Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

News Summary:
A children’s coach is suspected of molesting at least 140 girls, housing prices rose sharply and Israel opened the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing with the Gaza Strip, but was vague on other details, while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a long-term security plan for Israel - making today’s top stories in the Hebrew press There were also the conclusions of three reports or probes: no steps were to be taken against the IDF soldiers who killed at least 70 innocent Palestinian civilians on ‘Black Friday’ in Rafah in the 2014 Gaza war, the state has failed to eliminate violence in the Arab sector and outstanding young Israeli army officers don't want to be yes-men so they don't continue on to be career soldiers.

On the day that Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman reopened the Gaza commercial crossing and expanded Gaza fishermen’s fishing space, Lieberman told the residents of Gaza that calm pays off and that the Gaza Strip could be the ‘Singapore of the Middle East.’ But Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza spokesman of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said, "People do not want to hear that Gaza will become Singapore or anything of that sort. They just want basic things -- clean water to drink, electricity for more than three hours a day." Lieberman explained to Israelis that he agreed to opening the crossing because he was separating between the civilians and the Hamas leaders. "My strategy is to talk directly to the Palestinian public, not with Hamas leaders," he said. [Interestingly, he contradicted his statements from when he was in the opposition and called for militarily decimating Hamas. Yesterday, he said the Gazans need to do it.

On the same day, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unveiled security plans for the next decade, which requires increasing the security budget by $27 billion over the next decade, despite an earlier agreement that their would be no more additions to the budget for years to come. In an insightful analysis of what Netanyahu and Lieberman are and are not revealing about the negotiations with Hamas, Maariv’s Intel reporter and analyst, Yossi Melman, wrote that the Political-Security Cabinet is conducting secret discussions on an agreement with Hamas, “but is trying to hide them from the public. The public was not given a single word about it. Instead, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu preferred to ensure that the media received other information, according to which he presented the cabinet with Israel's security concept for 2030. Of course, it is important that the ministers hear estimates and data and scenarios about what is expected in more than a decade from now. But meanwhile, the burning problem is Gaza, and the prime minister is trying to avoid dealing with it.” (Full translation of Melman’s analysis in Commentary/Analysis below.) In essence, a Israel-Hamas cease-fire on Gaza, mediated by Egypt and the UN, went into effect based on the principles that were agreed upon at the end of 2014 Gaza war. The understandings don’t include prisoner exchanges, including the remains of IDF soldiers. An unnamed security cabinet minister told the media, "There will be no genuine deal with Hamas without the return of our sons and citizens home and the promise of long lasting calm in the region.” Melman wrote that means there will eventually be violence coming from Gaza again. And 103FM/Maariv interviewed Sufian Abu Ziyad, a Palestinian minister and a senior Fatah figure living in the Gaza Strip, who said that, the transfer of the Israelis held in Gaza “There were prisoner exchanges in the past, Rabin did it, so did both Sharon and Netanyahu, and everyone tried beforehand not to pay any price, and the longer it lasted, the more trouble it was…It’s a matter of price. A person needs to know (that) and prepare the Israeli public, that in order to return the soldiers, they have to pay a price, there is no free exchange of prisoners, Hamas will not do it even if Gaza blooms. (Hamas politburo chief, Yahyeh) Sinwar, who is a Hamas leader who was released in the Shalit deal, cannot afford to release the soldiers because of this or that hudna (ceasefire). He prefers to get a missile to his head rather than that happen.” Abu Ziyad said that it’s for the Palestinians to throw Hamas out. “…but how? Only through the ballot box.”

So only days after ‘The Intercept’ revealed that the IDF closed a probe into the IDF killing of four children playing on a Gaza beach in July 2014, even though it knew who was responsible for their negligent deaths via an attack drone, the Chief Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Sharon Afek announced he had cleared the unnamed soldiers who killed scores of innocent Palestinians on ‘Black Friday’ in August 2014 during the Gaza war, when the soldiers used the controversial 'Hannibal Directive' to thwart the abduction of Lt. Col. Hadar Goldin and opened fire indiscriminately. Israel said that its soldiers killed 70 Palestinian civilians and 42 armed Palestinians, but other reports say that the number of civilians killed was between 135 to over 200. (Amnesty International provides the ‘Carnage in Rafah report here.) (Also Maariv)

**Interestingly, on the very week that the IDF closed a probe finding nothing wrong with the actions of soldiers who killed at least 70 innocent Palestinian civilians, the IDF Ombudsman Maj. Gen. (res) Yitzhak Brik wrote an “exceptionally scathing criticism of the Israel Defense Forces’ manpower policy,” saying there was essentially a yes-man atmosphere, whereby the lower ranking officers had to say everything was fine and not raise problems, Haaretz+’s Amos Harel and Maariv’s Tal Lev-Ram reported. In a letter he sent this week to senior officers and members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Brik quoted a brigade commander who said, “A situation has been created in the IDF in which no one dares to offer criticism at conferences and no one talks about problems. The generals show us a presentation that indicates the situation is excellent, but they are dealing with image, not with substance. We [the field officers] have turned into a bunch of cowards. I’m embarrassed that I too have stopped bringing up problems at conferences; unfortunately it would only do me damage. In any case things fall on deaf ears.” Consequently, the best young officers don’t want to continue as career officers and the IDF is forced to accept the mediocre ones, which affects the army’s abilities in wartime.

Lastly, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira released a scathing report blaming the state for not taking care to eliminate violence in the Arab sector, despite the promises to the Arab community. Between 2014-2016, there was 17.5 times more incidents of violence in the Arab sector than in the Jewish sector, injuries from firearms were between 2.5 to 12 times more than in other sectors in the Israeli population and 95% of the shooting offenses in residential areas took place in the Arab sector. Shapira wrote that the Israeli security services, the police, IDF and Shin Bet were not cooperating to eradicate arms smuggling into the Arab sector.That the police did not hire enough Muslim policemen, that it left uninhabited police stations and that these failures resulted in the deaths of 1,236 civilians between 2014-2016. According to the State Comptroller's report, by the end of 2017, only two police stations were established in Arab communities out of 11 that are supposed to be established by 2020. Between 2016-2020 Police were to recruit 10,000 officers, but only 600 of them are from the Muslim community, which is 6% although Muslims are 20% of the population. As part of the “City without Violence’ plan, the Interior Security Ministry promised to place security cameras and observation posts in areas with excessive violence and crime. But it was only implemented in 26% (18) of the towns with an Arab majority. And of those 18 towns, the cameras were hooked up to staffed observation centers in only 12. (Maariv, Israel Hayom Hebrew)

Ynet reported on the rage in the Arab sector following the release of the State Comptroller's report: "The police are abandoning us.” A resident of Nazareth said, "If the weapons were hurting the Jews, they would do everything to find the murderers." One bereaved father said: "The criminals don’t give a damn about the police and do what they want.”
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:
"Peter Beinart's arrest sends a message to American Jews - you are not welcome here"
The journalist joined a list of Israelis and foreigners who are detained for questioning at Ben-Gurion Airport or who are denied entry into Israel.  What they have in common: activity critical of the state or the government. (Mor Shimoni, Maariv)
Two generations with the hijab, two generations without
Amina Kahil had to marry when she was 13. Jada is fond of President Rivlin. Maryam moved to Ramle for a big house. And if Na’ima hadn’t been born that night in 1948, everything would be different. Four generations in the Kahil-Dalak-Kakhoub-Abu-Alhalawa family. (Noa Epstein, Haaretz+)
Letters to the Editor: Opening the curtain on Oz
In a very well written op-ed, Rabah Halabi makes the valid point that Israel is doing its best, by way of the back door, to become a state ruled by xenophobia. Add to this, cautioning a writer, Peter Beinart, at the airport about expressing left wing views. Next year, or so, he will be held as being a danger to Israel. Kindly read, regime. (Ze’ev M. Freed, Haaretz)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Shin Bet's Harassment of Left-wing Activists Serves Political Interests – and Not for the First Time (Mordechai Kremnitzer, Haaretz+) Source of problem isn’t in the security service, but in government’s delegitimization of Arabs and leftists.
Arabs and Jews: Dual loyalties (Noam Tirosh, Israel Hayom) American Jews can express affinity for Israel and its symbols without detracting from their loyalty to the U.S. Similarly, Arab Israelis can wave the Palestinian flag and also want to be an integral part of Israel.
Just Look at Ben-Gurion Airport (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) Profiling is the name of the game, intended to make it easy for us, the privileged Israeli Jews, and deprive and degrade all the rest.
The cabinet sees and is invisible, and Israel is again dependent on the grace of Hamas (Yossi Melman, Maariv) The Political-Security Cabinet is trying to impersonate Danidin, who sees and is invisible. It is conducting secret discussions on an agreement with Hamas, but is trying to hide them from the public. Yesterday, too, there was such a discussion, the fourth in recent weeks, but the public was not given a single word about it. Instead, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu preferred to ensure that the media received other information, according to which he presented the cabinet with Israel's security concept for 2030. Of course, it is important that the ministers hear estimates and data and scenarios about what is expected in more than a decade from now. But meanwhile, the burning problem is Gaza, and the prime minister is trying to avoid dealing with it. Yesterday there was no discussion or vote. This is perhaps the reason why Minister of Education Naftali Bennett did not attend yesterday's discussion and preferred to participate in executive meetings for the new school year. The night before, Bennett believed that the Cabinet would discuss an arrangement with Hamas and published a statement in which he and his Habayit Hayehudi party member, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, would not vote for it. In the past four days, there has been total quiet on the border, as a result of the mediation efforts of Egyptian Intelligence Chief General Kamel Abbas and UN Middle East envoy Nikolai Mladenov. In exchange for calm - the quietest days that have passed without any events since March 30, no firebombs or demonstrations on the fence - Israel has opened the border crossing in Kerem Shalom for unlimited supply of goods. 800 truckloads of fuel, gas, diesel, cement, building materials, animal feed, textiles entered the Gaza Strip for its two million residents and the area for fisherman was expanded to 17 kilometers.Without the government admitting this, this is the first stage in the arrangement outlined by Abbas and Mladenov in their talks with a senior Hamas delegation in Cairo. In effect, both sides have returned to the situation that has existed since Operation Protective Edge four years ago. This means that, despite Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman's remarks last night, Israel is conducting indirect negotiations with Hamas. Both sides wasted the quiet that has prevailed over the past four years, and has not turned it into a long-term arrangement. Now they are trying to do so, but the chances are not great. The gaps remain as wide as they were then. A senior political source said yesterday that without an exchange of prisoners, there will be no progress in the arrangement. Hamas demands as a precondition the release of 40 of its members, released in the Shalit prisoner exchange deal, and who were arrested following the (kidnapping and) murder of the three yeshiva students in Gush Etzion (in May 2014) and before the Gaza war (that began in July 2014) [Israel used the kidnapping of the three youth to make a massive sweep of detentions of political activists from both Hamas and Fatah. - OH] Israel has made a strategic decision that, in return for the bodies of soldiers, it will return the bodies of terrorists and for the two civilians held by Hamas, a small number of terrorists will be released, who don't have "blood on their hands." In short, now we are in a no-starter situation for the continuation of the process - unless Israel, contrary to its official position, compromises and agrees that the exchange of bodies and prisoners won’t be a precondition for the continued rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip. A senior official said last night that Israel's position on the matter had not changed. Blessed is the believer. So, the bottom line is, Israel is again dependent on the grace of Hamas. When Hamas wants, certainly when it realizes that rebuilding the Gaza Strip is stuck again, it will renew its attacks by launching burning balloons and kites, demonstrations on the fence and possibly rocket fire. The problem this time is that this could happen within a few months, when Israel is about to start new elections. Renewing violence on the eve of elections will undoubtedly hurt Netanyahu. Have we already said that Israel has no strategy for the Gaza Strip, but only a tactic designed to buy time? Well, this is also something, especially the desire of Netanyahu and Lieberman to avoid an unnecessary war with all its damage and casualties. Meanwhile, the prime minister and the defense minister are trying to advance a move aimed at increasing the defense budget, in contrast to the recommendations of former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon, Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon. It is hard to believe that Kahlon will agree to the demand, especially when we know that housing prices are rising again. So it is very doubtful that there will be any progress and you can smell the scent of the elections.
You wanted the ultra-Orthodox to serve in the army? (Yossi Klein, Haaretz+) We don't want them in the army in order to share the burden, we want them in the army so they can waste three years of their lives as well.
IDF watchdog vexed over 'serious motivation crisis among young officers'(Amos Harel, Haaretz+) IDF ombudsman is told that in the past, several good officers would compete for every position. Now a special effort is being made to recruit them and in a good number of cases, the army settles for those who are less qualified.
The IDF should listen to the warning of Major General (res.) Yitzhak Brik (Tal Lev-Ram, Maariv) The outgoing IDF ombudsman of soldiers claims that the large cut to the number of career soldiers, along with the shortening of compulsory service, will have a major and destructive effect on the army. The IDF attacked back: “He exceeded his authority.”
Netanyahu's Gate of Darkness (Haaretz Editorial) The government has decided to fight anyone who criticizes it, and the entryway to Israel has become another tool in this war.
Life is good (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) Israel's record low emigration figures appear to mainly indicate one thing: The vast majority of Israelis realize that it is truly good to live in Israel.
The Palestinian flag is not mine (Abed L. Azab, Haaretz+) The Palestinian flag is in practice the flag of Yasser Arafat. No one asked the opinion of the Palestinian citizens of Israel when it was made the flag of the Palestinian people.
Turkey Opts for Economic Warfare Over Economic Policies (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) Like other authoritarian leaders such as in Iran and Venezuela, Erdogan would rather fight untouchable enemies than deal with problems.
Lawfare in the service of terrorism (Amnon Lord, Israel Hayom) The aim of some left-wing organizations in Israel is to create a friendly environment for terrorism, to deter the IDF and provide the terrorists with as much freedom of operation as possible.