APN's daily news review from Israel

Thursday July 10, 2019

 

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Top News Summary:
With the exception of Haaretz, today’s newspapers focused on the candidates and the parties moves ahead of Israeli elections. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his rival Ehud Barak, leader of the newly formed ‘Democratic Israel’ party, smeared each other on social media networks, on connections to wealthy Jewish criminals abroad (American sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and French criminal Arnaud Mimran) or ability to do the bottle cap challenge. Maariv’s Ben Caspit wrote that Netanyahu has a “new rabbit” to win the upcoming elections: a formal defense pact between Israel and the United States. Caspit wrote that Netanyahu, “who is looking for another gimmick to persuade his supporters to vote for him, is considering the possibility that President Trump will declare a defense pact, and in exchange he will secretly promise (Trump) a positive answer to the 'Deal of the Century.'"


Elections 2019 Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Gaza's once thriving traditional crafts industries rapidly disappearing
With unemployment rate over 50 percent, goods that once defined the Strip's economy are now almost nonexistent. Craftsmen blame Israeli blockade for economic turmoil. (Agencies, Haaretz)
Letters to the Editor: South African Zionist Federation Fights for Israel Connection (Haaretz)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
We Should Have Warned the Ethiopians About Israel's Racism (B. Michael, Haaretz+) We should have warned them. We should have told them that the homeland being offered to them is one of the most racist countries in the universe, overflowing with religious, nationalist, ethnic, genetic and gender racism. Some people console themselves with the belief that this racism is one of the ravages of the occupation. Some aspect of colonialism has crept into us, along with several other despicable attributes of a criminal regime of oppression. The truth, alas, is otherwise. Israeli racism wasn’t born on the other side of the Green Line. It was born on the day they established a state here whose definition is an oxymoron, a state that lacks a bill of rights as well as an iron wall separating religion and state. In such a country, racism is an inevitable by-product. It’s not the daughter of the occupation, but almost its mother. On the other hand, the unbearable lightness of shooting human beings (excluding settlers, the ultra-Orthodox and pale-faced Jews) is something we definitely imported from the territories.  Slowly but surely, over the years of evil, a convenient and useful killing procedure has developed: You choose a non-Jew, close your eyes, pull the trigger and run to tell the guys. And if by chance an investigation is opened, you quickly mumble the mantras that will ensure your release: “He threw a stone” and “I felt threatened.” End of story.
May my son Solomon Tekah be the last victim of racism (Worka Tekah, Yedioth/Ynet) In a special piece for Ynet, the father of the Israeli Ethiopian teen shot dead by an off-duty police officer asks the public to 'understand that my son has been murdered,' and calls for protests to continue until justice is served — but without any violence on either side.
Activist Assault in Tel Aviv Should Serve as Wake-up Call (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Left-wing activist Jonathan Pollak was assaulted Sunday by two men when he was on his way to lunch. They knew where to lie in wait for him, they followed him and then struck him, pushed him to the ground and kicked him. When he managed to get back on his feet, one of them pulled out a knife and cut him in the face. Pollak said of the main assailant, adding that his attackers shouted something like “maniac leftist, anarchist son of a bitch.” As Pollak put it, “They looked like ordinary people.” Yes – if only because of the continuum that lies behind it; that is, the comments to a May 29 Facebook post by the right-wing group Ad Kan titled “Help us find Jonathan Pollak.” For example, a man who identified himself as Bari Buskila wrote: “Maybe he’s already in the cemetery.” One Eran Gueta wrote: “Why not take him down?” And Aviad Dayani preached: “In a properly run country they execute people for treason. I wish our country were properly run.” ..The phenomenon of Jews assaulting Palestinians isn’t stopping, because it’s an inseparable part of state violence – soldiers’ violence with a state license. Both serve the goal of taking over what has remained for the Palestinians. Only a small number of assaults are reported in the Israeli media. And even when they are reported, we’re not shocked…The assault of Pollak is more interesting because he’s a Jew and was attacked in Tel Aviv. And so the special reporting on him subverts the essence of his work against Israeli violence whose target is the Palestinians.
Peace Now is constantly fighting those who want to hammer a hammer at the Zionist vision (Peace Now Secretary General, Shaked Morag, Maariv) The inauguration of 'Pilgrim's Path' in Jerusalem was another blow to a pillar that preserves the stability of the Middle East. This is true post-Zionism. A response to Prof. Aryeh Eldad…A hammer on the Zionist vision: At the beginning of last week in Jerusalem, what seemed to me as a reconstruction of the famous scene from the film "The Shining,” in which Jack Nicholson, who plays a writer with writer’s block, loses his mind, and in a manic attack he repeatedly slams an ax into the door of the hotel room. In the Israeli version, his character…was replaced by Sheldon Adelson, Sara Netanyahu, and the US Ambassador David Friedman and US Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt team, who seemed to me to be hammering with one of the last pillars that preserve the stability of the Middle East. In a column published by Maariv last week, Prof. Aryeh Eldad claimed that the presence of representatives of the Trump government was positive and important. But it's important  mainly for two people - Trump and Netanyahu. Trump and Netanyahu are twins. Two leaders suspected of criminal activity, whose country's welfare is secondary to their political survival. Both use fear, hatred and incitement to promote themselves, and both rely on fundamentalist religious elements to fund their political adventures. In practice, these are the same extreme elements - evangelical Christians and Jewish messianists. Prof. Eldad likens "Peace Now" to "an unhappy child who tears his birth certificate in an attempt to declare that he has no parents," while he himself expresses himself like a small child who refuses to grow up, slams doors and pounds on the floor crying because he had so much fun in the garden and he does not want to go to school. Eldad's biblical nostalgia is dangerous to the State of Israel - on the social, security, diplomatic and moral levels. Jerusalem was and remains a divided city. A short tour along the seam line will reveal the fact that the settler associations are trying hard to make the Israeli public forget that Jerusalem has not been united, and in its heart there is a wall, even if not physically. 40% of the million residents of the capital are Palestinians, but the Jerusalem Municipality, led by Moshe Leon, sees only 10% of the city's budget transferred to East Jerusalem. Thus, Jerusalem has become a city that is not divided between Heavenly and Earthly, but rather between "Israel" and "Palestine.” Peace Now is the largest peace movement in Israel, and along with the other peace organizations and the struggle against the occupation, is fighting every day against the political forces that are willing to deceive, lie and steal for the possibility of lifting a five pound hammer on the chances of ever having a real peace here. Prof. Eldad accuses the Zionist left of lacking Zionism, but the Messianic right is the most significant danger to the Zionist vision. Elad is the spearhead of a political ideology that uses force and nationalism in the name of an extremist minority's desire to see a third temple built on the ruins of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and on the ruins of the Jewish and democratic State of Israel. This ideology is post-Zionism.
Place of birth should not guarantee citizenship (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) Refugees and migrants all over the world are being sent back home by Western countries enforcing their laws, but somehow deportation from Israel is portrayed as an atrocity akin to those perpetrated by the Nazis.
Where’s the Money From? (Haaretz Editorial) Economy Minister Eli Cohen holds shares in a company that makes loans to customers in the United States, according to the conflict of interest agreement he signed with the state that was published this week. Which company? Who are its other shareholders? That information isn’t available to the public. Zeev Elkin, the environmental protection minister and Jerusalem affairs and heritage minister, received a loan of 600,000 shekels ($170,000) from his oligarch friend Vladimir Dubov, formerly an owners of the giant Russian energy conglomerate Yukos. Dubov is considered a Kremlin opponent, whereas Elkin, as is well known, frequently visits the Kremlin with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Elkin did report this loan, but the information wasn’t made public until TheMarker uncovered it and reported it in 2015. This week it was learned that, following the reporting, the Justice Ministry made a special conflict of interest arrangement for Elkin’s entire relationship with Dubov. Until 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had holdings in the Texas-based firm Seadrift, which is controlled by his cousin Nathan Milikowsky. The public was unaware of this until Netanyahu asked the permits committee for permission to receive $1 million from Milikowsky for his legal defense. The suspiciously low price at which Netanyahu bought the shares was only revealed after that information became public. For the past three months, the attorney general has been considering opening an inquiry or criminal investigation into this affair. In 2017, Miki Zohar was rebuked by the Knesset Ethics Committee for holding three hearings of the Knesset Committee for Distributive Justice and Social Equality, which he chaired, about the Carmei Gat real estate project. It later transpired that his wife owned five apartments there. Elected officials also purportedly deserve privacy, but on occasion, the right to privacy becomes the right to conceal conflicts of interest from the public.
Who’s afraid of nationalism? (Clifford D. May, Israel Hayom) If we reject tribalism and globalism, and if we’re not keen on imperialism, what is the preferable alternative? A world order based on sovereign nation-states is not the worst option.
Who speaks for Gazans? (Muhammad AlZanati and Muhammad AlBuhaisi, Israel Hayom) Now is the time for Palestinians to stand up and follow new leaders. We propose the creation of a new organization that can provide that leadership: the Palestinian Opposition Coalition.
Is the demise of The Israel Project a political defeat? (Ben Cohen, Israel Hayom) For public advocates of Israel and Zionism, there is only one question that matters when it comes to TIP’s demise: Is it a political defeat? My own answer is an unwavering no, it isn’t.

Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
What will Ayelet Shaked do? The former justice minister understands the value of her stock and is not reluctant to exercise her options (Yanir Kozin, Maariv) The question around Shaked has become the most frequently asked question in recent weeks in the political system. Does the buzz around her really correspond to reality?…In the right-wing, various proposals for brining in Ayelet Shaked have come up and down. The proposal that is leading at the moment and appears to be one of the realistic ones for the unification of the right-wing parties, according to a proposal promoted by National Union Chairman Bezalel Smotrich, Shaked will be placed in second place…while Smotrich is currently in 2nd place and will be pushed to third place. There’s also the "proposal" from the Likud. There are various Knesset members, some of whom speak honestly, some of them misrepresenting, that Shaked should be reserved a spot in the party. In any event, it seems that this possibility does not really exist, considering the bad blood that has passed, and is still furiously passing between Ayelet Shaked and the Netanyahu family and even more so the Prime Minister's wife, following events that took place more than a decade ago. One Likud Knesset member said half-heartedly, half-seriously, "You know when Shaked will be in the Likud? 50 years from now, you know why? It will happen when Netanyahu dies at the age of 120.”
The order of the day (Amnon Lord, Israel Hayom) The Likud must recruit Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett as quickly as possible to prevent an election-day defeat and the emerging unholy alliance between the Israeli Left and Arab parties.
Ben-Gurion, like Netanyahu, preferred a partnership with the religious parties rather than the left (Aharon Papu, Maariv)  The future of the Labor Party is only in Zionism. Its followers, which encourage it to adopt the idea of a Jewish-Arab state, essentially are recommending suicide.
Ethiopian demonstrations have become fertile ground for right-wing opposition to attack the left (Dr. Revital Amiran, Maariv) The protest of the Ethiopian community again revealed the  absence of humanity on the right-wing, which does not have a social agenda to offer. In order to cover up its embarrassment, it chooses the old trick of throwing mud at the left-wing.
The Left doesn't have a monopoly on solidarity (Itamar Fleishman, Israel Hayom) It's great that the Israeli Left is lining up alongside the Ethiopian Israelis in their justified protest. It would also be nice if they were active in the community on a regular basis.
In the coming elections, those who know how to manipulate and provoke will win (Dr. Liraz Margalit, Maariv) In the evolution of social media networks, the most tradable currency is the attention of people. The more provocative the information is, the more likely it is to become viral and to be translated into votes.
A great general is not necessarily a great politician (Amatzia Chen, Israel Hayom) Few, if any, of the top generals who transition into politics after leaving the army made any significant contributions to the defense of the nation, so it's hard to understand why the Israeli public rushes to endorse them.

 

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