APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday June 23, 2019

 

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Top News Summary:
US President Donald Trump’s plans for war and peace were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers and in both cases, the majority of the papers doubted he would do either.

Also, the latest on the case of the rape of the 7-year-old Jewish Israeli girl from an ultra-Orthodox settlement was that the police felt pressured to find evidence against the 46-year-old Palestinian man whom they indicted, despite having no evidence and he having an alibi. Yedioth Hebrew called it a “fateful week” in which the affair that is shaking the country is about to be decided. Maariv reported that the Israeli police are trying to "rescue" the investigation into the rape of the 7-year-old Israeli girl by Tuesday. The police and Maariv wrote that the police fear that if they do not succeed in locating the two men who were allegedly at the scene of the crime, and if there is no breakthrough in the new information received, the Palestinian man accused of the crime, Mahmoud Katusa, 46, will be released on Tuesday when his detention ends and the Military Advocate General will order to withdraw the indictment against him. Haaretz reported that the medical clinic that examined the girl did not inform the police. And locals say that the police are using any means possible to frame Katusa. Haaretz’s Amira Hass reported from Katusa’s village, Deir Qadis.

**The Trump administration unveiled key points of its ‘economy first’ ten-year peace plan days before the start of the economic conference in Bahrain. The plan is based on $50 billion of investment - that has yet to be offered, a corridor between Gaza and the West Bank - that Israel has to agree to and the cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, which boycotts it. According to the plan, the Palestinian gross domestic product will double, reducing the Palestinian poverty rate by 50% and cutting the high Palestinian unemployment rate. The Palestinians rejected it out of hand, saying that the plan's goal was to end the Palestinian cause, but “Palestine isn’t for sale," they said. Palestinian businessmen boycotting the Bahrain workshop said statehood not money will end the conflict with Israel. "How (can you) build an economy if you don't have sovereignty? If you don't have access to natural resources, like water, like electricity, like borders?" In Israel, Minister Steinitz said it "sounds good, but Palestinians refuse to help themselves.” MK Yair Lapid called it a “very serious document." (Maariv) Across the Arab world, pundits denounced the plan as a “colossal waste of time,” a “nonstarter” and “dead on arrival." In Amman, hundreds of Islamists protested against the plan. Israel Hayom noted that the Bahrain meeting on Tuesday coincides with a pledging conference in New York for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, an institution supporting Palestinian refugees that the Trump administration has defunded and wants to eliminate entirely. Some suspect the administration timed the Bahrain conference to coincide with the UNRWA fundraising event because of the Administration’s opposition to the organization. Dan Shapiro, the previous U.S. ambassador to Israel, noted that “the Trump Administration has shut down aid programs that support every one of the goals in this Palestinian economic plan.” Shapiro was referring to the White House’s decision to cut all civilian U.S. assistance to the Palestinians, including support for economic projects, hospitals and coexistence groups. “It is now pushing others to invest where we have divested,” Shapiro continued. “What do you think the response is going to be?” Israel Hayom quoted from a New York Times interview in which US Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt said, that "Blaming the settlements for the conflict and this constant focus on settlements is a farce." Yedioth (Hebrew) reported that Arab MK Ayman Odeh said that the reason the Arab members of Knesset voted in favor of dissolving the Knesset was to thwart  Trump and Netanyahu's plans [‘Deal of the Century’ - OH]. MK Yusef Jabarin: "We knew that another election would postpone the release of the plan by many months and maybe cause it to be withdrawn altogether." Yedioth reported that before the vote, the Arab MKs updated Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office on the plan. (Yedioth/Ynet Hebrew)

IRAN:
While ‘Israel Hayom’ declared that for Trump the military option against Iran was still on the table, the senior commentators in the other Israeli papers thought US President Donald Trump did right by cancelling at the last minute his plan to attack Iran for downing a US drone: ‘Power in restraint’ was the title of the analysis by Maariv’s military correspondent, Tal Lev-Ram. ‘Restraint is power’ was the title of Yedioth commentator Sever Plocker. And even the paper’s right-wing commentator, Ben-Dror Yemini, wrote that ‘Restraint was justified.’ Yedioth’s Orly Azoulay wrote that Trump was afraid to ruin his chances of winning another term, Maariv wrote that Trump was using the ‘carrot and the stick’ method to get the Iranians to do what he wanted and Haaretz’s Zvi Bar’el wondered since when are 150 dead [the number of Iranians Trump was told would be killed by the attack and the reason he said he canceled it) considered a tragedy, when Trump continues to arm the Saudi Arabian army which has killed thousands of people in Yemen. In light of the tension between Washington and Iran: US National Security Adviser John Bolton landed in Israel Saturday to take part in a historic security summit in Jerusalem with Israel’s National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. (Maariv)

Iran-US Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Gideon Levy He saw the Israeli missile heading straight at him. Seconds later, his family was dead
Mohammad Abu el-Jedian lost his parents, his brother and his home when an Israeli missile struck the Gaza Strip apartment building they lived in. Six people, including a baby and a child, were killed in the attack. (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+)
'Terror tour' of Tel Aviv revives city's troubled history
Yaakov Levi says his new free guided visits to sites of terror attacks, including mass casualty suicide bombing at Dizengoff Center in 1996, are motivated by his desire to keep the memory of the terrible events and their victims alive in people's memories. (Alexandra Lokash and Nir Cohen, Yedioth/Ynet)
Why Every Israeli Should Visit Cairo
Despite the poverty, the travel advisories, the ripoffs and the disgraceful attitude toward women, our correspondent warmly recommends a visit to the Egyptian capital – and further afield. (Roy Chicky Arad, Haaretz+)
From Batman to Holy Land, comics artist sees heroes on all sides
A Lebanese Druze, who lived through a brutal civil war to become a religious West Bank settler, paints portraits or superhero reproductions on commission to a clientele that he says includes Palestinians. (Reuters, Ynet)
Haaretz's 2019 Rich List: Meet Israel's 128 Billionaires
In 2003, Israel only had 8 billionaires. What happened since? Click the timeline to find out. Israel's richest are getting richer, and other takeaways | Special project. (Haaretz)
A Bollywood love story in Petah Tikva
Mayan Sanker, a Jewish teacher from Mumbai, came to Israel to teach school children using her unique method — that combines Bollywood dancing with English classes. (Nina Fuchs, Ynet)

Commentary/Analysis: 
Economic Side of 'Deal of the Century' Holds Some Surprises, but It's More Vision Than Blueprint (Noa Landau, Haaretz+) The U.S. economic plan shouldn't be analyzed from too pragmatic a perspective. Its intent is to convey a message to the Palestinians that if a political agreement is reached, they could benefit greatly from it.
Summit or workshop, let them call it whatever they wanted: the Bahrain conference failed even before it began - and the real story on the Morsi affair (Jacky Khougy, Maariv) Israel isn’t participating, the Palestinian Authority is boycotting, and the Arab countries aren’t sending a senior representative, but the main thing is that it makes headlines. And also: the Morsi affair may teach a few Israelis a thing or two about themselves. Several Israelis have made it their habit to serve as spokesperson on a voluntary basis on behalf of the Egyptian regime. They echo Cairo's positions under every tree as if it were their own government, and even clash with those who dare to say otherwise. Egypt is an important friend, and should be treated with the respect reserved for friends. But some get confused and find themselves defending our neighbor more than the best legal defense. I have yet to meet an Egyptian figure who will openly defend the Israeli government, like those Israelis who are vehemently defending Egyptian policy. On Monday, Mohammed Morsi, the deposed president of Egypt on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, died unexpectedly. Morsi had a heart attack during his trial. He has been in prison for six years, after being deposed by the then Minister of Defense, Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, and by the supreme command of the Egyptian army. On the evening of that day, my colleagues at Army Radio called me to talk about the meaning of his death, and Zvi Mazel, who was Israel's ambassador to Cairo and retired 18 years ago. Mazel criticized me for daring to say that Morsi was not democratically elected, but rather was appointed to his post in staged elections. The army, which had managed the affairs of Egypt until then, had come to an agreement with the Muslim Brotherhood, giving them a share of power. The streets of Cairo were burning, and that deal was meant to achieve temporary calm. The results of the elections that were published, in which Morsi won, did not reflect the situation at the polls, but rather the clauses of the secret agreement. I reported on this deal and its well-known results in June 2012, even before Morsi was declared the winner. On the day he took office, I said that within a year the army might remove him if he did not do as they liked. That too happened. These thiings are recorded and archived. Ambassador Mazel described it this week as conspiracy theories, claiming that Morsi was freely elected. "The army agreed to work with the Muslim Brotherhood, because no party was willing to take power," he said. I would not be dwelling on the story if Mazel was the only supporter of free election theory. Other Israelis, experts in the Middle East and researchers, are convinced that in Egypt at that time, when the streets were flooded with blood, the army called upon the hated Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and together they planned liberal elections. Like in Switzerland. To all this I mention another event. In August 2012, a few weeks after he entered his office, the office of the President of Egypt announced that Morsi was replacing Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and military commander Sami Anan. The position of the minister was replaced by the head of military intelligence at the time, an officer named 'Abd al-Fattah a-Sisi. The international media reported this in major headlines. The new president began a purge campaign. A while later I brought the back story behind the impeachment to Army Radio. A quiet coup in the top ranks of the armed forces. A group of young officers, headed by a-Sisi, showed Tantawi the way to the door. The public was told that the new president had ordered to do so, but the president, that weakling, was not even asked. Everyone benefited from the trick, so they cooperated with the official announcement. Morsi was introduced as president with large balls. A-Sisi won the high post without anyone knowing that he had ousted his commander, and Tantawi had secured a promise that he would not be harmed. As in the elections, here, too, Morsi was a pawn in the hands of the officers. It is possible that Mazel and his ilk would call it a conspiracy theory. But these are the facts, and they are based on the most reliable sources. Ten months later, A-Sisi, on his way to the summit, dismissed Morsi. Thus, with cold and calm planning, the army restored control to itself. Egyptian politics is a suitcase with a double bottom. A large part of the events take place in a hidden cell. This is a conscious choice of the regime, designed to keep all the cards in hand in order to deal properly with heavy threats from within. Like a play performed at the front of the stage, but its main action is behind the scenes. That's why these politics are fascinating. Many cried this week for Morsi. On the Temple Mount, in Gaza and even in Umm al-Fahm, they prayed in his memory. They cried not because he was elected by the votes of the people and was rejected with a sword. They cried for themselves, because they had hoped for a new order of government, and they cried for him, because he had ended up as a tragicomic hero. A scrawny fish like a card in a shark-infested sea, and he was eventually devoured.
Trump's Bahrain Conference – Not What You Imagined (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The Palestinians are boycotting and the Israeli elections got in the way. But one former U.S. diplomat sees some light at the end of the tunnel.
The Bahrain conference is more proof that the Arab states are distancing themselves from the Palestinians (Ruth Wasserman Lande, Maariv) Ramallah's refusal to take part in the Trump initiative angers Arab leaders, who fear the Arab world's agitation and prefer not to create a crisis with the United States.
Why Stop at West Bank Annexation? (Yossi Klein, Haaretz+) Talk of annexation is in the air – a cautious discussion with settlers and religious Zionists saying “annexation” and falling silent. They’re sussing it out, sending up little trial balloons. They say “annexation” and look around, like somebody who hit a parked car and plans to hightail out of there. We hear “annexation” more and more without getting worked up. That’s how we are. It’s not easy to provoke us. Want to cut pensions? Go ahead. Want another military operation in Gaza? Go ahead if you’re keen. But annexation of West Bank land? What for – so that they’ll call us an expansionist state and not an apartheid state?
As long as the discourse on the end of democracy continues, more people may believe it (Brig. Gen. (res.) Eli Ben-Meir, Maariv) Bots, Deep Fake and Fake News: When the loss of trust in democracy poses a strategic threat to Israel, the attempt to undermine the system of government becomes a weapon.
The last truly Zionist institution and most Jewish newspaper in the world (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) From its launch in 1919, Haaretz was never just about building the Jewish state. It was also about ensuring the state always lived up to its Jewish and Zionist ideals.
Undermining (Arab) Equality (Israel Harel, Haaretz+) A student and teacher, both Palestinian citizens of Israel, petitioned the High Court of Justice. Their claim was that the maps for the matriculation exam in geography hadn’t been translated into Arabic (the questions were translated in full). The High Court, being committed to equality, rebuked the Education Ministry (which hastened to translate them) and established the principle that “full weight” must be given to “the status of the Arabic language in Israel.” Had the court not been biased a priori in favor of the petitioners – who dressed up this political petition in the guise of a cry for civic equality – it should have considered whether, in a Hebrew-speaking state, studying in Arabic promotes equal opportunity for Israel’s Arab community, or actually makes it less achievable. After all, difficulty in understanding Hebrew texts reduces Arab students’ ability to achieve true equality of opportunity. Most importantly, this is a barrier that prevents them from obtaining a high-level college education, especially in sought-after departments.
By Calling Off Strike on Iran, Trump Seems to Prefer Bloodless Wars (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The U.S. president is actually right to focus on pressure to change the nuclear agreement.
Restraint is power (Sever Plocker, Yedioth/YediothHebrew) To the extent that it seems strange, given the incessant nonsense of US President Donald Trump, his conduct vis-a-vis Iran has been correct, including his departure from the flawed nuclear agreement, the imposition of new sanctions on Iran and the demand for an immediate dialogue with America. He is not being dragged by provocations and he radiates ambiguity that is so compatible with the hysterical and confused Iranian conduct… Trump decided correctly, when he gave up at the last moment - deliberately or on second thought - the attack on Iranian air defense facilities. The message was sent, the threat remained and logic took over. A credible power knows how to use its power sparingly, to threaten and to pull back, or as the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the height of the Second Intifada: restraint is also power.
Calming the Persian Gulf Is an Israeli Interest (Haaretz Editorial) Trump explained his decision to call off the attack by citing assessments that it might have killed 150 Iranians. Did Trump know this before he ordered his forces to prepare for war? Was it proportionality that bothered the president who doesn’t hesitate to help Saudi Arabia in its bloody war against Yemen, in which tens of thousands of civilians have died? And is it possible to take the president’s words seriously when he threatens a war of destruction against Iran yet shows mercy for the lives of its people? Israel, which continues to support the president’s policy and even encourages him to deal painful blows to Iran, is acting as if it were a spectator with no responsibility for developments in the Gulf following the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the imposition of sanctions on Iran – policy that was adopted at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bidding.  But Israelis have to be concerned about any violent conflict between the United States and Iran because Israel tops Iran’s target list, or so Netanyahu has portrayed the threat from the east. Israeli intelligence assessments that a conflict in the Gulf could spark action by Hezbollah and other groups in the region, and the Saudis’ and other Gulf states’ fears of a war erupting there, are not without reason.
The Iranian summer: Pressure on Tehran is growing - and Israel is preparing (Ron Ben Yishai, Ynet Hebrew) In this week's multi-pronged exercise, the IDF examined the updated response prepared by the General Staff in case Iran realized its interest in initiating war friction through its branches. When Netanyahu said to the chief of staff, "Don't try us," it was not an election act. Even though there is no information about an Iranian move now. Israel should be prepared for large-scale confrontations in the north and south.
In the waters of the Persian Gulf, there is a dynamic of war (Ran Edelist, Maariv) The damage to tankers in the Strait of Hormuz is either an Iranian or an American provocation. If the first option is right, it means that Iran is ready to absorb an attack and also strike back.
Israel Is Not Ready for Any Scenario (Friday Haaretz Editorial) But according to both Israeli and Western intelligence assessments, Iran may not suffice with this limited confrontation with the Americans. Instead, it may launch a provocation on one of Israel’s borders, with the goal of intensifying the crisis mood and forcing the Trump administration to urgently reconsider its steps. The data shows that Israel is short of about 30 percent of the military ambulances it would need for a war, while 20 percent of the army’s medical staff positions remain unfilled. Moreover, these officials said, the IDF’s plan to rely on cooperation with the Magen David Adom ambulance service to evacuate casualties on the home front doesn’t jibe with the actual conditions expected in wartime.
If it looks like an Iran war and sounds like an Iran war…(Alon Pinkas, Yedioth/Ynet) Trump could not bear the thought of abiding by a nuclear agreement signed by Obama and would rather listen to his armchair generals than the U.S. intelligence community, but he might be convinced that another bloody regional war would cost him at the polls.
Aborted U.S. Attack Exposes Fatal Flaw in Netanyahu’s Iran Strategy: Trump’s Problematic Personality (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The concurrent emergence of yet another credible witness to Trump’s sexual aggression is not detached from his failures on the world stage.
Iran, U.S. Are on the Warpath Again. This Time, Israel Has Little Say (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) For many Israeli ministers and generals, recent events echo the tense summers a decade ago. But there one major difference
Why Israel Downplayed One of Its Biggest Military Exercises (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) There was a message for the Israeli public, and a message to Israel's enemies.
He’s skipping over two clauses: Netanyahu is wary of a confrontation with Hamas, but is in fact accelerating it (Yossi Melman, Maariv) Qatari money only prevents a humanitarian collapse, but the prime minister is not pushing for the establishment of infrastructure projects that will help the Gaza Strip economically. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not interested in war. More precisely, he is not interested in a war in which Israel is involved and which takes place within its borders. It can be assumed that he would have been very pleased had the United States attacked (and perhaps will still attack, although very unlikely) Iran, because of its nuclear program, because of the development of missiles and its support of terrorist organizations and its involvement in undermining regimes. Although he never asked for it in public, this is what Netanyahu hoped for in 2010-2015, during the Obama administration, until the nuclear agreement was signed and the military option was removed from the agenda. But as far as Israel is concerned, Netanyahu is very cautious, and he is doing almost everything to prevent a military confrontation with Hamas in Gaza. We see it every day in his conduct and his decision to allow Qatar to transfer tens of millions of dollars from time to time - until now, about $150 million have been transferred to Gaza - despite the harsh criticism leveled at him from the right-wing (Bennett, Smotrich, Lieberman) and from the center (Kahol-Lavan). Since March 2018 there have been 15 rounds of battle (or combat days) between Israel and Hamas. Some, like the most recent one, are very frantic, others less. After each round, a cease-fire was achieved without the solving of the basic problems, the so-called ‘arrangement. On the Palestinian side, some 270 people were killed and several thousand injured. Most of those killed were in the first months of demonstrations and processions near the fence. Most of the casualties were civilians and a few were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. The security establishment knows and understands the sensitivity of the organizations to those killed. The former chief of staff, Gadi Eizenkot, understood this well, and present IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and the commander of the Southern Command, Major-General Herzl Halevy, understand this as well…But Netanyahu is not ready to go with his strategy and ideology to the end. And so he skips over the two clauses regarding the rebuilding the Gaza Strip. He allows for the expansion of the fishing area (which has been closed and opened as Israel's only response to the launching of balloons, the burning of fields and the firing of one or two rockets), the transfer of fuel, food and medicines, the employment of workers in forced labor and the flow of Qatari money, which provides a monthly salary of $100 to poor families. But Netanyahu knows too well that the transfer of funds from Qatar is intended only to prevent a humanitarian collapse of the Gaza Strip, with its two million residents. Nevertheless, he does not push with full force to allow the establishment of large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the construction of a desalination plant, a significant improvement in sewage and an increase in electricity production. A striking example of his inability or desire to resolve disputes is the issue of allowing laborers enter Israel for work, which would greatly alleviate the economic distress in the Gaza Strip. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Kamil Abu Rokun, proposes that 5,000 Gazans who meet the criteria (adults, families with no security or criminal background) be permitted to leave for work every day in Israel. Chief of Staff, Major General Kochavi supports the proposal, and Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman opposes it. It is true that past precedents can be concluded that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will exploit the granting of work permits to smuggle explosives, weapons, money to the West Bank, and instructions for attacks. In the past, Hamas forged medical permits to smuggle its people into Israel under the guise of patients. Even today, Hamas exploits sick women and children in need of medical treatment in Israel to transfer messages and money to terrorist operatives…In principle, the Shin Bet is in favor of alleviating the economic distress in Gaza, supports the establishment of industrial zones near the border, and even increases the number of permits for Gazan merchants to go to Israel and the West Bank and Israeli Arab businessmen to enter Gaza. Nevertheless, Argaman is not prepared to take the risk, even the smallest. The Shin Bet is not willing to allow an experiment of 500 or 1,000 workers. It is true that if laborers who were allowed to work carried out a terror attack, the Shin Bet will be blamed for this. But the head of the Shin Bet security service is not only a contractor for thwarting terrorism, but also a security adviser to the government, who needs to see a broader picture. Netanyahu does not take a stand on this dispute, and in effect accepts the position of Argaman and the Shin Bet, even though he knows that employing workers in Israel will increase the chances of long-term calm and regulation in Gaza. On the other hand, the prime minister is less receptive to the Shin Bet's position, which for some time has been warning against the difficult economic situation in the West Bank, which is reflected in wage cuts, reduced Palestinian purchasing power, a decline in output and a contraction of the economy. Knesset members, including Avi Dichter (also Elazar Stern of Yesh Atid) initiated a bill to offset the tax revenues that Israel collects from Palestinian goods, the amount the Palestinian Authority allocates to support the families of terrorists who died or those who serve prison sentences. (In the past year the PA transferred 1.2 billion shekels to families). For years, Netanyahu opposed the bill and other initiatives on the subject, because he understood their implications. But in February 2019 he was exhausted, and from election considerations he did not prevent the Cabinet from adopting the law…On the horizon, it is not clear whether it is sooner or later that the Shin Bet will likely have another headache, perhaps even greater, if Netanyahu decides to annex Area C in the West Bank, where there are only 100,000 Palestinians and many settlements, constituting 60 percent of the West Bank. Now, enjoying the backing of the Trump administration, two of whose representatives - Ambassador David Friedman and Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt - have expressed support, the question is whether to announce it before or after the elections, if he will be reelected in September.
Apartheid Under the Cover of a Jewish State (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) “And another thing, Smotrich. Israel has to be a state of all its citizens,” Yair Lapid, the No. 2 in Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party, wrote on Twitter. Boom. Education Minister Bezalel Smotrich quickly replied: “Thank you, Yair, for finally putting it out there.” And new Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, hastened to join in: “A seriously outrageous anti-Semitic remark … the slogan of the enemy.” Help. Now Lapid had to do some damage control. “Somebody really misunderstood what he was reading,” Lapid tweeted. “I’ve been totally against a state of all its citizens all my life. Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and that’s how it will remain. What I wrote referred to LGBT rights.” This is something that actually took place on Twitter the other day, and it might have been funny. But it’s not. It is racism in all its ugliness. Lapid meant Jewish members of the LGBT community, to whom the state also belongs. But it’s not a state of all its citizens. That’s what happens when you live a lie: You get confused. If Israel is a democracy, it’s a state of all its citizens. There is no democracy that isn’t a state of all its citizens. From America to Germany, all are states of all their citizens. If they weren’t, to whom would they belong? Only to their privileged citizens. There’s no such thing as a democracy that belongs only to the privileged of one nationality. The state belongs to everyone. A regime that segregates and discriminates is called apartheid. There is no other name. The fact that Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel amid suspicions he supplied information to Hezbollah, was the first to draw attention to this obvious truth doesn’t detract from it one iota. A state of all its citizens isn’t “the slogan of the enemy,” as the new foreign minister put it. It’s the heart and soul of democracy. But the center-left feels exactly the same as the right and doesn’t recognize this simple truth. From their standpoint Israel is a democracy for its Jews and a guesthouse for its Arabs. Let’s thank Lapid for returning things to their proper place. One moment he was in favor of a state of all its citizens and the next he was against. He has been against it all his life, like almost all Israeli democrats.
Egypt's Sissi Had No Time to Kill ex-President Morsi – He Has a Few Countries to Run (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Could deposed leader's courtroom death be Cairo's Khashoggi affair?
NYT Cartoon Controversy Shows: When It Comes to Political Correctness, Israelis Are Hypocrites (Ofri Ilany, Haaretz+) Israelis enjoy having the freedom to insult and mock others in politically incorrect ways, but watch out when the tables are turned.
Donald Trump could be the best thing that ever happened to Israeli universities (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) Israel could be a global center for higher education. America is giving us opportunity by giving overseas students a cold shoulder.
The Next Big Bang of Israeli Politics (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) A huge political and possibly constitutional drama hurtles toward Israel as Bibi scrambles for voters and Lieberman seems set to be kingmaker – or exorcist.
In the current political system only mergers work, and Lieberman is breaking the rules (Udi Segal, Maariv) The Arab (parties) are uniting, so are the right-wing. The left-wing is looking for partners, and Kahol-Lavan is holding together its own unity by force. On the other hand, Avigdor Lieberman, the chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, is challenging the system from the outside and building on his personal brand.

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