APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday March 5, 2018
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
While Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu awaits his meeting today with US President Donald Trump, where they will talk about Iran and the US embassy move, the coalition government crisis grows at home, (President Reuven Rivlin called for 'dialogue, not coercion' over the Draft Bill, the ultra-Orthodox parties want passed), but some say the crisis was staged because polls show that Netanyahu will win if the country goes to early elections. The other big news was the awarding of a new Israel Prize - for Hi-Tech - to GIl Sweid, the founder of Checkpoint cyber-security company.

Interestingly, the car-ramming in the city of Acre did not make big news, as such incidents usually do. The police said the Israeli-Arab man who intentionally hit a Border Policeman and two soldiers had political motives, (i.e. it was an attack), but a witness said he was just angry that he got a 1000 shekel parking ticket for parking in a handicapped spot. He was taking his 8-months-pregnant wife for a medical check-up. The man’s father and lawyer insisted the man was not a terrorist, noting that many in the family work for the Israeli security forces. With the exception of ‘Israel Hayom,’ none of the main papers labeled the incident a ‘terror attack.’ Haaretz did not accept the police’s conclusions at fact value and called it an ‘intentional car-ramming.’ Yedioth noted that the “police’s evaluations have not yet satisfied the Shin Bet, who have yet to investigate the driver, in determining his motive.”
 

Quick Hits:

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Commentary/Analysis:
*As Trump and Netanyahu Meet, Our Plea as Interfaith Leaders: Stop Boosting the Proponents of a Religious War (Mae Elise Cannon, Yahya Hendi and Debra Shushan, Haaretz+) Trump has consistently privileged the Israeli narrative and claims over those of the Palestinians. In his Jerusalem decision he also helped the destructive, unnecessary transformation of the conflict from a political to a religious struggle.
Why were the new Supreme Court justice's social media accounts deleted? (Yehuda Nuriel, Yedioth/Ynet) The new High Court Justice Prof. Alex Stein deleted his Twitter and Facebook accounts “in the final stretch before his appointment.” The diligent journalist who revealed this revealed a number of troubling comments from the account that vanished. But before examining their content, we should ask ourselves: why were the accounts deleted? Was Stein ordered to do so? What else is hidden there? And most importantly, was the Judicial Selection Committee exposed to it when it got acquainted with the candidate? Habayit Hayehudi, the so-called ‘Jewish’ Home party, is quietly smuggling America’s deep right into Israel. MK Moti Yogev’s bulldozer will strike the Supreme Court from the outside, and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked will import elements to undermine the democratic system from the inside. So what if they’re emigrants?
Netanyahu Keeps Destroying the Rule of Law (Haaretz Editorial) Later this week, he will address the AIPAC Policy Conference. As is his wont, he will describe the threats facing Israel, use statesmanlike rhetoric and be rewarded with enthusiastic applause.
My city will succeed in passing the crisis: Rage must not lead to an act that can take innocent lives (MK Zuhair Bahlul, Maariv) As in any heterogeneous community, occasional crises arise that must be dealt with in a manner that Acre has managed to deal with over the years. I am praying that our common sense will return and increase and that we will return to our normal course of life.
Netanyahu's millennials: The loyal crew that’s sticking around Israel's embattled leader (Noa Landau, Haaretz+) The prime minister is now left with only a small band of advisors as the investigations against him continue and more and more of his staff depart.
The politics of social justice (Earl Bowen, Jr. and Asaf Romirowsky, Yedioth/Ynet) Groups like Black Lives Matter have distorted Mideast reality, pushing many African-Americans to make assumptions and conclusions based on falsehoods and misinformation. BLM statements are anti-Semitic because it selectively chooses the Jewish state out of all states in the world to demonize.
Israeli Demonstrators, It Won’t Help (Ran Shimoni, Haaretz) When protests are coordinated with police, when everyone knows the evening will pass quietly, the cause is lost from the outset.
Meretz is back in the game (Moran Azulay, Yedioth/Ynet) Tamar Zandberg’s surprise decision to join the left-wing party’s leadership race created a huge swing in her direction. Her challenge will be to end to Meretz’s delegitimization and restore its status as a legitimate, influential factor in Israeli politics. Now that Zeheva Galon and Ilan Gilon have dropped out of the race, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to estimate that the election has already been decided.
Terrorist Sponsorship for a Night (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz) As editor of newspaper Makor Rishon, convicted Jewish terrorist Haggai Segal is a sponsor of a conference about Israel’s “Seventy Years – A Vibrant Democracy.”
In the shadow of the investigations, the Netanyahu-Trump meeting will be a record of absurdity (Ran Adelist, Maariv) Comedy, drama and masks, each theatrical element will be used by the two leaders to hide their secret as they march hand in hand towards the disgrace of history.
In Syria, force will prevail (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) Israel's determination to commit its strong military capability is probably higher than that of most of the parties fighting in Syria. Hopefully that threat is enough.
Putin's announcement of new nuclear weapons does not threaten world peace (Yossi Melman, Maariv) The Russian president's announcement of the development of a new "stealth" missile did not surprise the US and NATO security systems. This is merely a return to the era of threats and intimidation from the days of the Cold War.
A Planned, Calculated Killing of Sheep in the West Bank (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) The attack last month, like hundreds of others before it, was clearly directed toward one goal.
A silly "peace plan" and the prime minister's investigations have created a reality that necessitates a cleansing at the polls (Nadav Haetzni, Maariv) Under normal circumstances, elections should be held in the State of Israel once every two or three years. To this particular rule of thumb were added special circumstances this time, which apparently will lead to early elections and have created a murky reality among the public.
Ignore the smiles: Trump-Netanyahu get-together is a collision of bad karmas (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The relationship between Israel and the U.S. is truly special when both their leaders are mainly preoccupied with escaping the law.
If Netanyahu Calls an Early Election, It Could Only Mean One Thing (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) If Israel finds itself in an election campaign that purportedly no one wanted, then Netanyahu probably has a political deal brewing.
The prime minister must play politics in order to make the most of the visit to the US (Shmuel Rosner, Maariv) Netanyahu wants the support of all Americans, but also the support of the Israelis. The louder the noise about coming election is, the more difficult it will be to deliver the goods.
The Downfall of Crown Prince Kushner (Daniel B. Shapiro, Haaretz+) It was always folly that Jared Kushner, a key example of Trump's terrible, nepotistic distortion of American government, monopolized the U.S.-Israel relationship. Now he's going down, how much further will critical decision-making deteriorate?

 

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