News Nosh 1.24.19

by APN 01/24/19
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday January 24, 2019
 
 
You Must Be Kidding: 
  "This is Deputy Minister Yaron Mazuz. I ask for your support in the coming primaries on February 5. With the help of God we will act and succeed. I'm sitting next to my friend Elor Azaria, who we recruited for the primaries campaign and with God's help we will act and succeed. Thank you very much."
--Israel's Deputy Environment Minister Yaron Mazuz uses convicted killer Elor Azaria to get Likud members' support in his run for the Likud list.**

Front Page:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • The rock that incriminated the hilltop youth
  • Fight over me // Ben-Dror Yemini calls for parties to fight for the undecided voters
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
  • Where’s the money? Contradicting reports about the monies supposed to arrive from Qatar to the hands of Hamas
  • Russia to Israel: Stop attacking on Syrian land
  • Yearning for the ambiguity // Tal Lev-Ram
  • What does Russia mean? // Yossi Melman
  • “I killed Yasmin” - daycare center caretaker admits
  • “Investigate the leaks” - Netanyahu to Attorney General Mendelblitt
Israel Hayom
  • The blood money of the Palestinian Authority
  • Exclusive - The HMOs are hiding billions
  • Yishai against (Shas leader) Deri: “He’s destroying Shas”
  • “Proud, proud!” - Moti Azam, the son of Azam Azam (Arab-Israeli who sat in prison in Egypt for spying), finished IDF officer’s course - and will join the Arrow missile operators
  • Prime Minister’s lawyers tell (Attorney General) Mendelblitt: Investigate the leaks from the investigations
  • Special musical initiative: Singer Lee Biran composed music for poem written in Holocaust - “Poetry is stronger than death”

Top News Summary:
Qatari money to Gaza and the link to Israel prison raids on Palestinian prisoners, the Syrian and Iranian moves before and after Israeli attacks inside Syria and DNA that connected a Jewish settler hilltop youth to the murder of a Palestinian woman were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

The Hebrew media was uncertain, but the assessment was that Israel decided to allow the transfer of the monthly $15 million of Qatari cash infusing into Gaza, following a two-week delay over border clashes. The Israeli security cabinet approved the transfer Wednesday. Yesterday, former Shin Bet chief Yaakov Perry said the failure to transfer Qatari money to Gaza has great potential for conflagration and that “Israel must act in accordance with its interest, which is to avoid confrontation. We have to act according to the broad consideration. In the end the money will be transferred.”

Like Maariv, Haaretz+’s military affairs correspondent Amos Harel described the connection between the recent incidents on the Gaza border attributed to Islamic Jihad and the prior raid by Israeli prison guards on a ward of Palestinian Islamic Jihad members at Ofer prison, one of whom swallowed contraband cellular phones and defecated them 10 days after being put in solitary confinement. The two-day raids, which turned up other cellphones, sparked ‘disturbances of the order’ by the Palestinian prisoners that continued for days and has now turned into a hunger strike. The Hebrew media didn’t report much about the raids, which included attacking Palestinian prisoners with dogs and tear-gas bombs, and which resulted in over 100 injuries. However, Maan shared chilling video from the raids.

Following Israel’s pre-dawn raid Monday in Syria, in which it hit Iranian targets near Damascus International Airport, Russia said that Israel should stop carrying out air strikes on Syria. This follows the declaration by the Syrian Ambassador to the UN that if the UN does not stop Israel’s attacks in Syria, "Syria would practice its legitimate right of self-defense and respond to the Israeli aggression on Damascus International Airport in the same way on Tel Aviv airport.” Former senior security establishment figure, Gen. Yaakov Amidror, said, “The chance of a Syrian attack on Ben-Gurion airport is slight. The Syrians have missiles that can reach Ben-Gurion Airport, but such an attempt would give us a license to harm them until the fall of the Assad regime.”

Maariv reported on an article in Kuwaiti newspaper, ‘Al-Jareeda,’ according to which, commander of the Al-Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Suleimani, estimates that an Iranian response deep inside Israel will bring Netanyahu down. According to the article, two days before the Israeli air strikes, Suleimani paid a secret two-hour visit to a Sunni town close to the border with the Syrian Golan, thus violating the US-Russian-Israeli agreement. A senior source in Tehran told the Kuwaiti newspaper that the Supreme National Security Council met on the night between Monday and Tuesday and heard from Suleimani about the Israeli attacks and his visit to southern Syria. The source said that Suleimani stressed that the Russians had informed the Iranians in advance of the targets that Israel would attack, half an hour before the actual attack, and that the outposts were evacuated immediately, minimizing the damage caused by the attack. The source added that Suleimani believes that the only way to stop the Israeli attacks is to respond with three missiles to each Israeli missile, and to try to bring down fighter planes, even if they are in Lebanese airspace. He stressed the need to pressure the Syrian government to respond to Israel's attacks, especially after Netanyahu admitted that Israel was behind the attacks, giving Syria legitimacy to respond, according to international law.

A 16-year-old Jewish youth from the north of the country was charged with manslaughter [not murder - OH] today in the murder of a Palestinian woman after his DNA was found on the rock he threw that killed her. The minor was one of five students at a yeshiva in Rechelim settlement in the West Bank who were arrested in early January on suspicion of involvement in the incident.

Elections 2019 Quickees:
  • Election Campaign Ads in ultra-Orthodox Israeli Suburb Censor Faces of Female Politicians - The face of Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni was blurred, and Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg was told her image had to be removed from the billboard. (Haaretz+)
  • **“We recruited him for the campaign": Elor Azaria appears in the campaign video of Deputy Minister Mazuz - Deputy Minister of the Environment Yaron Mazuz (Likud) published a video addressing Likud members, in which he appears alongside the soldier convicted of killing an [already wounded, prone and incapacitated] terrorist in Hebron: “I’m sitting next to my friend, we will act and succeed,” said Mazuz in the video. (Maariv+VIDEO)
  • Yariv Oppenheimer against Mor Altshuler joining Moshe Ya'alon's party: “She slapped me in the past" - Former Peace Now director general, who is now running for the Meretz party list, announced that he would appeal to the elections chairman and ask him to remove the new candidate from his list because she physically hurt him in April 2011 before they went live on a TV talk show. (She apologized afterward and said it was a “symbolic slap and not a violent slap.”) (Maariv)
  • Meet the candidate: Avi Buskila wants to fight for democracy together with Meretz - Former Peace Now director general says that the government acted improperly and declares: "Meretz will lead the camp with the determination and renewal that the Left needs so much.” (Maariv)
  • Meet the candidate: Enrique Zimmerman wants to raise the head of the Left again - A journalist who was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize is running for the Labor party list and presents his goals for the next few years: foreign diplomacy, education, welfare and health. “It is time for the Labor Party to return to power and to reflect the agenda by which this movement established the state, and at its head - political Zionism. Too many years in which the political (Palestinian) issue has been pushed to the margins of the Israeli Left. And as someone who is known in the wider world, especially in Europe, the Arab world and Latin America, I will return the political issue back to the head of the table, and I will do so through the regional initiative…For many years now, I have been meeting with all the leaders of the Arab world and visiting countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, and I am familiar with the region, and especially with the Israeli interest in creating a significant regional alliance that will also lead the Israeli-Palestinian peace process." (Maariv)
  • Election poll: Likud grows stronger, Benny Gantz gains over Yair Lapid - According to a Knesset survey published on Monday, the ruling party wins 31 Knesset seats, 15% support Resilience for Israel (Gantz). 54% of the public support the release before the elections of the Attorney General's decisions in the Prime Minister's corruption cases, 38% oppose. To the question: 'Who should lead the center-left camp - Gantz or Lapid?' 32% responded that the former chief of staff Gantz should head the camp and 21% chose Lapid. (Maariv)
  • As election campaign heats up, Bennett takes aim at Gantz's military credentials - Head of New Right party accuses former IDF chief of failing to tackle Hamas in 2014 war and being satisfied with 'a tie'; defending decision to leave Jewish Home, outgoing education minister says new movement appeals to both religious and secular voters on the right. (Ynet)
  • Bennett Bends Truth on Prisoner Releases, Touting Hard-right Stance - Naftali Bennett says no Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons under his watch when in fact 104 prisoners were feed as part of a U.S. mediated deal in 2013. (Haaretz+)
  • Labor’s Love Lost: Stalwart Kibbutz Voters Leaving Party - For the past 50 years, the kibbutzim and moshavim have been the party's bastions of support. However as these camps move toward the center, Labor is doing little to welcome new voters. (Haaretz+)
  • Meretz Head Fined for Exceeding Funding Limit After Campaign Scandal - Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg secretly consulted a strategist who previously worked for the far right encountering both political and legal backlash. (Haaretz+)
  • Human rights activist Jafar Farah will run on the Hadash list for the Knesset - Farah is remembered as the person who was beaten [without reason] by a policeman after being detained at a demonstration of Israeli Arabs in Haifa: "We must present an alternative to corruption, occupation, racism, the cost of living for poverty and violence.” (Maariv)

Quick Hits:
  • East Jerusalem House Price Soars Over $3m Amid Palestinian-settler Land Feud - Israeli settler organization and Palestinian family offered over $3 million for a three-room house in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, but settler activist pulled out, forcing family to raise the sum in order to keep their house. (Haaretz+)
  • Dozens of Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa compound - 85 Israeli settlers under the protection of 103 Israeli soldiers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound through the Moroccans Gate and provocatively toured the compound Wednesday. (Maan)
  • Israeli court issues lien on land in Jerusalem belonging to Arafat - Court issued order at request of eight (Israeli) families, who identify themselves as “victims of terrorism,” and who filed civil damages lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Arafat’s estate. Land, inherited by Arafat, measures 2.7 dunams (0.675 acres), most of it inside Mount of Olives cemetery. (Maan)
  • Israeli settlers raze Palestinian lands for settlement expansion near Nablus - A number of bulldozers, belonging to Israeli settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement, began to raze dozens of dunams of Palestinian lands near Assira al-Qibliya village. (Maan)
  • Israeli bulldozers raze agricultural lands in Hebron - Israeli bulldozers razed some 15 dunams of agricultural lands belonging to Said Abu Hadid, and destroyed retaining walls around them in the Wadi al-Samn area of southern Hebron. (Maan)
  • Activists block Israeli 'Apartheid Road' near Jerusalem - Dozens of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists shut down the recently opened "Apartheid Road" near Jerusalem, which separates Palestinian and Israeli drivers by a wall, on Wednesday. (Maan)
  • Israel calls on EU to stop funding groups backing BDS - Strategic Affairs Ministry: Some NGOs that support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement to isolate Israel internationally receive funding from EU, despite EU's official stance against BDS. EU reiterates rejection of attempts to isolate Israel. (Israel Hayom)
  • Israel ranked 5th most innovative nation by Bloomberg - Up five spots from last year's Innovation Index, 'startup nation' is overtaken only by South Korea, Germany, Finland and Switzerland. (JTA, Haaretz)
  • Despite salvation efforts, northern Israeli shoreline continues to decline - Construction in Haifa Bay has disrupted the natural flow of sand, but replenishing the sand on the beach has not solved the problem. (Haaretz+)
  • Israeli who staged his own kidnapping in West Bank jailed for 9 months - Niv Asraf, who faked his abduction in Hebron in 2015, [and for which IDF forces raided a Palestinian village of Beit Anun to look for the ‘kidnapped’ young man - OH] and his accomplice Eran Nagauker originally received community service but an appeal by the prosecution led to harsher punishment. (Yedioth/Ynet and Maariv)
  • Another video of the moments of the Police shooting Yehuda Biadaga was posted on social media networks - Many online say that the sound of the explosion in the video seconds after the first shot was fired, was another shot fired by police at the (mentally unstable) 24-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli young man while he was (already) lying on the street in Bat Yam. The police reject this claim and say the video was edited. (Maariv and Ynet Hebrew+VIDEO)
  • The family of Yehuda Biadaga: "The Minister of Public Security visited the city and did not find time to come to the parents?" - "We wanted him to come to look into the eyes of Yehuda's parents, to respect us, to talk with mom and dad so that he would show a kind of solidarity," says the brother-in-law of the young man who was shot to death. (Hashikma Bat Yam website)
  • Following threats to his life, Police provide security to the policeman who shot and killed Ethiopian-Israeli young man in Bat Yam - Police have stepped up patrols around the policeman's home in the center of the country, after threats were made against him, including on social media networks. The policeman continues his role in the Tel Aviv District, concurrently with the investigation into the incident by the Police Unit Investigating Police. (Haaretz Hebrew)
  • Israeli Arab Ex-lawmaker Denied Early Prison Release, 'Terror Group Membership' Cited - Balad MK Basel Ghattas, who is currently serving a two year sentence for security offenses [smuggling cellular phones to Palestinian security prisoners - OH], was rejected to begin the rehabilitation process due to difficulty expressing remorse and for his connections to the Popular Front. (Haaretz+)
  • Lebanon: We nabbed Mossad spy in Hamas assassination bid - Lebanese military says Hussein Ahmed was recruited by Israeli intelligence agency and is responsible for the 2018 attempted murder of Mohammed Hamdan, the brother of the terror organization's top representative in the country. (Maariv and Ynet)
  • (Arab-)Israeli youth imprisoned in Egypt for (9 months for) ’offending a woman's honor' - Yusuf al-Assam, 19, was on a family vacation in Sharm El Sheikh when he accidentally hit a young Egyptian woman while going down a water slide. But even though the two sides worked out the matter between them, he remains in prison. (Ynet and Maariv)
  • Al-Aqsa and the corner of Tel-Aviv’s Azrieli Tower: Look at what kind of new radio station was added - Hezbollah has set up a powerful transmitter in south Lebanon, and thanks to it, the voice of Hamas radio from Gaza has been received in good quality in the Dan region (Tel-Aviv), as well. (Maariv)
  • Spate of break-ins leaves Israelis in Jordan Valley feeling exposed and fearful - Local communities say Palestinian infiltrators steal valuable equipment and vandalize agricultural produce; but local police force only has one patrol car to cover a vast area of land. (Ynet)
  • Adelson Medical School in West Bank Targeted as Site to Increase Number of Students - The Adelson-funded school at Ariel University has yet to open but has allocated 70 spots as part of a greater national effort to increase the number of medical students in Israel. (Haaretz+)
  • Israelis Studying Medicine Abroad to Face Tougher Licensing Tests - Health Ministry says graduates of foreign medical schools, who make up 60 percent of doctors in Israel, might lack clinical experience. (Haaretz+)
  • PM urges investigation into 'distorting' leaks on criminal probes - PM Netanyahu's lawyers pen letter to attorney general, saying "biased and partial leaks create a distorted picture that is designed to turn the public against the prime minister" • Netanyahu asks voters to ignore "brainwashing," make their voices heard. (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)
  • Report: Hamas foiled Israel's attempt to spy on the commander of the military wing - Sources in the terrorist organization told the Lebanese newspaper Al Ahbar that they discovered a listening device planted in a house near that of Marwan 'Issa, who initiated the tunnel project. (Maariv)
  • Muscle man muezzin fired over bodybuilding contest - Ibrahim Masri from Acre won a 2016 competition in which he posed in a bathing suit, but when photos emerged, the Interior Ministry said was inappropriate for a religious figure and sacked him. (Ynet)
  • Bid to Lift Gag Order on Names in Israel's 'Sex for Judgeship' Case Rejected - Harm to judge and lawyer suspected of sexual bribery of former bar association president outweighs 'clear public interest,' judge rules. (Haaretz+)
  • Ryanair CEO announces plans to expand operations in Israel - Michael O'Leary says Israel is one of the most promising tourism destinations and emphasizes he wants the company to grow 'as fast as Israeli authorities allow us to.' (Yedioth/Ynet)
  • Right-wing Extremists Murdered 50 Americans in 2018, Report Finds - and One-third of Them Were Jews - At least one-third of victims were Jewish, according to ADL. Death toll highest since 1995. (Haaretz)
  • Fearing for Jewish community, Israel silent on Venezuela unrest - Some 6,000 Jews still living in the Latin American country might find themselves in uncharted waters after President Maduro, accused of fostering anti-Semitism due to Iran ties, breaks off diplomatic relations with US. (Yedioth/Ynet)
  • Natural gas fields give Israel a regional political boost - Last week's inclusion into the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum in Cairo marks the first time Arab countries accepted Israel into such a regional alliance. Energy minister hails "most significant economic cooperation between Egypt and Israel" in 40 years. (Agencies, Israel Hayom)
  • Egypt Announces Discovery of Ancient Tombs in Nile Delta - Archaeologists uncovered tombs dating back to the Second Intermediate Period, 1782-1570 B.C., as well as 20 burial sites dating back to the Predynastic Period. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • Assad blocks access to Damascus for EU envoys, diplomats say - EU diplomats say move is likely an attempt to force European governments to reopen embassies in Damascus • Visa block is a "serious problem for the EU's humanitarian assistance," says one diplomat, reiterating EU's united policy of not dealing with Assad. (Israel Hayom)
  • Turkey Fighting Terrorists in Syria but More Action Needed, Putin Says - Russian and Turkish leaders, who 'are actively collaborating on Syria,' met in Moscow for talks on proposed 'safe zone' near the Turkish border. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • Upcoming Mideast Conference in Warsaw Not Aimed at Demonizing Iran, U.S. Says - Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the gathering as a 'desperate anti-Iran circus' and slammed Poland for hosting it. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • Victory over the Iranians and the Palestinians: Israel's achievements at the UN - In a rare step, a representative of the Israeli delegation to the UN will serve as Deputy of the committee overseeing of human rights organizations. A Palestinian attempt to join the NPT as an observer country was thwarted. (Maariv)
  • France: EU-Iran trade system to be launched in coming days - European Union preparing "special purpose vehicle" that will facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran, thus circumventing U.S. sanctions on Iran • SPV was conceived as a possible way to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods.
    (Agencies, Israel Hayom)

Features:
Cairo: A Tour of a City That Never Sleeps
The coffee is black and strong, the traffic is horrible, the pyramids are exciting, the car horns unbearable and the food is wonderful. (Or Tzelkovnik, Haaretz+)
A new generation takes up the hunt for Dead Sea Scrolls
(Israeli) Archaeologists return to Qumran area (in the West Bank) in hopes of repeating one of the most sensational discoveries of last hundred years – the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Hundreds of caves remain unexcavated, and experts are in a race against antiquities robbers. (Reuters, Israel Hayom)
The ghosts of Treblinka, in a Tel Aviv basement
Samuel Willenberg was one of only 67 prisoners to survive the Nazi death camp and later in life recreated those horrors with a series of remarkable bronze sculptures. His widow, Ada, hopes the artworks will eventually be exhibited at Treblinka, but for now they can be found in a very unlikely place. (Judy Maltz, Haaretz+)
 
Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Cast Your Ballot for Benny Gantz (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) From Gantz's beautiful Israel, there's hope and peace. It’s an illusion that allows Israelis to feel so good about themselves after a hundred years of dispossession and 50 years of occupation.
Show us who you are, Benny Gantz (Dan Shilon, Yedioth/Ynet) After a decade of Netanyahu, the nation deserves a harbinger of good news who is honest and direct; so it's about time the newest political hope started answering questions.

Commentary/Analysis:
Thus the Fruit of the Land Grows (Haaretz Editorial) This is exactly how the racist wild weeds of Israeli society grow; a spiritual leader legitimizes harming Arabs and injects it with halakhic ideology – all while receiving a state salary.
The true face of If Not Now (Ophir Dayan, Israel Hayom) The group's activists purportedly want an open and tolerant society, but in practice, they loudly impose their views on others.
When the IDF whitewashes the occupation, the right wins (Avner Gvaryahu, Haaretz+) The Israeli army has volunteered, to neither its credit nor ours, to turn itself into a propaganda machine, far exceeding its role. Can new chief of staff be any different to his predecessors?
The US is more important to Israel than Chad (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) As the Jewish state reheats its relationship with the central African country, Netanyahu's failure to find common ground with the Democratic Party and American Jewry resonates even more; the prime minister chose short-term political gains over long-term national interests.
The secret of the border fence (Akiva Bigman, Israel Hayom) Without tight security and legislation, Israel's oft-lauded border fence would be a joke. It is not just fences or walls that protect the border, but the determination of the people behind them.
Even assuming that not all the judges appointed by Justice Minister Shaked and (detained former) Israel Bar Association chairman Effi Naveh are rotten apples, there is a problem here (Ran Edelist, Maariv) More than this is the affair of Effi Naveh, this is the affair of Ayelet Shaked. Already, under the auspices of the current scandal, there are voices calling for the removal of the Judicial Appointments Committee and to move to the American model.
Hoping for the best in Gaza, preparing for the worst (Elior Levy, Yedioth/Ynet) The Qatari ambassador is in Israel with suitcases of money, while the deputy UN special envoy tries to ease tensions in the Strip; the level of calm surrounding the demonstrations at the border fence will determine whether the money reaches Gaza anytime soon, while the specter of new violence is ever present.
The war that will decide Israel’s future won’t involve airstrikes, tanks or missiles (Chuck Freilich, Haaretz+) We have 30 years before enlightened Israel sinks into poor and illiberal darkness. This time, the threat is a militant religious fundamentalism of our own.
Russia's rebuke of Israel's Syria strikes wasn't mere lip service (Ron Ben Yishai, Ynet) By making itself the sole superpower in the region, Moscow must create balance that keeps everyone happy; but the Israelis, the Syrians and the Iranians are all griping and fighting to advance their own interests.
There is a dangerous anti-Semitic escalation towards Israel on the American left, and BDS is at its center (Zalman Shoval, Maariv) There are those who link Trump to violent acts against minorities in the US, including Jews, but the truth is that we have to be more concerned about the boycott movement than about the shaved heads.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.

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