused by the IDF Spokesperson's announcement regarding the terror tunnel (Prof. Arieh Eldad, Maariv) The killing of terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas worried some journalists and statesmen, but we must strike  terrorist organizations not only when they succeed in hurting us, but at every opportunity.
Catalans Compare Situation to Israel’s in 1948 (Asaf Ronel, Haaretz+) Nationalists see a parallel with the Jews – an oppressed nation that survived centuries without a state.
Attempts to attribute defeatism to the IDF testifies to the slippery slope to which we have found ourselves (Ben Caspit, Maariv) That's how it works today: someone hurls the first stone, and the crowd races after it. In the past two weeks Netanyahu has not shown signs of calm either. Maybe even the opposite.
Why Rightists Are Nice Today (Ravit Hecht, Haaretz) Rightists bow their heads because they don’t want to look at the reflection – perhaps ugly, radical and distorted yet still a reflection – of Yigal Amir.
Volatile underground currents (Lilach Shoval, Israel Hayom)
Israel has no interest in a security escalation with Gaza • But the destruction of an Islamic Jihad tunnel breaching Israeli territory signals to Gaza terrorist groups that Israel will not tolerate any violation of its sovereignty, above or below ground.
What Israel Wanted to Achieve With Threat of Military Intervention in Syrian Druze Village (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The Israeli army doesn't plan to enter Syria, but it had a message for the Druze - and the Nusra Front.
Hariri’s speech: An accurate description of Israel’s northern challenge (Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth/Ynet) The Lebanese prime minister’s resignation concludes a week of turbulent events in the region, which all point to the extremely explosive situation created by the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis and, most importantly, mark the end of the civil war in Syria and its implications on Lebanon.
Although most of them support Assad, Israel has another goal - to defend the Druze in Syria (Yossi Melman, Maariv) During most of the years of the war, Israel acted mainly against the bloody regime and its allies. But after the incident in Khader, Israel announced for the first time that it would intervene in the situation.
100 Years Ago, Britain Facilitated Palestine's Ethnic Cleansing. Today, Britain's Celebrating It (Saeb Erekat, Haaretz) By marking Balfour 'with pride', Britain is disregarding its colonial guilt and Palestinian rights.
Israel's relations with the Sunni world are much more complex than Netanyahu presents them (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Without progress on the Palestinian issue, genuine cooperation will remain only at the level of slogans. Israel also decided to suspend the supply of weapons to the criminal military regime in Myanmar, but preferred to downplay this.
The Bluffer from Balfour Street: Netanyahu and his policies are being hijacked, but his arrogance is only growing (Ran Adelist, Maariv) The image of humiliation in Abu Dhabi, where Tal Flicker was an alien from Mars, demonstrates the problematic connection between the prime minister and reality. The alliance with the Arab states exists only in his imagination.
Unforgivable and Inconsolable (Friday Haaretz Editorial) Netanyahu will continue to be dogged not just by the incitement he orchestrated against Rabin then and orchestrates against the left today, but also by how far short he falls of true leadership stature.
Who controls the skies of Gaza? This is how the Israeli air force makes its trips to the Gaza Strip (Jackie Khougy, Maariv) Two or three Salafis press a button, shoot a rocket - and IDF planes are sent quickly to hurt the Salafis’ enemy: Hamas. This is the reality that has become fixed in the Gaza Strip and the joke at our expense. It is doubtful that residents of the Eshkol Regional Council (adjacent to Gaza) know that the rocket for which they were rushing to enter the security room was shot (by a Salafist) after Hamas arrested a Salafist.
Balfour Declaration Centennial Wasn't About Israel or Palestine. It Was About U.K.'s Delusions of Grandeur (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) With the Israeli-Palestinian conflict far from resolution, perhaps the Brits need to cling to the idea that Balfour really did matter.
Between Sarsour’s Israel-hate and GOP Christian Supremacists, the Political Space for U.S. Jews Is Shrinking (Eric H. Yoffie, Haaretz+) We're being squeezed from the left and the right: Christian supremacists like Roy Moore are as much a threat to U.S. Jews as the alt-right. And Linda Sarsour's 'no to a Jewish state' troops could win over Democratic grassroots.
Britain's true motivation behind the Balfour Declaration (Shlomo Avineri, Haaretz+) Why the British thought a vaguely worded statement would galvanize American Jewish support for World War I - and how it became the engine that led to the State of Israel.
Exit of Lebanon's Hariri Increases Instability on Israel's Front With Hezbollah (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Trump's new sanctions on Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards will hurt Lebanon’s central bank and make it hard to pay the salaries of Lebanese government workers affiliated with Hezbollah.
Rabin memorial: A dialogue rather than finger-pointing (Yoaz Hendel, Yedioth/Ynet) A memorial day can’t be institutionalized for long if all people want is to feel that they are ‘right’ once a year. The main lesson from Rabin’s murder is to know how to argue and to remember the damaging potential of not knowing how to do that.
Why Is Reform Chief Rick Jacobs Mimicking the Lies of Birthright and Israel Detractors? (Gil Troy, Haaretz) Birthright's Gil Troy: Your cheap theatrics and demagoguery about our halting meet-ups with Israeli Arabs fed the League of Birthright and Israel Bashers. You owe us an apology.
Israel Is No Worse Off, So Why Are Voters Ditching Netanyahu? (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) With polls predicting Likud's decline, Netanyahu pleads for national unity; early elections seem to be off the table for now
As U.S. Congress Mulls Nuclear Deal, Iran Builds Up Economic Defensive Shield (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The more Tehran’s economic cooperation with Russia, China and EU expands, the greater Iran’s interest will be in implementing the nuclear agreement.
Why the Majority of Israelis Have Good Reason to Feel Sour  (Guy Rolnik, Haaretz+) Days after his “sour grapes” speech, in which the prime minister made fun of his detractors and boasted that millions of Israelis can travel to Berlin or London for the weekend, Benjamin Netanyahu flew off for a 5-day visit to London.
The tomb that became a prison (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) For nearly two millennia, the glory of Rachel's Tomb lay in its simplicity and accessibility • The security demands that followed the 1993 Oslo Accords have made the holy site a victim of landscape vandalism, surrounded by watchtowers and high walls.
Prime Minister Hariri's Resignation Threatens Iranian Grip on Lebanon (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Saad Hariri's exit reflects a Saudi ultimatum not only to stop compromising with Hezbollah, but also to resign and put the militia and Tehran in a bind.
There was no such thing as the "peace process", only naivety and stupidity (Dr. Chaim Misgav, Maariv) It's hard to say that everything collapsed after Rabin's murder. Three prime ministers later tried, and nothing succeeded because the Palestinians want what we can never give in exchange for the interim agreement they are willing to sign.
Alleged Israeli attack's target: A Syrian-Iranian industrial area (Roi Kais, Maariv) The Hisya industrial is home to joint Iranian-Syrian projects and Iranian companies, with ties to the Iranian government, such as Iranian car manufacturer Saipa. While it's yet unclear whether the attack's target had clear ties to Iran or Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic certainly has a significant presence in the area.
Balfour Is History. The Middle East’s New Imperialists Are Turkey and Iran (Simon A. Waldman, Haaretz+) The Arab Middle East is currently being carved into spheres of influence by imperial powers. This time it's not Britain and France but Iran and Turkey - but the reasons they seek to assert their domination are exactly the same.
 

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