APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Quote of the day:
"I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation. I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations."
"I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation. I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations."
-- Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (read more here)
Number of the Day:
17 - The percentage that settlement growth has surged from the annual average since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took office in 2009, according to a Peace Now report.**
Front Page:
Haaretz
- Netanyahu nixes asylum seeker deal after right-wing pushback; 'we will remove the infiltrators'
- After MBS recognizes Israel's right to exist, King reiterates support for Palestinians
- Gaza march could be a turning point in the battle for Palestinian leadership
- Suspected Israeli-Arab car thief shot dead after crashing into West Bank bust stop
Israel Hayom
- Israelis have right to their own land, Saudi prince says
- Netanyahu cancels African migrant deal with UN refugee agency
- Palestinian protesters use mirrors in attempt to blind IDF troops
- US Supreme Court will not revive verdict against Palestinian terror
Times of Israel
- UN urges Israel to 'reconsider' canceled migrant deal
- Corbyn attends Seder at group that wants 'pile of sewage' Israel 'disposed of'
- Hamas accused of playing into Israel's hands in wake of Gaza protest
- UNESCO to pass 'most extreme' Jerusalem resolution next week
Ynet News
- PM, south TA residents mull upping cash incentive for African migrants to leave
- In latest volte-face, PM nixes UN migrant deal
- Tires, mirrors, Palestinians' new weapon of choice
- Crown prince: 'Israel has right to exist in peace'
i24 News
- Bowing to pressure, Netanyahu axes landmark UN deal
- Liberman says 'ground rules will not change' after deadly Gaza border clashes
- Saudia Arabia's Crown Prince says Israel has 'right' to its homeland
- IDF says cache of firebombs on border proof protests front for terrorism
News Summary:
Less than 24 hours after announcing a landmark deal with the UN to resettle 16,000 African asylum seekers in the West, Prime Minister Netanyahu caved to the pressure from his extreme right-wing and reneged on the plan. As Chemi Shelev writes for Haaretz, "Not only did he suspend and later cancel a supposedly bad agreement that he had described hours earlier as the best of all worlds, but he immediately reverted to slinging dirt and mud, as is his wont, on the New Israel Fund and other villains." The UN High Commissioner for Refugees expressed disappointment with Netanyahu's decision and urged him to reconsider. In a meeting with residents of south Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said, "Despite the growing legal and international limitation, we will continue to act with determination to exhaust all possibilities at our disposal to remove the infiltrators." Residents of south Tel Aviv say that one idea floated was to increase the cash incentives for asylum seekers to leave from $3,500 to $10,000.
When The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg asked Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman if he thought the Jewish people had a right to a nation-state in some part of their ancestral homeland, he said "I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation. I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land.” Saudi Arabia's King Salman followed his son's statement by reiterating his country's support for a Palestinian state and emphasizing the need for a peace process.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman confirmed IDF statements yesterday that there would be no change to the open-fire policy against Gazans approaching the border as the protests continue. The Israeli media seems to be expecting the violence around the marches to escalate. Ynet News reports that tires and mirrors are "Palestinians' new weapon of choice," and i24 News reports that a cache of firebombs found by the IDF "proves the protests [are a] front for terrorism."
Quick Hits:
- Adding to the list of countries speaking out against Netanyahu's story, Rwanda denied that it ever made an agreement with Israel, neither written nor verbal.
- Imam Sheikh Abd al-Jani Sa’ade was shot and killed as this morning as he was leaving prayer services at a mosque in Umm al-Fahm, a city in northern Israel. The association of Imams in Umm al-Fahm and other Arab leaders issued a statement urging the police to look take a serious look at the case and expressing concern at the lack of resources that have been devoted to similar cases in the recent past.
- Israel has banned an ad produced by the Reform Movement in Israel urging women not to give up their seats on planes to ultra-orthodox men who refuse to sit next to them.
- After Turkish PM Erdogan called Israel a "terrorist state', Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan says PM Netanyahu should officially recognize the Armenian genocide. Erdan said on Monday that the 2016 reconciliation between Turkey and Israel may have been a mistake.
- A spokesman for Likud, Eli Hazan told i24 News that all 30,000 protesters in Gaza were "legitimate targets."
- The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that a Palestinian in Gaza was shot and killed by Israeli troops today near the border.
- Ilana Hammerman in Haaretz about her experience at a Shin Bet lecture at Jerusalem's Hebrew University: "After a Shin Bet recruitment event, all of my ethical and academic senses tell me that an academic institution should not collaborate with secret services anywhere - much less in Israel."