APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday February 27, 2019
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Elections 2019 News:
*A LIkud campaign video ad in a military cemetery, in which a narrator stood before graves and said that "the public isn't stupid. [Benny] Gantz is left and left is dangerous,” sparked a furor making the top story in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Election rivals called on Likud leader, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, to apologize to bereaved families over the video broadcast on Likud TV. Likud later removed the video and said that Netanyahu did not approve it. Netanyahu was quick to condemn it. Yedioth interviewed people whose relatives were buried there. The brother of one of the people buried in that section of that cemetery recognized it as the place where the Jewish fighters of the Lamed Hey convoy who fell in the 1948 War of Independence were laid to rest. “I was disgusted to see that people who sacrificed their lives for the the state were being used for the purpose of political messages,” said Alexander Doron, the nephew of one of the fallen. “The Lamed Hey convoy was a group of people who fought shoulder to shoulder and fell together: secular and religious, Ashkenazis and Mizrachis. So to turn this subject into a source of division for horrible election propaganda with all the photos from terror attacks, this makes me so sad,” said Attorney Nili Egozi, the daughter of the widow of one of the fallen. Eli Ben Shem, chairman of the Yad Labanim association, which commemorates fallen soldiers, said the video's release was "a serious incident that hurt bereaved families. Leave us alone, leave our children alone. Take IDF soldiers out of the political debate."

Elections Quickees:

Other News Summary:
The other two main stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers were the severe beating of a leading Argentinian rabbi in Buenos Aires and that Netanyahu was cutting short his visit today to Russia, where he is meeting President Vladimir Putin, because tomorrow (Thursday) the Attorney General will likely announce that Netanyahu is indicted in two if not three of the corruption cases against him. Worthy of note, the pro-Netanyahu paper, Israel Hayom, ran across its front page an article reporting that US lawyer Alan Dershowitz told the Attorney General that indicting Netanyahu before elections would “endanger democracy.”

Haaretz suggested that the Argentine police were wrong to investigate the beating of Rabbi Gabriel Davidovich as a criminal act and not a hate crime. But Yedioth’s Itamar Eichner interviewed the rabbi and his son by phone and did not come to that conclusion. Rabbi Davidovich said he doesn't rule out that the attack could have been anti-Semitic in nature, but he urged to await the results of the police investigation. None of the attackers swear words were anti-Semitic and they did not beat the rabbi’s wife. “What we think is that they wanted to steal," said his son. "They said he was the head rabbi, and that he must have money. But the community thinks it is anti-Semitism, because the rabbi was beaten until he passed out, and they only asked for money from his wife."

Quick Hits:

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Features:

25 years after Hebron massacre, debate sparked over burial site of murderer Baruch Goldstein
Israeli left-wing party calls for legislation to change tombstone at Meir Kahane Park that glorifies Goldstein, who killed 29 Muslim worshipers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. (Yotam Berger, Haaretz+)
 
Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Israel's Political Map Has Shifted Rightward – and That’s Bad News for Netanyahu (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) Israeli politics is further to the right than in 2015, yet instead of adding votes for a right-wing governing coalition it is actually broadening the opposition to it.
Long dead: The notion that elections are between left and right is false (Lilach Sigan, Maariv) Let's talk about the two real alternatives: the next government will form a right-wing government with the guardians of Kahane or a centrist government in any format.
The Silence of the Likud Lambs (Irit Rosenblum, Haaretz+) The supposed liberal MKs and cabinet ministers who are quick to post photos from pride parade are the very ones who remain silent when Kahanists attack the LBGT community.
Israel's Arab Politicians Have Become the Kosher Seal of the Jewish Race (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Partnership with Arabs is not just an accusation, slander or low blow that can wreck a 'democratic' Jewish party. It’s a separation wall.
Leftists in disguise (Ariel Bolstein, Israel Hayom) It appears Benny Gantz and his advisers are trying to recreate the electoral success Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak achieved in the 1990s through the branding of left-wing candidates as centrists.
Find the Leftist (Noa Osterreicher, Haaretz+) The Israeli left is aware of its own impending extinction and the preponderant reaction is to assimilate into another life form until the worst is over, but it's self-defeating.
Why Is Adelson-backed Zionist Organization of America Defending Israel's KKK Slime? (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) To be clear, I am not suggesting that Mort Klein immigrate to Israel. Nor Sheldon Adelson. But if they lose their Bibi, where is their Zionism of America going to put them?

Commentary/Analysis:
Blight of the Nation-state Law (Haaretz Editorial) What do Netanyahu, Meir Kahane and the nation-state law all have in common? A desire to delegitimize Arabs of equal citizenship.
Zarif's resignation may be the last step before Iran exits the nuclear agreement (Jonah Jeremy Bob, Maariv) The sudden announcement by the Iranian foreign minister apparently symbolizes the end or the last-minute rescue of the agreement from 2015. Either way, this is a clear turning point.
A welcome sight (Ariel Kahana, Israel Hayom) Were it not for their expected exit from the EU, we can assume the British would still be playing the EU's game of pretend when it comes to distinguishing between Hezbollah's military and diplomatic wings.
Who is violating the status quo? (Ophir Dayan, Israel Hayom) You don't need to be right-wing or religious to understand that what is happening on the Temple Mount threatens our sovereignty, public trust in the police, and the physical markers of our legacy in this land.
Lessons from the Polish imbroglio (Isi Leibler, Israel Hayom) Jewish cooperation with outright fascists is unthinkable. But if the leaders of right-wing populist parties repudiate their antecedents' crimes, it would be a major mistake to spurn their support.
 
 

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