APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday January 7, 2019

 

Quote of the day:
"I cannot recall any time in my entire career that such statements against law enforcement authorities [were made] by anyone other than heads of crime organizations."
—Retired High Court justice, Eliyahu Matza, told Israel Radio after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu posted a video clip in which he compared the Attorney General’s plan to announce before elections whether to indict him to the hand amputation of a man who was wrongly convicted.*

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Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

*Elections 2019 News:
Likud ministers continued their attack on new and popular political candidate, former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, calling him a ‘closet leftist’ and saying his wife volunteers with “MachsomWatch,” a volunteer organization of Israeli women who are peace activists, and they attacked Attorney General, Avichai Mendelblit, who plans to announce next month whether he will indict Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, while former High Court justice, Eliyahu Matza, slammed Netanyahu ‘for talking like a crime boss’ after Netanyahu also slammed Mendelblit in a controversial video clip about a severed arm. “He needs to understand that serving as prime minister is not a private venture that he brought with him from home and that must be kept at any price. The prime minister, the government, members of Knesset, Netanyahu's friends – they are all under the law and they absolutely must not make comments like these that are no less than incitement against the attorney general and law enforcement agencies. It's just incitement, in the criminal sense of the word,” Matza told Israel Radio. Yedioth and Maariv reported on Matza’s accusations only on their websites. Meanwhile, three senior commentators, one judicial, one political and one military, wrote in their papers about how Netanyahu and his ministers, right-wing members of Knesset as well as centrist politicians are not speaking out in defense of the Shin Bet, which is being attacked by right-wing Jews for its detention of Jewish minors in a Jewish terror case. Maariv’s Ben Caspit wrote that the reason was that the right-wing politicians do not want to upset their political base.

Other News Summary:

Today’s top stories were the statement by the Shin Bet that the five detained Jewish minors are suspected of the murder of a Palestinian woman and Netanyahu’s request that the US recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Also in the news, Israel attacked two Hamas outposts in Gaza after explosive balloons were launched into Israel using a styrofoam plane. And, it turns out, a report that was all over the media recently about Hebrew university lecturer Carola Hilfrich berating a student in military uniform was false, Haaretz reported. (Nevertheless, the Hebrew University ran a full page ad in Maariv titled: “Students in uniform? Welcome!” and ending with “The university is strict about appropriate and respectful treatment to all who come through its gates, the university is sorry about the exceptional incident and expresses its apology to anyone who was offended by it.” It was signed by Hebrew University President, Prof. Asher Cohen, and Chairman of the Student Council, Shir Mordechai.) Lastly, Hamas and Fatah are involved in tit-for-tat exchange over the last few days, each flexing their muscles. Ynet’s Elior Levy reported on it at length.

Some of the newspapers (Maariv and Israel Hayom) emphasized on their front pages that the Shin Bet called the five minors detained at ‘Pri Ha’aretz’ yeshiva at Rechelim settlement in connection with the October murder of Aisha Rabi, a 47-year-old Palestinian mother of nine who was killed when a rock thrown at her car hit her in the head, “dangerous anti-Zionists” after they were filmed burning an Israeli flag on which they drew a swastika and wrote the words “death to Zionists” - as if that were more significant than being suspected of a racist nationalist murder.  

Nevertheless, Maariv ran two insightful commentaries, by Ben Caspit and Tal Lev-Ram (translated below), on the radical youth and the connection between their actions and government leaders’ actions. Also significant was the following statement by the Shin Bet: "Since the arrests began, the Shin Bet has identified an intentional and ongoing effort by interested parties to defame the agency and its personnel and delegitimize its activity. This attempt is reprehensible, and it will not dissuade the Shin Bet from continuing its activity to thwart any kind of terrorism—Jewish or Palestinian," the agency said. Right-wingers continued to accuse the Shin Bet of using illegal means to interrogate the minors. Haaretz’s jurist commentator Mordechai Kremnitzer and Maariv’s Tal Lev-Ram had smart things to say about that. (See Commentary/Analysis below.) Interesting to note was that rabbis from Yitzhar gave religious permission to settlers to drive to Rechelim settlement on the Sabbath, the day after the murder of Aisha Rabi, to coach the youth on how to act if and when they are interrogated by the Shin Bet, Yedioth and Times of Israel reported. The murdered woman’s widower said he wasn’t even updated about the arrests, but that while nothing will bring back his his wife, he hopes her killers go to prison to deter others.

In diplomacy:
US National Security Advisor John Bolton is in Israel and Netanyahu asked for Washington's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Bolton assured that the US withdrawal from Syria will assure Israel’s security and that it won’t be done until Turkey assures the safety of the Kurdish fighters. Bolton also made a controversial visit to the Western Wall tunnels in the Old City in E. Jerusalem, stoking Palestinian fury. Visiting American officials typically avoid official visits to E. Jerusalem, which is contested between Israelis and Palestinians. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was with Bolton. Friedman also said that Trump's peace plan won't be released for several months [meaning after the Israeli elections - OH]. Also, Yedioth reported that Israel staved off a Palestinian initiative to become a full UN member.

Tensions between Fatah and Hamas were high as each tried to show "who is the boss" in Gaza. Last week, Hamas leader Maher Salah announced that the organization had reached the conclusion that there would be no possibility of achieving reconciliation with Fatah during the Abu Mazen era, and that all the Egyptian and Russian efforts were destined for failure. (Ynet Hebrew) On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of not adhering to the agreements and threatened to end all payments to the Gaza Strip. That morning, masked men broke into the offices of the Palestine-affiliated Palestine channel, destroying the studios and causing tremendous damage. Fatah blamed Hamas for the break-in, but Hamas denied and said the offenders it arrested were Fatah people disgruntled that Mahmoud Abbas cut their salaries. Fatah responded to the arrests by sending Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to arrest dozens of Hamas activists and it broke up the Hamas rally in Hebron marking 31 years to its founding. Hamas continued its wave of arrests - reaching some 300 Fatah activists in Gaza, including the Fatah spokesman and his son, Levy reported in Ynet Hebrew. In Fatah, they insisted they would hold a large rally today in Gaza for Fatah’s 54 anniversary, despite not receiving a permit to hold the rally. Then Sunday, the Palestinian Authority ordered its employees manning the Gaza-Egypt crossing to pull out over a long-standing dispute between Fatah and Hamas, effectively closing the main exit point from the besieged Gaza Strip and re-opening the crossing will require Egypt to agree on a new operator.

Quick Hits:

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Features:
1,200-year-old Islamic-period Town Found in Israel, but You Will Never See It
Nebi Zechariah once housed Christians and Muslims living together, and now it's going to house a logistics center. Here’s why Israeli salvage digs almost always end in development. There is a longstanding debate amongst scholars over how violent and destructive the early Islamic occupation of the Holy Land was, and how problematic the relations between the various communities were. Finds like Nebi Zechariah point to a relatively peaceful transition after Muslim armies seized the region from the Byzantine Empire in the first half of the 7th century, says Uzi Dahari, an archaeologist and former deputy director of the IAA. Such excavations are funded by the (real estate) developer, creating an instant conflict of interest for the archaeological authorities. There is much less interest in saving sites from the early Islamic period like Nebi Zechariah. “In Beit Shemesh they found a layer from the 7th century B.C.E., from the First Temple period, so people are now saying ‘this is part of our history.’” Mizrahi notes. “In cases like Nebi Zechariah there is much less pressure: no one says ‘it’s part of our history’ – but it is very much part of our history as well.” (Ariel David, Haaretz+)
Where did all the Jews from the Arab world go?
The establishment of the State of Israel triggered the end of centuries of Jewish life in the Arab speaking world as a million or so Jews fled or were exiled to the far corners of the Earth. A study conducted by Beit Hatfutsot on behalf of Ynet sheds some light on the matter. Jews began leaving Arab countries even before the establishment of Israel, and more left as the conflict between the Arab countries and the nascent Jewish state intensified. (Yaniv Pohoryles, Ynet)
1938-2018 The man who fought for the memory of Jews persecuted in the Arab world
Former head of the Center for Jews from Arab and Islamic Countries Meir Kahlon, who survived the so-called Holocaust of Libyan Jews, never accepted how Israel shunted aside the history of Jews from Arab countries. (Ofer Aderet, Haaretz+)

Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Save the Israeli Labor Party. It Deserves It (Tzvia Greenfield, Haaretz+) Chairman Avi Gabbay is incapable and must go, but others — should they stop being paralyzed by the approaching disaster — just might be able to win back voters.
Israel will regret placing all its eggs in Trump's basket (Orly Azoulay, Yedioth/Ynet) Netanyahu and Trump will surely continue presenting the public with smiles and handshakes, but Israelis are about to discover how little the US president really cares about their country.
Needed: A Joint Jewish-Arab List (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) All eyes are on Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Avi Gabby to rescue us from Israel's right with no contender committed to a peace plan. With Meretz and the Joint List on the downfall, it's time to form an effective Jewish-Arab list.
Jewish and Arabs relations - A proposal to the left-wing (Yaron London, Yedioth) The left-wing needs to say clearly what is the desired format of relations between Jews and Arabs. It's not enough to return to the need for a delicate balance between "Jewish" and "democratic." Avoiding this discussion comes from fear. Not that the Jews fear the demands of the Arabs, but rather fear that a discussion on relations with Arab citizens will require defining the meaning of the hegemonic group. The question who am I and who do we want to be is, indeed, very heavy. The left-wing needs to show that it is not too heavy to carry. It must be brave.
It's too late to stop the dirty race in which some of the Likud ministers are participating (Dr. Revital Amiran, Maariv) Likud ministers who attack Benny Gantz apparently are not aware that support for him is based on aversion to what they themselves represent: polluting the public discourse.
On His Way Down, Netanyahu Serves the Israeli Public Absurd Logic (Haaretz Editorial) The prime minister proves at every opportunity that in the battle for his political survival, there are no limits. This is not how a premier behaves.
Netanyahu is playing with fire (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) The prime minister is waging a reckless and dangerous campaign against the justice system because he knows the AG will eventually decide to indict him. He's trying to drag us down and we can't let him.
How Israel's Grandest Political Party Can Save Itself From Destruction (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) With the election polls predicting a record-low number of seats, things have never looked worse for the Labor Party. But although leader Avi Gabbay looks doomed, we shouldn’t consign the party itself to the scrap heap just yet.

Commentary/Analysis:
Wild crops: There is a close connection between the assault on the country’s gatekeepers and that of the extreme right on the Shin Bet (Ben Caspit, Maariv) The Shin Bet is stitching cases against hilltop youths just as the police, the State Prosecutor's office and the Attorney General are stitching up cases for the prime minister. On the face of it, there is no connection. In reality, there is. After the police investigators, the head of the Police’s Lahav anti-fraud unit, the police commissioner, the prosecution and the attorney general, it was the turn of the Shin Bet security service. Its men, many of whom we owe our lives, are being accused over the last week with all the crimes in the world. Dark daemons who kidnap innocent children from their Torah study to take them straight to the torture cellars. This is slander and incitement, nonsense and evil. True, it comes from a different direction, even more violent than the direction that produces the campaign against the country’s gatekeepers, but it is the same evil spirit, the spirit of command, the sense of chaos and the general permission to destroy, break, smash and burn the club. And something else: Did you hear the prime minister, who is the authority over the Shin Bet, condemn those who are now attacking the organization under his command? Did you hear him backing his people? Did you hear the justice minister say something? Someone from the Likud? (Coalition whip, Likud MK) Dudi Amsalem? (Public Security Minister) Gilad Erdan? Anybody home? Does everything rise and fall on that monster-like political base that should not be annoyed? And what about the country? When the government, under the leadership of the prime minister, attacks its gatekeepers and state institutions, it's an autoimmune disease. It is an immune system that feeds itself. The assault by Dudi Amsalem and his comrades' on the law enforcement system is inextricably linked to the assault by the hilltop youth, their patrons, their rabbis and their dependents, on the Shin Bet security services. When (settler) Rabbi Druckman demands that the prime minister "immediately order the release of the children," there is no one to tell him that in the democratic State of Israel, the prime minister cannot order an arrest or release by the Shin Bet (at least for the time being, fortunately). Well, to Druckman's credit, it should be said that there was no one to explain to him that giving backing to Rabbi Moti Elon [who was convicted of sex crimes - OH] could lead to disaster: When those are the cedar trees, what will the moss say? The mosses on the wall, it turned out yesterday, set fire to Israeli flags in their spare time, decorated the blue and white flag with a swastika and called to destroy Zionism, from the inside. Afterward, they are called "children" and Druckman sheds crocodile tears for their suffering. It began with the definition of [young Jewish radicals as] "weeds," but the weeds grew wild, took over the flower beds and now threaten the entire garden. This is the garden that the prime minister is trying to appease when he humiliates his military secretary, a magnificent product (seriously) of that religious Zionism, because of a negligible administrative error. So now there really is no wonder that he lets the Shin Bet roll into the muck that is thrown at it and does not give even a hint of support to it. It should be said explicitly: Religious Zionism is not the enemy of the people or of the state. On the contrary. It sends the best of its sons to the dangerous units of the IDF, it contributes to the state and glorifies the society, and the vast majority of the religious Zionists are wonderful Israelis who are law-abiding, and the same applies to the vast majority of the settlers. The problem is with the minority. It is growing, it is becoming more extreme, it is breaking apart and challenging our very existence as a democratic state. It is somewhat reminiscent of the story of the ultra-Orthodox. Even there, most of the public keeps peace and law, [but] its minority are disturbed and rioting fanatics. The Shin Bet has been warning for more than a year about the loss of deterrence against these hilltop youths. The state is afraid to burden them with what is happening. The [Shin Bet] issued restraining orders and the [radical youths] immediately return to the scene of the crime. What happens? Nothing happens. The police do nothing, the courts don’t enforce, no one lifts a finger. The youth return to the [West Bank] hills undisturbed. Their ideology continues to radicalize, their boldness increases, their creativity increases. In the present state of affairs, the Shin Bet has long warned that the achievements made in solving the Duma affair [Jewish arson murder of Palestinian family - OH]  could evaporate. And that’s exactly what happened. The number of Jewish hate crimes in Judea and Samaria has soared fivefold. We are now harvesting the storm that we planted ourselves, we watered and we fertilized. Mainly we fertilized. Have you heard anything about this from members of the ruling party? Nada. They are now busy trying to dirty the former chief of staff, Benny Gantz [who has joined the political race - OH]. That's the real threat.
Severe Punishment for Palestinians, but It's Not the Same Stone When Jews Throw It (Mordechai Kremnitzer, Haaretz+) A stone thrown by a Palestinian was endowed with magical powers by Israeli lawmakers, but then Jews also joined the ranks of stone-throwers — and nobody would even dream of sentencing them to 20 years in prison.
Silence of the lambs: The attack on the Shin Bet: It is possible to identify in the organization the frustration over the lack of backing from the prime minister (Tal Lev-Ram, Maariv) The silence of the politicians at this time is outrageous following the arrest of the suspects in the Palestinian murder. This is true of the leaders of the settlements in Judea and Samaria, the government ministers and the also the centrist candidates…In contrast to the picture that is being painted by right-wingers, every Shin Bet action is backed by the Israeli court, and the claim that the Shin Bet security service has a policy of its own is demagogic at best. In fact, it is the state and its institutions that enable the Shin Bet to take exceptional steps in dealing with terror, and in this matter there should be no distinction between Jewish terrorism and Palestinian terrorism. In the security establishment, the (Jewish terror) attack in the (Palestinian) village of Duma in July 2015 is treated as a watershed moment. Until the attack, in which three members of the Dawabsheh family were murdered, some claimed that the Shin Bet was unable to deal with Jewish terror. In the investigation of the Duma attack, the rues changed and the gloves were removed, and the interrogation of suspects was conducted as it is conducted against Palestinian terror suspects. Following the murders in Duma, several steps were taken, such as administrative detentions and the removal of extreme right-wing activists from the area. Over the course of more than two years, there has been a dramatic drop in the number of ‘price tag’ incidents [incidents in which Jewish extremists attack Palestinians and their property - OH]. In the last year there has been an increase again, with about 50 price-tag attacks, five of which were defined as terror attacks. This is a trend that is very disturbing to security. Right-wing activists claim that the conduct of the interrogators is unacceptable, since these are minors. The question arises, therefore, whether those who claim about the use of improper means in dealing with Jewish terrorism are also prepared to accept that conduct against Palestinian youths who have carried out terror attacks, and what will be the operational implications for the security of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, if there are severe restrictions to [the conduct in] the interrogation of Palestinian youth involved in terror. The numbers of attacks perpetrated by Jews during the past year, compared to the number of attacks by Palestinians in Judea and Samaria cannot be compared. However, from the moment of an attack in a law-abiding country, the way the severity of the incident is dealt with must be identical and cannot be interpreted, especially when the attack ends with a fatal result. In the Shin Bet's statement yesterday, there was also an exceptional paragraph: Since the arrests began, the Shin Bet has identified an intentional and ongoing effort by interested parties to defame the agency and its personnel and delegitimize its activities." We should not take lightly the text of this announcement, as well as the publication of the defamation of Israeli flags by extremist right-wing organizations. This is certainly true of an official announcement, from which the organization's frustration can be identified by the lack of clear backing on this issue from the prime minister and his ministers. The silence of politicians at this time is outrageous. The progress of the investigation into the murder of the Palestinians was supposed to at least lead to backing the Shin Bet. That is true for the settlement leaders in Judea and Samaria, who are certainly opposed to Jewish terrorism, as well as to the government cabinet ministers and to the many centrist political candidates. But in the days of elections, what was once obvious became an option, and the Shin Bet, the police and the IDF have to deal with that practically by themselves.
For the First Time, Israel Faces an Adversary Too Powerful to Be Defeated (Chuck Freilich, Haaretz+) Iran is the most sophisticated, dangerous adversary Israel has ever faced. It has adopted a decades-long strategy of attrition until destruction. But Israel, frenetically focused on the here and now, lacks a systematic plan to confront it - and other crucial long-term national objectives.
A new-old Mideast (Oded Granot, Israel Hayom) The high probability of an Israeli-Iranian conflict on Syrian soil is perhaps the most significant new factor unfolding in the "new" Syria, where the regime's old allies are rushing to make amends.
Amid Trump Pressure, Israel Mulls Cooling Burgeoning China Ties (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) American concerns of Chinese technology in Israel a central focus of Bolton's Jerusalem meetings, as defense officials worry that Beijing might use products to collect intelligence.
For Bolton, the main issue is China (Amnon Lord, Israel Hayom) China was most likely the focus of the talks between U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel's embrace of Beijing, by granting access to the new port in Haifa, could threaten U.S. naval vessels the region.
'Too Small': How the IDF Annexes Palestinians' Plots That Would One Day Become Israeli Homes (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) More West Bank farmers whose land near the separation barrier is their livelihood, property and savings, are now denied access to it, due to Israel's 'updated criteria.’
In their wildest fantasies (Dr. Reuven Berko, Israel Hayom) The Palestinians are selling illusions, historical fiction and Israel hatred. While Arab states are starting to wake up, in Israel, we continue to play along with this fraudulent ploy.

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