Number of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
Massive criticism and a stormy Knesset debate over a racist clause in the Jewish nation-state law, a five-hour police grilling of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Case 4000, the Bezeq Telecom-Walla affair, and the question over who murdered the woman in Tel-Monde, whose body was finally found in her own backyard, were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. And, the latest on the Gaza Strip.

Also in the news, Netanyahu set off today to Moscow today to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin that upon regaining control in southern Syria after snuffing out the ‘cradle’ of the Syrian revolt, Bashar al-Assad must comply with a post-war Golan treaty. And Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel won’t tolerate a single Syrian soldier in the buffer zone along the Golan Heights border, nor will it allow a single refugee into Israel. According to a New Yorker report, quoted in the Hebrew papers, Netanyahu may also offer Putin that in exchange for removing Iranian forces from Syria, the US will lift US sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. (Also Maariv.) However, the Iranians will be pushing their own agenda as well. Maarivreported that a senior advisor to Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei will meet with Putin on the same day, said an Iranian state television report.

In a conversation yesterday, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit warned Netanyahu of the international implications of the passing of the Jewish Nation-state law, whose clause 7b, paves the way for Jews-only cities, towns and communities. Israel’sPresident Reuven Rivlin took a rare political stance, slamming the clause in a letter he sent to the Knesset, and writing that ‘it could harm Jews by serving as a weapon for our enemies,’ for which he was excoriated by Likud officials and praised by the Opposition. Yedioth called Rivlin's initiative “an unusual and defying move against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” who wants to pass the legislation into law next week. In the Knesset debate on the bill, Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri and Knesset legal advisor Attorney Eyal Yinon also warned of the international repercussions to the legislation, which allows the exclusion of citizens from cities and towns based on their ‘leum’ (people - i.e., Jewish people or Arab people - OH) or based on their religion. [NOTE: Worth reading the Op-Ed by Maariv reporter Avishai Greenzweig translated in Commentary/Analysis below, which exposes a politically-correct version of the law that was passed and illuminates how some intelligent right-wingers see no problem with passing anti-democratic laws. - OH]

Police investigators questioned Netanyahu for the 10th time Tuesday, for between four to five hours, regarding Case 4000, which alleges that Netanyahu gave Bezeq telecom company millions of dollars in benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Bezeq-owned news site Walla. Netanyahu claimed he and his family never receivedfavorable coverage from Walla, although Walla employees have said otherwise. At the same time, police questioned Bezeq's controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch, who claimed that he slanted coverage on Walla in favor of Netanyahu, ‘because he didn’t want to annoy him,’ but that he received nothing in exchange.  Also, the Netanyahu family’s attorneys told the Attorney General that former deputy police commissioner Roni Ritman, who presided over corruption probes against Netanyahu and his wife, had waged a personal vendetta against the couple believing that they were behind the sexual harassment complaint filed against him that led to his professional ruin. (But which came first? The probes or the sexual harassment complaint?) Earlier this week, Ritman indeed had suggested that they were behind the sexual harassment complaint filed against him, but he said it was because he was presiding over the corruption probes against them and they wanted him off the case, which is what happened.

ON GAZA:
Israel’s punitive closure of the only commercial crossing of the Gaza Strip, in response to the burning kites, did not stop the kites: 36 more fires that broke out from them yesterday. Moreover, the closure earned Israel criticism from the European Union and from the UN Envoy for the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov, who expressed concern over the consequences of the action, saying there was no “no substitute for commerce and trade. I urge the authorities to reverse this decision.” Haaretz+ interviewed Gazan traders, who said that “Israel's closure of the Gaza crossing is like shooting a dying man…it is the final nail in the coffin.” Meanwhile, the Israeli navy stopped a Gaza boat that was carrying wounded Palestinians and attempting to reach Cyprus, by breaching the Israeli-imposed naval blockade.

And Maariv’s Yami Rot quoted from an insightful article from the ‘Al-Arabi Al-Jadid’ newspaper, which gave details of Egypt’s preparation in Sinai for fulfilling part of Trump's ‘Deal of the Century’ plan. Here’s what the article said: "Political sources in Egypt said that Cairo had begun operations towards the implementation of economic projects as part of American-Egyptian understandings to solve the humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip...The Egyptian army has recently begun fencing an area near the airport and near the old industrial zone in El Arish where the projects are to be built. The army also evacuated the residents of the area, destroyed buildings and agricultural areas, and began to prepare the area for the new projects. According to various reports over the past six months, the US peace initiative includes a basis for a three-fold exchange of territory, that is, compensation to Palestinians for land annexed by Israel in the West Bank by transferring territory in northern Sinai to the Palestinians as a continuation of the Gaza Strip. According to the report, however, US administration envoys, Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner, recently discussed with Egyptian President al-Sisi and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas the transformation of the area in northern Sinai into an industrial and commercial zone where economic projects will be established to help the economic development of the Strip. This idea was discussed as the first stage of the broader plan, which includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and in parts of the West Bank where there are no Israeli settlements, and some of the Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. According to the report, which coincides with other recent reports, the first phase of the economic projects in northern Sinai will include the construction of a power station in El Arish, a seaport in the area adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip, and the allocation of the airport in El Arish to serve the residents of the Gaza Strip or the Palestinian state as a whole. The investment at this initial stage is estimated at $3 billion and will be financed by one of the Gulf states. At the same time, Hamas signals willingness to reach an agreement that will ease the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, while emphasizing their opposition to the ‘Deal of the Century.’ The organization's political bureau announced yesterday that it was accepting to the Egyptian proposal and would send a delegation to Cairo to discuss developments on the Palestinian issue, the issues of the Arab world and the relations between Egypt and Hamas. In the announcement, Hamas declared that it would act “an open mind and heart towards all serious initiatives" on improving the situation in the Gaza Strip, and rejected Mahmoud Abbas’ claims that these moves were part of the ‘Deal of the Century.’ The delegation is headed by Saleh al-'Aruri, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, and the talks are also expected to discuss the resumption of internal Palestinian reconciliation. Earlier this week, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said that the delegation would "hold extensive contacts with internationals, Israelis and Americans on the implementation of projects to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip."
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:
Explained: The Controversial Bill That Would Allow Jewish-only Communities in Israel
Right-wing politicians have spent half a decade trying to pass a ‘nation-state’ bill that would prioritize Israel’s Jewish nature over its democratic one. Even President Rivlin thinks the law could harm Jews worldwide. (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+)
Brotherhood of Fighters: The Battle of Karnei Hitim is brought alive, and this time Saladdin will win
Last Saturday, only 50 meters from the tent where Anna Stern arranged a sack of souvenir printed shirts a Muslim man with a large sword cut off the head of her husband. "The performance was good," said Gennady Niznik, 45, the husband, after he got up again. "But there is room to improve all the time." Today he is not Gennady, but Renaud de Chatillon, a 12th-century French aristocrat whose head was then cut off by the sword in this very field. Niznik, for his part, dusted off the heavy clothes he wore under the noon sun of Tiberias, and turned to fold the equipment that was scattered in the open field around him. Israelis, Poles, Americans, Russians, Turks, and others, came to the Jezreel Valley to recreate the battle from 1187  that had ravaged the Middle East for hundreds of years. "There is tremendous potential here, economically and socially,” said Niznik. (Oz Rosenberg, Maariv Magazine supplement, cover)
An Israeli singer returns to her Yemeni roots – and fans in Yemen approve
Singer Shiran Avraham combines Yemeni tradition with an African groove. Admirers in Yemen are urging her to perform in Sana’a. (Eness Elias, Haaretz+)
 
Commentary/Analysis: