APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday March 14, 2019

 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv this Week (Hebrew links)

Elections 2019 News:
Two party leaders exchanged verbal blows and the High Court debated the disqualification of far-left and far-right parties and members, after the Attorney General weighed in with his own views.

After New Right leader, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, said Kahol-Lavan co-leader Benny Gantz was “the wet dream of Hamas’ people,” Gantz said, “An education minister who compares Hamas and the High Court of Justice cannot remain in office for even another minute. They don’t even need to bring the Kahanists into the Knesset. They themselves are like that.” And later, (as if to make clear he was no Hamas wet dream) Gantz said he would resume targeted killings in Gaza if Israel were attacked.

After the Central Elections Commission disqualified far-left Jewish Hadash party candidate, Ofer Cassif, and Arab parties, Ra’am and Balad, and permitted far-right Kahanists of the Otzma Yehudit party, Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir, to run, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblitt urged the High Court reverse those decisions: He called to disqualify Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir on grounds of incitement to racism against Arabs (Maariv) and allow Cassif and the Arab Raam-Balad party list to run. On Wednesday, the High Court began hearing the petitions for and against disqualifying  Cassif, the Arab Ra’am-Balad party and the mostly Arab Hadash party. Mendelblitt said that Cassif’s and Ra’am-Balad’s statements and activities were highly troubling, but did not reach a “critical mass of evidence” to support the claim that they support terror or reject “Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state.” In contrast, Mendelblitt said that Ben Ari’s main purpose and message in running was itself racism against Arabs, which means that he should be disqualified. On Wednesday, when the High Court heard arguments in favor and against disqualifying the left-wingers and the the mostly-Arab Hadash-Ta’al list, far right-wing politician, Ichud Leumi party leader Betzalel Smotrich, yelled at High Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut. While a full bench of nine justices heard arguments to bar Cassif from running due to comments equating Israel with Nazis, Smotrich made comments in a loud voice and Hayut asked him to be quiet. Smotrich yelled at the Chief Justice that she needed to respect him as an MK and to stop disrespecting the Knesset. Hayut responded that while it might be customary for people to interrupt each other and shout in the Knesset, it was forbidden in the court, where only lawyers could speak. Afterward, right-wing and left-wing activists yelled and pushed each other in the court halls, JPost reported. (Also Haaretz+) The court called Cassif’s statements ‘very grave’ and suggested he recant. On Thursday, the court heard arguments for and against the disqualification of the leaders of Otzma Yehudit. Ben-Ari’s lawyer insisted that his client was not racist, but that he only supported those who were ‘loyal’ to the State. JPost reported that Arab Justice George Kara asked Michael Ben-Ari and his lawyer, “Who decides about loyalty? Does Ben-Ari decide?" The Arab justice also asked what Ben-Ari's criteria were for deciding whether he thought Arabs with Israeli citizenship were loyal to the state or whether he would brand them as traitors, as he has. The High Court's decisions will be published Sunday.

Election Quickees:

Other News Summary:
The other top news was the scathing report highlighting a decade-long failure of public transportation in Israel and, for the first time, the US State Department did not refer to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as ‘occupied’ in its annual human rights report. This comes shortly after US Senator Lindsey Graham's comments that the Golan isn't disputed territory and that the US administration should recognize it as Israel. Syria responded to the senator's call, saying that the Israeli occupation will eventually end.

And what didn’t get much traction in the Hebrew media, was that, following the UN report alleging that Israel may have committed war crimes when Israeli soldiers intentionally fired at demonstrating civilians, Israel is opening a criminal investigation into the deaths of 11 Gazan demonstrators mentioned in the report. (This comes despite Israel’s rejection of the report’s conclusions - something that did make the news. - OH)
 

Quick Hits:

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Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Netanyahu vs. the left-wing - How doesn't his hand shake? (Avshalom 'Abu' Vilan, Yedioth) Binyamin Netanyahu, Shalom. We have known each other over almost a jubilee of years, part of them under fire during military operations that have never been revealed. Because of this, even when I criticized your conduct and decision-making, I was always careful not to express doubt in your sense of commitment to the country and its security. But the wild incitement now that you are leading in the last few weeks against the left-wing, to which you have added the Attorney General and the judicial elite, raises the suspicion that despite your important contribution to the state - its good is no longer in your sight...I admired you very much for your way of conducting battle and your expansive military perspective. Yet, the wild incitement against the left-wing through which you are trying to preserve your rule is foreign fire whose end will crack Israel's democracy into pieces. How doesn't your hand shake from the de-legitimization you are trying to do against the left-wing, half of the Israeli public, 'the enemies of Israel'? You must remember that the one who saved you from death in the Suez Canal was Amatzia Ben-Haim (RIP), a member of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai and a leftist, who was killed later by a terrorist in Gush Katif. Also your good friend Haim Ben-Yona (RIP) was a leftist, a member of Kibbutz Yechiam. I am familiar with the secrets of politics, the American techniques of isolating and of the base and the rest of the various election maneuvers. But we are not in America. The strongest democracy in the world will survive Trump and others. It is in doubt that Israel, with all its tribes and citizens, will survive the wild incitement whose only purpose is to get another Knesset seat or two, in order to reach 61 members of Knesset and more. Netanyahu, your devotion to the mission was the symbol of your strength as a soldier and a commander. Now, when the goal is only your personal survival, that ability has turned into a double-edged sword being stabbed into all of our bodies, right-wing and left-wing alike. Your hatred and incitement will become unbearable. I know that you are in a legal battle, which from your point of view is to be or not to be, and in its framework, all means are acceptable - but I hope that when you are alone late at night, you will do the soul-searching and ask what is really important to the State of Israel. What brings broad consensus among us about the question of what is life and, when there is no choice, what do we die for. Those are more important things than how much time you will continue to serve.
Yes to the Arab Slate, No to the Kahanists (Haaretz Editorial) The Supreme Court should reject any effort to draw a symmetry, a comparison of 'the extremists on both sides.’
Moshe Feiglin is already the winner (Yaron Dekel, Yedioth/Ynet) The ultra-nationalist is drawing crowds in leftist, secular Tel Aviv, with his separation of religion and state and promises to legalize marijuana, but these ostensibly liberal policies hide a draconian attitude to Israel's Arabs.
The Israeli Opposition Must Follow This Model's Lead (Ehud Barak, Haaretz+) Martin Luther King once said, 'The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.' We must not find ourselves there.
This election cycle is full of strategy but devoid of values (Ariela Ringel Hoffman, Yedioth/Ynet) Everyone is talking about voting tactically on April 9, but this is costing Meretz and Labor a dangerous chunk of its electorate; the public is exhausted, and this election season is void of all ideology; is a real leader with real values too much to ask?
Forget Marijuana, Feiglin’s Been Smoking Some Pretty Strong Ideological Stuff (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) His Zehut Party offers a bizarre platform of Torah, Milton Friedman and Meir Kahane. On paper it doesn’t make sense and in the real world, it would be a disaster.
When the center moves wildly to the right, Judge Meltzer goes it with it (Ran Edelist, Maariv) The problem with Ofer Cassif (of Hadash party), as with Michael Ben-Ari (from Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party), is that they take their truth to the end. The first was jailed when he refused to serve in the (Palestinian) Territories, he lectured at the Hebrew University and served as a combat soldier in the Nahal paratrooper brigade. Putting him against Ben-Ari the test of the normative and enlightened world community is embarrassing and shameful for the entire State of Israel. And that’s where the head of the Central Elections Committee, High Court Justice Hanan Meltzer, comes in. In the days of defensive democracy, he refused to use his own voice to rule in the case of the (Arab) Balad party, Ofer Cassif, the Otzma Yehudit party, and Michael Ben-Ari. Meltzer was always a consensual type. Now, as the center moves wildly to the right, he moves with it.
What a Netanyahu Election Victory Will Mean for American Jewry (Amir Tibon, Haaretz+) The prime minister’s religious coalition partners are inching toward supporting a law that will shield him from indictment; non-Orthodox Jews will pay the price if such legislation passes.
Gaza awaits a new Israeli government (Doron Matza, Israel Hayom) For now, Israel will likely tread carefully. But after the election, it will have to choose whether to play according to Hamas' rules and get dragged into a confrontation or change them and impose its will.
The left-wing parties must demand the education portfolio in the next term (Yuli Tamir, Maariv) Most of the people who want the education portfolio now want to ditch the secular system, and if it does not stop now, we will be in an impossible situation right after the election campaign.

Commentary/Analysis:
Netanyahu Isn't the Problem. The Israeli People Are (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) The apartheid did not start with him and will not end with his departure.
Are Jewish Lives More Threatened by the Left or the Right? That's the Wrong Question (Petra Marquardt-Bigman, Haaretz+) There's just one problem with the entire debate about whose anti-Semitism is worse: neither are the post-WWII source of the abuse and murder of the most Jews. That distinction belongs to Islamists.
Fear and loathing at IDF checkpoints (Douglas Altabef, Israel Hayom) It seems inconceivable that foreign nationals would be allowed to harass soldiers protecting their own country, and would face no pushback, yet until recently this was the reality in Israel.
Netanyahu Outfoxed Russia, Iran and ISIS With His Cynical, Ruthless Syria Policy (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) If Netanyahu has one valid claim to remaining in office, it’s his Syria policy and the fact he was one of the first world leaders to recognize the threat of ISIS.
Public criticism, private cooperation (Oded Granot, Israel Hayom) Jordan's king knows he can get away with slamming Israel at every turn because, behind the scenes, Israel will still do all it can to keep his teetering regime from crumbling and falling into the hands of the Islamists.
With Gaza a Priority, Israel Seeks to Quell Temple Mount Tensions (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Meanwhile, Israeli defense officials say Assad has no idea what Hezbollah is doing under his nose in the Golan Heights.
Walking a fine line between the Bedouin and the Palestinians (Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom) The Arab Spring largely passed Jordan by, in part because the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood supported King Abdullah, who now has to juggle the contradictory demands of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Bedouin and the country's Palestinian majority.

 

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