APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday June 19, 2019
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Top News Summary:

The Israel Police reopened the investigation into the alleged rape of a seven-year-old girl from an ultra-Orthodox settlement in the West Bank by a Palestinian man after questions arose and US President Donald Trump said he might use military force against Iran making top stories in the Hebrew newspapers. Also in the news was the latest on who’s showing and who’s ditching Trump’s Bahrain conference, scheduled to take place next week.

After already indicting, 46-year-old Mahmoud Katusa, problems in the investigation and the lack of evidence in such a sensitive case has brought the top police investigator to take over and reopen the investigation. Until now, the indictment was based solely on the girl’s testimony and there is no evidence to back up the allegations. Moreover, the indictment left several questions unanswered regarding the location as well as the date of the attack, after it was revealed that the suspect presented an alibi for the date that was initially stated in the girl's testimony and afterward the prosecution removed the date from the indictment. According to the contractor, who testified as also employing Katusa: "The police initially accused him of carrying out the shocking rape on April 5," he said. "It was Friday, and on the same day the woman whose house he worked at painting the house testified that between 11:00 and 15:00 he was with her."

Maariv listed the following problems with the indictment of Katusa:
1. There is no document indicating that the child was indeed raped. There are also no forensic findings, DNA, etc.
2. The police have no clue as to whether there were two others involved in the rape, as the girl said.
3. The girl did not know how to give details about the defendant and the rape scene.
4. A woman [teacher at the school] testified that on the day and at the time of the alleged rape, on April 5, the defendant was in her home and in her presence [painting her house].
5. It is unlikely that an Arab forcefully dragged a screaming girl for fifteen minutes at noon in a crowded settlement, without anyone noticing.
6. The indictment does not include a specific date on which the rape was committed, and it states only that the incident took place sometime in February, March or April.

Haaretz and Ynet reported on these problems with the case:
1. The child interrogator said the victim's account was ‘weak and lacking’ and that she couldn't determine whether the child spoke honestly.
2. Shai Police (West Bank) station did the investigation without involving the Shin Bet, as is done in crimes involving Palestinians. Now the Shin Bet will be involved, particularly to locate the two other men the girl said were involved.
3. The Police failed to send underwear to a forensic test. It was found at the alleged site of the incident and the girl said was hers.

Maariv reported that the family of the girl requested from the far right-wing anti-Arab legal organization, Honenu, not to speak to the media in their name anymore and not to represent them legally anymore.

Katusa's Jewish employers and acquaintances are convinced of his innocence. An Ultra-Orthodox resident of the settlement who employed Katusa for years spoke to 103FM and said it wasn’t Katusa and the rapist is still free. (YouTube) “We do not want to underestimate the severity of the story. We are simply afraid here in the city that the attacker is still walking freely,” said ‘Yitzhak,’ not using his real name. (Maariv) Yaakov, the contractor who hired Katusa, said, "I know Mahmud for a few years. The guy is as straight as a ruler. Maybe there is one percent chance he is a pedophile, but I believe 99 percent that he is not. Neither the teachers nor the director of the institution where the girl is studying believe him to be guilty. How could he have crossed a military checkpoint with a 7-year-old?" the contractor wondered. "I believe almost 100 percent that he is innocent. There are many questions, for example, why did they say at first that he committed the rape on April 5, and then when there was evidence from the mother - the police changed their version?” (Maariv) Even the director of a yeshiva who knows Katusa said, "I don’t believe it. My stomach is turning upside down because Mahmud has been arrested." (Maariv)

*****
After the Pentagon said it was deploying 1000 more troops in the Middle East region, following the attacks on the oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, Trump called the attacks ‘very minor.’ Russia told Washington to drop the additional troop deployment or be at risk of war with Iran. And then in an interview to Time magazine, Trump said he would consider using military force against Iran to prevent nuclear weapons. Iranian President Hassan Rohani said his country wasn’t seeking war against any nation. That announcement came after announcing that Iran was breaking compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal due to US economic pressures.

'Deal of the Century': Referring to the Palestinian boycott of the Trump peace plan economic workshop in Bahrain next week, U.S. Mideast Envoy Jason Greenblatt said, "The Palestinians make decisions that are not beneficial to their people" and that if Trump’s peace plan fails “I will understand why.” Greenblatt made the rare statement in an interview with Channel 12 after a White House official announced there will be no official Israeli representation at the Bahrain summit next week in order to avoid making it 'political.’ (Also Maariv) There will be no Israeli officials attending, but there will be an ex-general.  Yoav Mordechai, former head of Israel's civil administration in territories who now heads an international consultancy company, will attend, Ynet reported. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel was maintaining overt and covert ties with Arab leaders and that the conference was very important. However, Haaretz+ wondered how much he meant that and what would be left of the Bahrain conference without Palestinian or Israeli officials and possibly no Israeli or international journalists. It also said big questions remained about the contents of the conference. Haaretz reporters said that “In Israel, and especially in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s circle, there has been a collective sigh of relief at the slow yet steady downgrading of the Bahrain workshop. behind the scenes, there are those who admit that the last thing Netanyahu needs right now, in the middle of an unexpected reelection campaign, is a peace plan.”

Quick Hits:

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Features:

These South African Jews Hate the Occupation as Much as They Hate BDS
After helping end apartheid, liberal Jews have turned to the occupation and formed South Africa’s answer to J Street | Part 3 of a special report. (Judy Maltz, Haaretz+)
What does the Jewish-American liberal think about Judaism, anti-Semitism and Israel?
A new study shows that American liberal Jews think not just like other liberals, but not exactly like other Jews. (Shmuel Rosner, Maariv)
PHOTOS - Haaretz at 100 Capturing Journalism in the Moment: Day and Night at Haaretz
A special edition of Haaretz's Photo Blog celebrating the newspaper's 100th anniversary. (Daniel Tchetchik, Haaretz)
When Palestinian Arabs and Jews fought the Nazis side by side
12,000 Arabs from Mandatory Palestine volunteered for British Army in a largely forgotten chapter of history; Israeli researcher: They believed it necessary to postpone nationalist demands to fight as one against the Germans. (The Media Line, Ynet)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
First They’ll Take Area C, Then They’ll Take the West Bank (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) What does it mean to roll one’s eyes? Well, in Hebrew it means to try to look innocent, to play dumb. The eye-roll has caught on and become policy. It’s the foundation on which the settlers have built their expansionist theory, which is based on building illegal outposts and creating a warped separation between systematic land grabs known as “settlements” and the "land grabs by chance" known as “outposts.” But this is all passé now. Now the time has come for the festival of the new glaring lie, the pinnacle of the settlement movement’s achievements: annexing Area C of the West Bank. What’s so bad about an annexation that would merely put most of the “legal” settlements and “consensus” blocs under Israeli sovereignty? Nobody wonders anymore about which law lets the settlements enjoy such status.
Loose lips sink ships (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom) It seems that recently, the IDF feels it has to boast its abilities and brag about its accomplishments, even though history has shown us how dangerous such hubris can be. The IDF should focus on the missions at hand, and leave the flamboyant rhetoric to Nasrallah and his Iranian and Syrian patrons.
Morsi Symbolized the Triumph of Egypt's Revolution – and Its Collapse (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Mohammed Morsi's win in Egypt's first free presidential election was seen as the victory of democracy – until people realized that he had no intention of following through.
Bahrain has effectively been canceled (Yossi Beilin, Israel Hayom) The Americans put the cart before the horse by announcing the Bahrain economic workshop before making sure that all parties involved would take part. The event scheduled for June 25 is now a business meeting, nothing more.
As its economy tanks, Iran may have to talk with America (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) The regime is growing desperate as the forecasts tumble from a bit of growth to deep bear territory, and other options just aren't there.
Israeli Support for Trump Clash With Iran Willfully Ignores Danger of Devastating Hezbollah Missile Attack (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) Netanyahu puts country’s trust and fate in hands of impulsive president with little experience and no achievements.
Iran May Soon Try to Provoke Israel to Gain the Upper Hand in Its Conflict With the U.S. (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Intelligence assessments suggest that Tehran might initiate a provocation along one of Israel's borders in order to exacerbate the crisis, using one of the groups it operates in the region.
Without a plan and with burning lies: Netanyahu's status quo vision (Yitzhak Ben-Ner, Maariv) He slams “the witch hunt against my wife” and the leaks from the investigations against him. But as far as the Gaza Strip is concerned, he is filled with tolerance and understanding, with a tactical wink of any eye saying ‘trust me.’
Israeli Leaders Like the Lowest Lehava Activists (Haaretz Editorial) On Monday it was reported that a Palestinian had been charged with kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old Israeli girl. The accused, a 40-year-old resident of Deir Qadis in the West Bank, who has an Israeli work permit and no criminal or security record, worked in a settlement as a cleaning and maintenance worker at the girl’s elementary school. Immediately after news of the incident broke and without a shred of proof that it was a terror act, senior Israeli officials, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, seized on it as if they had found some great political treasure.
Democracy vs juristocracy (Moshe Koppel, Israel Hayom) None of the constraints on the court taken for granted elsewhere exist in Israel. Those who hysterically argue against any limitation on judicial review are actually trying to create a juristocracy.
The Occupation’s Damage Has Reached Berlin (Eli Yassif, Haaretz+) The saga of Peter Schäfer, who recently resigned as director of the Jewish Museum Berlin after the institution tweeted its support for the freedom of expression of the movement to boycott Israel, is at its height, so it’s worth examining the controversy from several angles that will provide context. The first concerns the man at the center – the (non-Jewish) scholar of German Jewry, Prof. Peter Schäfer. For decades, he has been a full participant in Israeli conferences and studies and has cooperated with leading Israeli researchers. He has held senior academic posts in Berlin, at Princeton and at a prestigious German publishing house, promoting the study of European Judaism and providing exceptional support for the achievements of Israeli scholars. I can’t think of another non-Israeli scholar who has done so much to promote Jewish studies worldwide. Thus to depict him as someone who hates Israel and works against it goes far beyond stupidity. It's pure evil.
Haaretz Celebrates 100: A Letter From Publisher Amos Schocken (Amos Schocken, Haaretz) Haaretz is the strongest advocate for an Israel that is a liberal democracy living in peace with its Palestinian neighbors and that guarantees equal rights for all its citizens.

Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Material evidence of Netanyahu's weakness (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) What the prime minister is trying to conceal in downplaying his criminal investigations is not any real proof of guilt, but rather the extent to which he is driven by his own unbridled impulses.
Israel’s Right-wing Must Stop Splintering – and Reach Out to the Arab Community ([Netanyahu confidante] Nathan Eshel, Haaretz+) I know that I will lose support and infuriate many good friends by what I’m about to write, but we must tie our fate to that of Israel’s Arabs. Most of the Arab community is interested in three things: education, the economy and personal security. As part of this common denominator we must build a shared life and set aside issues that have no solution in the foreseeable future. For hundreds of years, Jews lived in Muslim countries, flourished there, prospered and felt protected. Now that the situation is reversed and the Jews are the majority, there is no reason why the Muslim minority can’t live here in comfort and with full cooperation, including a partnership in leading the country. It’s precisely the Israeli right that can and should build a bridge to the majority of the Arab community. Over the past two years I have met with many Israeli Arab leaders who are not afraid of identifying with these goals. They feel that the Israeli left exploited them for decades and used them as political cannon fodder, and admit that what is being given to them by the right-wing government, in terms of budgets and respect, is something they never received in the past.
Netanyahu's message of unity (Mati Tuchfeld, Israel Hayom) The appointments of Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich to head the education and transportation ministries were intended to debunk the false impression that Likud's alliance with the religious-Zionist camp is falling apart.
The Israeli Opposition's Real Problem (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) If the leaders of Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan party want change, there will be change. To our regret, however, they want to be Likud’s Siamese twin.
Labor must look back to go forwards (Amnon Abramovich, Yedioth/Ynet) The once great party that built the state should reinstate Amir Peretz as leader after the disaster wrought by Avi Gabbay, as the next generation of lawmakers are either too inexperienced, too delusional or too young.
Lieberman's declaration will lead him to be the big winner in the elections (Mami Peer, Maariv) If I were a moderate ultra-Orthodox, I would vote for the chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu. Even more so were I a traditional person or a secular person and even a religious one who was fed up with ultra-Orthodox coercion.
Do an end-run around Yisrael Beytenu (Edith Druyan-Ohayon, Israel Hayom) The only way the Right can win the election and form a government committed to national values is if the parties to the right of the Likud forgo ego and run as a joint list.
 

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